K'Gari. Voyage of adventure , to the horizon and beyond........: Lord Howe Island and return

Lord Howe Island a tiny speck in the Tasman Sea, 320nm east of Port Macquarie in NSW. It is about 10km long, a maximum of 2km wide and is the remnant crescent of a volcano. The east coast is exposed , the west coast has a shallow coral reef fringed lagoon about 2nm long and 0.5nm wide. What a speck though. Pelagic life ,bird life , walks, spectacular scenery, diving ,snorkelling. The highest point is the towering Mt Gower at the southern end of the island, coming in at 875m. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site, with a permanent population of just less than 400 and tourist accommodation limited to 400 at any time. Access by air or boat.

A group of about 6-7 Seawind catamarans were planning a sortie from Sydney, so great idea- I thought we would join them, it would be fun to meet some other owners.

You cannot anchor in the lagoon but a limited number of moorings have been provided and forward planning is required to ensure that you have successfully booked a mooring for your arrival. A maximum stay of 14 days is the allowance.

From Sydney it would be about 420nm and from Mooloolaba it would be about 430nm.The tricky part for us , in deciding to rendezvous with the boats from Sydney would be the weather window. We needed pretty well the exact opposite conditions to those that the Sydney contingent would require. Alternatively we could head to Sydney and then backtrack which was definitely not my preferred option. We just needed a conveniently timed high pressure system to pass off the coast and we would be able to ride the back edge of it (the East and Northerly components) all the way. Time would tell who would arrive first!

Lord Howe Wood Hen

Lord Howe Island being UNESCO listed due in part to its unique flora and fauna has in place strict biosecuirity requirements for anyone arriving either by sea or air. Over the last few years a major effort had been made to eradicate rats from the island and save the diminishing numbers of the unique ground dwelling Lord Howe Wood Hens . At the time of our visit bait stations were still evident at various locations but the island had had no recorded sightings/captures of rats for almost a year. Unfortunately by the time of writing, two rats had been caught since our visit (absolutely nothing to do with us) so the rat free status has been revoked again.

For us as a visiting yacht this meant some preparatory work to meet the requirements. Rat guards were required to be in place at least 7 days prior to departure, rat traps and bait stations similarly to be distributed on each deck at prescribed distance intervals. These were to be kept in position for the duration of the visit. A clean hull was required to prevent cross contamination of marine growth. This had also been a prerequisite for Port Davey in SW Tasmania (also world heritage listed)when we had sailed there.

Rat guards -fashioned from plastic chopping boards

Rat guards and traps were set in place as required and I met the hull criteria as less than a month prior to our departure I had been out of the water and water blasted and re antifouled the hulls.

I had decided to depart from Mooloolaba , where a friend (currently boatless) had a vacant pontoon which was just crying out to have a catamaran moored at it. This would preclude the issue of not only finding that handy high pressure system to ride but negate the issue of crossing the Wide Bay Bar “on demand” to head south.

The rendezvous was supposed to be for approx 5 days from the 23^rd March. The application had been made in January and approved, obviously all weather dependent. I’m in the fortunate position that my crew both had a very flexible time frame with no other critical time constraints.

A weather window appeared ,a little earlier than planned, but a rapid amendment to the original application and we soon had approval to depart from Mooloolaba for an estimated arrival a week earlier than originally planned. Luckily I had installed the rat guards and rat traps when I moored at Mooloolaba at the beginning of March-just in case!

We departed at 0700 LHI time , having put the clocks ahead one hour the previous evening. There was no sign of the forecast wind and it was drizzly as we set off. In fact so little wind we found ourselves motoring initially. It was a little lumpy crossing towards Cape Moreton -so much so that after some 18000nm across various seas and oceans, I decided it was time for a Kwells! Prior to leaving Nha Trang on the maiden voyage across the South China Sea I had deemed it prudent to take one ,as we had no idea what the motion in an open sea or ocean would actually be like. That was then and this was now, so half a Kwells was the order of the day. It did the trick ,and of course once we rounded Cape Moreton and came on to the SE’ly course for Lord Howe the motion changed.

Picking up the east coast current and with the wind finally kicking in, saw us cruising along at a really handy 10kts with full mainsail and jib.

