We sailed about 420 miles from Sydney to Lord Howe Island in 3 ½ days. Leaving Sydney at 8.00 AM on a rainy Monday morning we were soon motor sailing with little wind but very confused seas. It was the start of the passage in an uncomfortable washing machine style, but not really concerned as the forecast predicted seas calming down during the day.
Soon after leaving we discovered we couldn't connect to any of the sailmail stations using our SSB radio modem. We checked with Marine Rescue Sydney and they could hear us but we had no email, so we couldn't communicate with anybody in the family, we couldn't receive weather updates and we couldn't report our position. We definitely don't like going on a passage with no weather updates and no means of reporting our daily position, we considered turning back to fix the problem and to buy a satellite phone for good measure, but the weather window was good, the trip was just 3 to 4 days and we decided to keep going and fix the problem in Lord Howe Island. So here we are.
The trip was good and uneventful. A bit of sailing, a bit of motoring and a lot of motor sailing trying to keep up an average of 5.5 knots to avoid an extra night at sea. We had to arrive in daylight, before 5.00 PM to be able to enter the lagoon. During the first part of the trip this seemed impossible while we were fighting the East Australian current pushing us south, we were barely reaching 4.00 knots, actually crawling between 3.5 and 4.00 knots motor sailing with the 2 engines on.
The second day was much better and we were able to catch up sailing with good winds. The rest was a mix of light winds, no wind at all, good current some times, etc. At the end we made it, after a friendly large squall with strong winds in the right direction in calm seas gave us the right push to arrive Thursday afternoon at around 2.00 PM. Ironically this was a bit too early as it was the very low of the tide in the lagoon and maritime services asked us to wait outside the lagoon for about 1 hour before they could guide us inside to a mooring.
Now is time to rest and enjoy the island while we try to get our communications back. There is a limited internet service on land at the Museum that we hope to be able to use in the meantime.
There is a full moon this week and the island is fantastic, day and night!
G.
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