A Change in Plans: Sailing to Lord Howe Island | Part II
I feel like Sophie and I have settled into sailing life together. Since our qualifying passage in March, we are both more relaxed and comfortable sailing with just the two of us.
We depart from Soldiers Point Marina at the crack of dawn. We have 360nm to sail and with a forecast of 20 knot southerly winds, I have planned on an average speed of 7 knots and a time of 51 hours. I am hoping that we will arrive at Lord Howe Island at High Water on Friday morning so that we can safely enter the lagoon. With a beam reach, Fika will be in her element.
Sophie and I put on our wet weather gear to keep warm It is a gloomy dawn with the occasional rain squall and a cool blustery breeze. With excitement and anticipation, we raise the reefed mainsail and set our course out through the spectacular headlands and islands at the entrance to Port Stephens. With a large left over swell from the last few days of gales, we twist and roll whilst Sophie and I clumsily set up the spinnaker pole to ‘goosewing’ the headsail as the wind fills in from the west. We are on our way sailing in a witches cauldron tossed about by the confused seas and large swell.
Passing through the shipping lanes and watching the coast disappear, we settle into a lovely rhythm defined by hot drinks and food with some rest thrown in between. I love paper charts and every few hours, I mark our position. I love the depth contours and watch us sail eastwards off the Continental Shelf and marvel at the 4000 metre depth we now have beneath our keel. I love the colour of the ocean, a deep blue. The seas have settled and we now rise gently over the ocean swells.
It is the end of May and the days are short. By 1700 the sun has set. Thank goodness, it is a full moon which makes the night passages sparkle and glow. Sophie puts on her music playlist which I so enjoy. Given that there is a 27 year age difference between mother and daughter, I marvel at how ‘groovy’ I am to embrace Sophie’s music. Tonight, I am enjoying Hermanos Gutierrez vibes. Thank goodness she has outgrown Justin Bieber!
By 2000, we start our watches of three hours on and three hours off. Fika is powering along on a beam reach with 20 knots of breeze. With the occasional rain squall spoiling the tranquillity -requiring whoever is on watch to ease the main sheet and furl in some headsail until the squall passes- it is otherwise a settled night. I munch on rice crackers with peanut butter and cups of tea, Sophie raids the chocolate supply whilst on her three hour stints.
With dawn and our second day at sea, our rhythm continues harmoniously. We occasionally tweak a sail particularly with the irritable squalls. We have been lucky as most of the rain passes either in front or behind us. It really is the luck of the draw. With a constant 20 knots and a south to south easterly wind, we power along on our beam reach. It is very lazy sailing. Both Sophie and I feel we really should be doing more tweaking. This feeling is momentary and we settle in to catching up on a few months of gossip and news. Fika is content.
With dusk, the moon has already risen and hides any sign of the magnificent phosphorescence which usually greets us with night fall. We have only 75nm to go and on my watch, I slow us down by furling in over half of the headsail to ensure we arrive at daylight. Our last night at sea is moody with the wind fluctuating in strength and direction with more frequent rain squalls. I feel like I spend most of my watches adjusting the mainsheet in synchrony with the squalls, desperate not to get my socks wet as I venture out past the protective dodger. No sooner have I eased the sheet and wet my socks before the wind eases and swings to the east and I need to winch everything back in again.
By 0400 on Friday, in the light of the moon, I can see the vague outline of two humps to our east. Land ahoy. By dawn, we are both up and in awe of both Balls Pyramid and Lord Howe. As we sail closer, the two humps reveal more detail with lush greens and stony grey escarpments/cliffs. Balls Pyramid looks like a pointy witches hat; a prop out of Harry Potter. The depth sounder bleeps back into life and once more reads the 100 metre depth as we sail onto Lord Howe’s continental shelf. At 0830, we can see the breakers of the reef surrounding the island and radio the Lord Howe Island Police to notify them of our imminent arrival.
With Sophie at the helm, the headsail is furled in. We turn into the wind to drop the mainsail. With the engine going, we turn towards the entrance with the morning sun glare reducing our visibility. Sophie spots the two green markers at the entrance. The sector light is on and becomes prominent. There is tidal stream exiting the lagoon with a few eddies but otherwise the entrance is relatively settled. We follow the white light in and once inside the lagoon, the depth drops to 3 metres. There is not much room to manoeuvre and over the VHF channel 12, we are ushered to our mooring NP5 which is metres from the reef. We can see a wreck on the reef. An unlucky trade ship from long ago. The water is so, so clear and so, so shallow. Oh my goodness, I feel that if we muck up picking up the mooring, we may join the wreck!
Sophie and I trade places and I motor gently up to the mooring. With her long arms and extended boat hook, we collect the mooring. I go forward to assist to thread our 2 mooring lines through the eye. Fika has other ideas and as she drifts back, Sophie and I struggle to complete our job before all of Fika’s weight stretches Sophies arms, fingers, toes and the boat hook to unnatural extensions! Sophie drops the boat hook in the water and I scramble for the helm so that in our tight space, we do not join the unfortunate wreck! With Sophie standing on the sugar scoop at the stern, we collect the boat hook and aim once again for the mooring. I hope the Lord Howe Island Police are not watching us. Regardless, I can feel their glare! Second time lucky. I keep Fika in gear a little longer, we spot the mooring eyes and get one line through and secure then secure the second line.
With engine off, Sophie and I congratulate and hug each other. We look around us at the beauty of where we have just arrived: the two majestic mountains, the lagoon, the clarity and colours surrounding us. There is peace and we are not really sure what to do next! This is soon resolved with a VHF call from Biosecurity who advise us that they will visit Fika in the next hour to inspect her for rats and other undesirable critters. This is Lord Howe Island, World Heritage listed and rat free.
The warmth of the morning sun and our magnificent surroundings invite us both to potter out on deck tidying lines, zip up boom bags and inflate the dinghy. We are tired but so excited to explore. We will be leaving on Monday, three days away and there is not a moment to lose.