Reducing sail just before dark as we always do, in this case down to two reefs and about a third of the jib as the forecast was 15-20kt N’ly, we maintained a healthy 7 kts in the still slightly sloppy conditions. That was it for the next 60 hours really in way of sail changes. At dusk on the night before we made landfall at Lord Howe we stowed the still reefed mainsail and pootled along under the jib alone, now increased to about two thirds as we needed only 4 knots for our planned 0700 ETA. The planned ETA took into account both daylight and the high water for our entrance to the lagoon.

Mt Eliza from anchorage

We stood off the island for an hour or so until we thought it was a polite time to call the harbour master who is in fact the local police officer. Having made contact via VHF we were then given our entry instructions and once a visual contact had been made with the officer (sitting in his car on the headland), we were allowed to enter and pick up our designated mooring.

Biosecurity checks were carried out, when both the Biosecurity and Marine Parks officers arrived. Biosecurity came on board to check the rat traps etc and Marine Parks dived on the vessel to check out the underwater condition. Next we had to go ashore to the jetty to be Covid temperature checked but we delayed this for a few hours as it was drizzling and the same checks were being carried out for the incoming daily flight and the ambulance officer couldn’t be in two places ,so we delayed and just after lunch went ashore to be checked. All a ok!

The jetty houses facilities -toilets, showers, rubbish bins for food scrap disposal and a separate laundry and dryers for US! Yachties are definitely welcome at Lord Howe!

Over the next 11 days we ,explored, snorkelled, walked, socialised with very friendly natives, dived, and had an excellent time, despite the weather.

Did I mention the weather? - No probably not, as it was not playing ball at all. Wind and more wind ,squalls of rain and some more wind. So much wind as front after front came across it became obvious by the end of the week that it was totally unlikely that the Sydney contingent - that is, everybody else- were going to make it. The east coast of Australia was being similarly affected with both NSW and Qld being clobbered. Northern NSW was flooding!

So they regrettably cancelled. We had the entire lagoon to ourselves!

We watched the forecast daily, looking for a couple of things, one being the best day to book a dive and the other being the best window to return to the mainland.

A note here, there is limited access to wifi on Lord Howe, it is possible to buy time at the museum and use the wifi there and the staff both there and at the Met Office at the airport were most helpful enabling us to obtain daily forecasts. I don’t have a satellite phone on board , I do have HF radio via which it is possible to obtain weather faxes and during our stay I actually managed to figure out the mysteries of HF radio and Predictwind. I’m a new convert to the paid service of Predictwind. Yes it would indeed be faster and simpler via a sat phone but HF does the trick once I figured out just how to use the two together via Sailmail.

The day we picked for our dive in the end turned out to be overcast, but was the best of the weather on offer. We were never going to find the weather window which would enable us to dive Balls Pyramid, but there are many other dive sights. There is a dive provider based on the island (ProDive). As we are both recreational qualified divers, but carry no bottles or BCDs ,only fins and masks (and our dive qualifications are always on board ), we were able to book a dive with them. As relayed previously I have not dived for some years and I have to say the pre dive briefing was excellent and because of the hiatus in my diving history, Jo and I had a specific session with a complete run through on the gear prior to boarding the boat. There is no help available should something go wrong , the nearest hyperbaric chamber being in NSW, some hundreds of kilometres away by aeroplane, so safety of divers is paramount.

What we next saw coming on the weather front, was a low pressure system coming from the NW, which was going to pass just to the east of the island. Indeed right on cue it arrived . The wind slowly increasing from 0100 hrs and continued to do so throughout the day, which we spent the entirety of onboard. The lagoon develops a fairly good degree of chop in around about 18-20kts of wind, which ensures a dry trip ashore in the dinghy is not possible.

