We had originally considered a depature today but the wind continues to blow at 25-30knots with waves breaking heavily on the outer reef and foam and smaller waves rolling across the lagoon, especially during high tide. We managed to tune up the High Frequency Radio to the Weather channel out of Charleville Queensland on 8176hz and made a decision to remain an extra day at Lady Musgrave. The seas were expected to drop tomorrow back to 1.5-2m and wind back to 15-20 knots.
The day was spent again doing school work, and playing a board game as a family in the morning. In the afternoon as the tide dropped, the reef gave greater protection to the lagoon, and we all boarded the tender for the bumpy trip to the reef for some snorkeling. This time, Daddy was able to pull out his second Go-pro video camera and after charging the batteries, shared one with the kids.
We entered the water for snorkeling and almost immediately saw a turtle. During that afternoon Jasmine saw 9 turtles and everyone else saw 8. We were able to swim and dive among all the fish and turtles comfortably, and managed to get some reasonable footage from the video cameras that could be edited into a short video later.
Everyone was quite proficient now at snorkeling, and this was while there were some reasonably rough waves rolling over the area that often filled our snorkels. It was a long afternoon, but we had to get back. Nicholas motored us back to the yacht and we rested up for our trip back to the mainland in the morning.
As a result of the extended stay, we now had to get to Mackay and on to Airlie Beach as quickly as we could so that Nicholas and Mummy could get back to Sydney for 1 week for Nicholas' year 5 Naplan tests. Flights were already booked in advance from Proserpine Airport.
We now decided to head to the back of Great Keppel Island and then on to Port Clinton on the mainland. This would be a long trip so we aimed for an early start (as soon as the sun was up so we could see the bommies).