29/10/2009, Norfolk Island
We have just left Norfolk Island, and are now just leaving its Western shore. There were quite a few boats in Cascade Bay taking a breather before the next stage of the journey to New Zealand. Most of them are planning to head South in the next day or two as the winds become more favourable. The island is quite a gem. However, the anchorage is not. The locals considered the conditions there very calm. This means even in a catamaran, waking up at 2.am as the boat does a violent corkscrew and heave. Tide and wind conflict, swells roll in from all directions making what is a delightful setting a rather difficult spot for a night's sleep. Still, we kept saying it wasn't as bad as last year.
The forecast looks reasonable we have a day or two of slogging south into wind before the winds drop and finally move to the West. Once they do we can set a course straight for the North Cape. At present we are heading South South West, but still generally in the right direction. We really didn't feel like another day in the anchorage and decided the time had come to move on.
The island is a delight. For many years it was a penal colony bequeathing some fine Georgian buildings. The administrative buildings are pure Georgian and you can walk in the remains of the Georgian prison, notorious for its cruelty. After the penal colony closed the British allowed descendants of the mutineers on the Bounty to come from the tiny Pitcairn Island to settle in Norfolk Island. So many of the local people have surnames like Christian, after Fletcher Christian, the leader of the mutineers.
There is a tremendously friendly atmosphere. An islander left a car on the wharf with the keys in, saying anyone on the boats could use it to see the island. Other islanders left boxes of oranges on the wharf as free gifts, and many islanders drove down to the wharf to see the spectacle of around ten boats anchored in the bay. The local museum has horrendous photos of the swell breaking over the wharf here.
We went on an island circuit in the borrowed car. A lot of the island has steep sided cliffs so there are some superb vistas. Probably the best one is from the Captain Cook monument, commemorating his landing nearby. From here you can see the strange shaped rocks the consequence of the soft volcanic rock being eroded by the power of the sea.
The island itself is very dependent on tourism. The tourists fly in, rather than sail, around 30,000 a year, and are greeted by flower bedecked pavements, friendly smiles, good quality restaurants and numerous duty free stores, offering prices well below that in Australia. Norfolk Island is an Australiian protectorate so you clear in and out of Australian customs here.
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Comments [0]
27/10/2009, Norfolk Island
I once had a pink lady. It was made of plastic and shaped like the kind of paper aeroplanes you shot across classrooms when the teacher wasn't looking. I attached my pink lady to a white/ yellow squid type lure and just hauled in the mahi mahi.
Eventually I lost my pink lady to a large fish, and was never able to replace it. I looked up pink lady on google, and you might be unsurprised to know most of the items had little to do with fishing.
Anyway today 20 miles north of Norfolk Island we met another pink lady. We were heading South into the anchorage, in increasingly strong winds. Just before dawn they were 5- 10 knots, and then as a cold front approached they quickly increased with gusts into the mid 20s. All we could think of was get into shelter before it gets worse, when coming out of the West, like a bat out of hell, I saw a yacht under full sail. It passed a couple of miles ahead going East, foregoing all shelter.
How strange we thought. Then we heard a young female voice on the radio, the boat was called Pink Lady and she was calling us. Where are you bound she asked, "oh Norfolk Island then Opua, coming out of Noumea" I answered. "How about you". "Me, Oh I'm out of Brisbane doing a solo circumnavigation" the voice replied. By now she was almost on the horizon, as I realised that the solo sailor was the 16 year old girl we had heard about on the Australian News who was aiming to beat the record of going round the world the wrong way in the roaring 40s. Admittedly she was going down wind but her boat was racing along at enormous speed and by time I thought to take a picture she was a speck on the horizon.
Strange who you meet at sea.
At the other end of the spectrum we had an interesting conversation with the Indian skipper of a cargo ship bound for Lyttleton, New Zealand to pick up coal for China. Didn't even know there was coal there or that it was sold to China.
What of us. Well we're safely at anchor on the North shore of Norfolk Island. We arrived mid morning. The anchorage is a totally different experience from last year when it was so rolly you might as well have been at sea. It is still windy but at the moment - the swell is in the ocean not in the bay. We were even able to take a dinghy and tie it up to do customs. Last year, it was a quick jump onto the dock and the dinghy had to return to the boat.
It looks as if we will have to stay here until the weekend. Then we plan to sail the next leg to New Zealand. 415 miles to the North Cape and then a further 80 miles onto Opua to check into customs.
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The young lady you saw flying along was non other than the amazing Jessica Watson
Richard
26/10/2009, Tasman Sea
Sailng seems to involve a lot of changes of plan. Pretty inevitable since you depend on wind and weather to get to your destination. Our original plan was to sail quite far west and then come into NZ on a starboard tack avoiding the strongest winds from the South. However, our weather adviser, Kenn, temporary replacement for Bruce who is on holiday, advised us that the Southerly winds were strengthening and it would be better to put into Norfolk Island.