So we sat tight. Yes the wind increased and increased to the extent that we decided it would be prudent to maintain proper anchor watches during the night, just in case we parted company with our mooring. If that happened an instant response would be required with both our anchor being deployed and the engines fired up. There was not a great deal of distance from our mooring to the surrounding reef astern(200m) and 60m to Dawson Point.

https://youtu.be/hWWcS4TsnEU

https://youtu.be/7Zl8b87GD-0

So how did we entertain ourselves - a competition of course, to see who could get the snap shot of the highest wind speed recorded and who could get the best video of the sheets of spray and rain that were roaring around us, as well as hourly recordings of the barometer which was dropping . Regular checks of the mooring arrangements looking for any signs of wear and tear in the bridling arrangement ( three mooring lines triangulated through the eye of the provided tail) and the general state of the boat, the boom bag to which we had added lashings during the day to ensure it remained zipped up, using the length of rope used usually for rigging the sun shadecloth over the boom in SE Asia. Each time there was a lull in the weather these checks were carried out. Before dark we checked in with port control and advised that we were maintaining a listening VHF watch and anchor watch during the night.

https://youtu.be/xPD2YBEbM7U

So what was the top wind speed that we recorded? 48.2kts at 1800. It howled through. And then an hour or so later it was gone! Barometer rising ,wind decreasing and by 2200 we back to a much more pleasant 30kts and decreasing as the low pressure system spun away to the SE.

The next day the dawn broke as it usually does after a low passes, absolutely gloriously. The day was glassy calm and clear blue skies. Lord Howe at its absolutely picture postcard stunning best.

Picture perfect -the morning after. View of Mt Gower (at last)

We spent it returning the hire bicycle, catching up with a few of the “friendly natives” we had met to say goodbye and then snorkel, snorkel, snorkel in the lagoon before finally dropping into let port control know we were departing the following morning and checking whether as with our arrival he needed to ‘guide’ us out. This was not necessary.

Finally we saw the lagoon as it should be

Ironically having had 'strongish' perpetual wind for 9 of our 11 days stay, the forecast was for next to nothing for the next 4 days, alas that would be followed by yet more wind in the 20kt plus range, so we decided to go and if it meant motor sailing then so be it.

It had taken 72 hours from Mooloolaba and the next front was forecast to arrive on the mainland coast in the vicinity we hoped to be in ,in 90 hours time.

We sailed and motor sailed back to the coast. Eventually making landfall at the closest point of entry, the Gold Coast Seaway 77.5 hours later. We had three different potential landfalls in mind , the Seaway, Cape Moreton or the Wide Bay Bar. We thought the Seaway would be the most likely in the conditions, as with little wind forecast, we would towards the end, be making our way against the east coast current. So the choice was to motor in open seas against the east coast current or use the tides to our advantage and come up through the islands of the Seaway and Moreton Bay.

Great idea in principle as the tide was due to be to our advantage when we entered. It may well have been, but what we had completely failed to take into account was the fresh water on top ( the result of the deluges from same weather pattern we had been suffering from at Lord Howe) that was rushing south to exit at the Seaway. Never mind. We anchored that evening off Raby Bay in southern Moreton Bay, and six hours later pressed on to Mooloolaba. We arrived at our home away from home just as the predicted Southerly change arrived, which would undoubtedly preclude a safe crossing of the Wide Bay Bar for a few days.

Of note on the way home was that whilst we had wind( the first 24 hours) , we had as usual reefed at night , but we tried an experiment to prevent the chaffing that occurs on the luff of the sail from the single line reefing system we have. By changing the angle fractionally of the reef line and endeavouring to hold it off the sail luff with an ingenious rigged device of a snap hook and a length of lashing, it wouldn’t chafe on the sail. It absolutely didn’t ! With physics not being one of my stronger points I had however completely failed to register that the slightly altered lead of the reef line also changed at the point where it passed over a sheave in the boom. Suffice to say that in the morning upon inspection, it was not a good look! The long and short of it being I now know how to change out a reef line and how relatively easy it actually is to feed a new line, attached to the old line through the length of the boom. A simple couple of stitches (and some precautionary electrical tape to bind them together) having first also applied heat to the two raw ends to ‘melt’ them together worked a treat. Think the chaffing and application of cuban patching is actually the better alternative!!!

As the trip home from Lord Howe included a couple of windless days we managed to stave off potential bouts of idleness by being industrious. Jo created an anti swallow nesting device for the boom bag from a useful piece of shade cloth,using some handy pegs to hold the hem in place whilst sewing- I’m sure our dear mother would be sighing.

I got creative for dinner one evening!

All in all a great trip. The company on board was as always good and the natives friendly and very hospitable indeed, the scenery spectacular and the weather ho hum-but that’s sailing! Oh and in the 973nm voyage - one spotty mackerel, caught in the last 20miles!