Pastime of Sydney- 2006 Adventures

Tuesday arrived to darkened skies and an ominously large swell from a strong low in the South. The winds soon built to 30+ knots and the squalls were frequent. It really was not very pleasant but the boat stayed dry downstairs and it was snug in our bunks for those not on watch.

Paul had a particularly "interesting" watch with the wind fluctuating anywhere from 6kts up to 40+kts. He also copped plenty of rain squalls. He handled it all beautifully and became good at running the sail in and out to adjust to the changing circumstances. Of course, all this was a far cry from his "competent crew" course and acclimatization trip between Pittwater and Newcastle. One amazing thing- Paul has a wonderful stomach tested in some very trying conditions. We have decided he wins the "cast iron resistance to seasickness" stamina also possessed by our daughter Bernadette.

The other good news was that Penny largely recovered from her seasickness and we picked up positive current. Despite only sporting half of one sdail, we were flying along at over 7kts of "real speed" or "Speed Across the Ground" which is measured by the GPS system.

We contacted Lord Howe by High Frequency radio and they advised that anchoring on the lee side of the island would be highly dangerous in the dark as there was a nasty swell running. We agreed and deliberately slowed down so as to arrive at dawn on the Thursday. Wednesday night started very rough with sleep impossible due to the big seas. Things settled down later in the evening and Paul was pleasantly surprised to have an easy run. Dave was on the 3AM to 6AM watch and had 16 nautical miles to cover in three hours. The wind was around 35kts and the headsail had to be made smaller and smaller until it was almost invisible in order not to arrive too early. All this was achieved. We roused a sleepy Clive Wilson from his warm bed on Lord Howe and we got the policeman out of bed as well. The policeman is now the Harbourmaster. Getting him out of bed too about 45mins and he then needed to launch his boat. We were a little concerned at the SW swell of three metres that was slamming into the reef bordering the lagoon. Richard the policeman did not evince any concern and we did not raise any as we really wanted to be in there. He decided to bring us in the NOrth Passage (his favourite, we suspect). Well, it tuned out okay but was a ride in that neither he nor we will forget for a long time. The front "leading bezacon" was obscured by constantly breaking surf. The wind was around 35kts. He could not bring his boat out as it would have been demolished in the passage where there were waves up to about 4 metres. In we came; once started, it is impossible to stop or turn as the waves will toss aside even 7-8 tonnes of yacht like a cork. We flew in at over 8kts with the engine roaring- riding through the surf and breaking waves. Sometimes perched high on a wave and at others so low that the keel was only 90cm off the bottom. Good thing the tide was high and we did not hit the bottom. Boy, was the adrenaline running. As became apparent, he should never have had us come in this passage in those conditions which were only apparent to us when it was too late to do anything but steer with as much perfection as possible and hang on tight. It was just like crossing a very dangerous river bar, except that the waves were probably not moving quite as fast. Dave has been over the Wide Bay Bar, Yamba and a couple of others in poor conditions but even then, they were nothing like this. I am now actually GLAD those steering cables came off in the middle of the ocean- this meant that they were in fine condition for the lagoon entry.

Anyway, we were IN and soon safely moored to the strongest mooring in the beautiful lagoon- the original seaplane mooring of yesteryear, albeit with a new buoy and chain. COnditions deteriorated further so that it was just as well we came in when we did. Le learned that two other yachts had turned back to Sydney because of the conditions.

The crew can feel justifiably proud to have calmly managed the weather and adversities. We have celebrated suitably with a bottle of champagne and pleasant food.

We'll leave you at peace for a while as there are mountains to be climbed, walks to be done and repairs to be made before we head off for Vanuatu some time next week.

For the technocrats, we have removed and inspected the faulty Padeye. For something that is rated at 1 tonne, it is disgraceful. The machine welding on one end was only about a tenth of a millimetre thick and after seven years had come apart and the other end then also torn off. Gower Wilson one of the descendents of the original inhabitants of the island is kindly re-welding the faulty part and also modifying the unbroken one so that it will not cause a future failure.

Tomorrow is installation day for the rather sumptuous Globalstar Satellite Phone which we will be trialling during our trip. This is a proper marine instrument and it will be interesting to see how it goes out on the fringes of satellite reception. More on this later.

Best Regards, Dave