We expect to arrive at Norfolk Island tomorrow.
Norfolk makes a convenient half way house for the journey, and Cascade Bay, although it can be quite rolly provides good shelter from the Southerly winds.
Remains to be seen how long we rest there before the second half of the journey to NZ resumes
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24/10/2009, Tasman Sea
Heading for New Zealand is an interesting concept in that to get there you generally don't head for it. We are heading for New Zealand but at the moment are on course for Sydney. Reason - winds. The theory is that if we head fairly West of our destination we should be able to get a better angle towards New Zealand. The reason for this is that we are travelling from one weather system to another. A tropical system dominated by Easterlies to a temperate weather system dominated by Westerlies. The irony is that when we move into the Southern system it looks as if we will hit strong Southerlies. Still at present the strong winds that powered us out of New Caledonia have died down and we have light winds and have had to put an engine on. Tomorrow we will probably have to decide whether to stop at Norfolk Island or carry on towards, using that word advisedly, to New Zealand. Our preference is to carry on without stopping at Norfolk this time.
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17/10/2009, Tasman Sea
We set sail this morning for New Zealand. Our last few days in New Caledonia were quite eventful. We arrived at Port Moselle marina in Noumea to be greeted by a beautiful meal on board Storyteller. No better way to arrive in port than that. We then then set to getting the boat ready for the long journey back. Servicing engines and all that. A lot of the ICA boats came into the marina and an evening meal was arranged at a nearby yacht club. We arrived back quite late and noticed that a gas alarm was going. We checked for gas, no sign so switched it off and went to bed. The next morning Michael headed off to get croissants. One of the major delights of staying at Port Moselle is the short walk to two excellent boulagerie - patisseries. He hadn't gone far before he heard Jackie calling him. The boat was listing. Our port hull was full of water!!
Luckily we quickly diagnosed the cause. The hot water boiler had given out and was pouring water. We isolated it and then started the task of pumping out the bilge and drying off the items below the water level. Even more luckily the chandlery at the nearby boat yard held a stock of the same type of hot water boiler. So Michael took off in the dinghy and came back with a replacement, and a depleted pocket book. Although it was the same boiler the fittings had been changed so it took most of the day to get it sorted.
Then news came from our weatherman that there was a window of opportunity to get to New Zealand so it was then frenetic work to get everything ready. New reefing line - last minute checks and Saturday morning we were away.
We are now heading south - quite a bit West of our destination. We are hoping to be able to tack back when we are further South. The sea is pretty bumpy since we are close hauled but we are making good speed and roughly in the right direction
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13/10/2009, Baie de Chambeyron, New Caledonia
Yes, Lady Kay is now showing over 25,000 miles on our sea log. The equivalent of more than a full circuit around the equator. We've actually done more miles than this because the 25,000 miles is recorded by a small paddle which is turned in the water, and often sticks with bits of barnacles etc. However, officially the boat has done at least 25,000 miles. She's survived hurricane, storms, big seas and numerous ocean crossings and still looks good, although showing signs of age.
We first sailed from Sables D'Olonne near La Rochelle in June 2003 and went via Lagos and Funchal to Madeira. Michael's first ocean crossing. Lady Kay was based in Grenada for the next five years. In the first year we sailed her to the BVIs and then through the whole archipelago back down to Grenada. In 2004 Lady Kay was badly damaged by Hurricane Ivan. Amazingly she was sailing again within a few weeks, although the final repairs took a year to complete.
Since then Lady Kay has been sailing in the Caribbean normally between December and June, visiting and revisiting most of the islands of the Eastern Caribbean.
In December 2008 Lady Kay set sail from St Lucia for Panama, crossed the canal and then the Pacific. We went by way of Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands and then the long crossing to the Marquesas.
From there we sailed through the Tuamotas to Tahiti and its neighbouring islands. We then left French Polynesia for Nuie going by way of the tiny atoll of Suvarrow. We finished the season by visiting Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia. Lady Kay then headed South for New Zealand via Norfolk Island.
After spending the Southern Hemisphere summer in New Zealand we are spending a second season in the South Pacific. We returned to Tonga, Fiji and New Caledonia to see some of the places that we missed first time round. We discovered that there was so much more to the islands and their peoples when you explore slowly.
We are now back in New Caledonia, and are planning to go into Noumea to await a weather window for the long journey south to New Zealand. Where we plan to give Lady Kay some TLC in readiness for her next season. We are hoping to return to Fiji and Vanuatu again and leave for Australia earlier in the season so that we can arrive their when the land is still relatively cool.
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