Fulfilling My Cruising Dream Published in March 09, 2015 Go! I guess it was in my mid twenties that I started to dream about cruising to tropical islands. Growing up in the heavy industrial town of Wollongong and working in the steelworks, it was always so easy to drift off into a dream like state and think about distant tropical horizons. Lady Musgrave Island seemed like the most obvious destination and luckily for us East Coast dwellers it is relatively easy to sail to. The island is an uninhabited coral cay in the Great Barrier Reef, one of the world’s greatest natural phenomenon and a World Heritage Listed Marine Park. Lady Musgrave Lagoon’s amazing colours and beauty are unsurpassed anywhere in the world, boasting an abundance of coral, fish and turtles. Lady Musgrave is over 36 nautical miles from any other safe anchorage so knowledge of the forth coming weather is essential. The forecast was promising with a 20 to 25 knot south to south westerly to leave, with winds decreasing through the afternoon with calm conditions promised for the rest of the week. We set sail at about 7am Wednesday and the wind was blowing as per the forecast. I put one reef in the main sail and turned north expecting to arrive at the lagoon around 3pm. Our 46′ cutter rig yacht loved the lively downwind run with an average speed of around 7 knots and we all enjoyed the ride. Timing was perfect we arrived at 3pm, successfully negotiating the narrow entrance. Although it’s quite deep the water is so clear that you think your going to hit the bottom any minute. We were lucky as we had five days at anchor in the relatively calm lagoon of Musgrave. Most cruising guides warn of not getting caught out there in a blow; I can imaging it wouldn’t be comfortable. So I fulfilled my cruising dream by celebrating my 61st birthday in the tropical lagoon that had intrigued me for so many years. – Glenn Love Glenn heads up our newly opened office in South East Queensland.