Lord Howe Island, Australia to Opua, New Zealand - Day 6

Hello one and all

At 6.45am Dave saw the first glimpse of the Three Kings off North Cape. What a wonderful Christmas sight that was and how fitting on this morning. We are now abeam them but the mainland is under cloud at this time. We are having light rain on and off. The seas are slight and we are sailing along at 5k. Should be in the Bay of Islands tomorrow morning.

Have a wonderful day and don't over eat. Look forward to catching up again very soon.

Tons of love and a Very Merry Christmas from all of the crew of SHAMAL Ann and Alec

Lord Howe Island, Australia to Opua, New Zealand - Day 5

At this moment we are doing 8 1/2 kt. Not bad going. The seas have dropped since yesterday thank goodness as we really did have an interesting ride. White water and greenies coming breaking up over the front cabin windows!! We were still able to do between 7 - 8 kt then. Poor Helen really did have an off day not felling at all well. Alec and I seem to have good stomaches but from time to time I have taken a tablet just to make sure I won't fell sick.

Oh I have had my fishing line out nearly all the way. No bloody fish in this part of the Tasman. Also no other human life out here. Have not seen a ship. Alec got the radar back working this morning.  Hope it does not give out on us again.

Spent enough time at the computer so will up for some fresh air!!!

Love Ann

Lord Howe Island, Australia to Opua, New Zealand - Day 4

Hi Folks

Forgot to mention. This morning pick up a couple of 2 inch thin bolts by the port jam cleats.

Can't find where they came from. All the cleats are nice and secure.

Also the Radar can not Transmit although the Scanner goes into Stdby as per normal.

I have sent an email to Raymarine in AKL asking for suggestions.

Murray we should be in Opua late Wed. at the earliest. My crew does not want to sail any faster and are wasting the wind.  Mind you it is quite a bumpy ride.  No need to stress the boat out as well.

Would be nice if we could round North Cape late afternoon in daylight.

Alec

Lord Howe Island, Australia to Opua, New Zealand - Day 2

Hi Guys

Bob McDavitt and his passage plan is full of shit.
At the moment we are motor/sailing into confused seas at a mere 5.5 Kts.
Still waiting for a wind change any direction will do.
Wind easterly 15/20 Kts. and I mean EAST. Right on the nose.

Well here we are day two and only about 160nm off Lord Howe Island heading for North Cape. I can see this is going to be a long slow trip unless the winds change. We are slamming head on into Eastlies. We took a tack to the north last night but got about 60 miles off track. This morning we headed south but there is a nasty front down there which we have been advised not to head for so we are now on our rhumb line making for North Cape.

Cooking, eating and sleeping are all a bit of a challenge but we are all fine. Hopefully we will have settled into the swing of things after tonight.

So no worries just pray for some good winds in the right direction for us.

OK will away for this note. Looking at a good eight days ahead of us.

Lots of love

Alec and Ann

All Hands on Deck!!

Today I have been up the mast to check the rigging ( second time since Bundaberg ) This time I even locked wired a shackle. Yesterday dived under the boat to check the keel,props and rudders. All OK even the fresh water pod no stress cracks as the waves really gave it a thrashing. We plan to do 150 NM per day Inshallah. We head due east and most of the trip the prevailing wind will be SE or NE.

Tomorrow I hope to climb MT Gower at 3 thousand feet. The climbing party at the moment is booked out but I will hope there is a no show so I can join the party.

Picked up a 100 litres of diesel this morning, our fuel reserve, Aust $2.58 per litre.

Last two days here rather windy upto 30 kts plus and Cb's rain etc. Tomorrow becoming fine.

All is well here. Been very windy 20 - 30k here at times here today. We have had a mixed bag of weather with sun and rain. OK will sign out of this note.

Alec

Lord Howe Island

Hello Again From Lord Howe

Has been a beautiful day here. Warm and sunny with little to no wind. After our morning chores we went ashore with our picnic lunch and hired a bike each and then set off around the island checking out the email cafe at the museum, the airport to see the met. man. He told us a front is passing through here tomorrow. Could be Wed or Thur when we leave. Will keep you posted on that one. Also visited a couple of food shops to see what supplies they have and found a good supply, but very expensive as you would imagine in a place like this. Everything is flown in from Australia or comes by ship.

Arrived at Lord Howe Island

Hello From Lord Howe Island.

Well we motored in through the lagoon this morning at 7.30am after arriving too late to come in in daylight last night so we ended up sailing around outside with thunderstorms all around us. It made for an interesting night I can tell you. We were putting in and taking out reefs in the main sail all night long. So the trip took us four days plus the extra night outside.

We are happy to be tied up to a mooring buoy even if te seas are making for a good swell coming in over the reef.

We had a really good sail yesterday till about 5.30pm when the weather and seas changed.

We are just putting the tender into the water to go ashore to see what is available. We need to take on water and fuel, but we would like to look around as well.

So will away for today and will keep you posted as to when we will be leaving.

Tons of love

Ann and Alec

Crossing the Tasman Sea - Bundaberg to Lord Howe Island, Day 5

Hello Again


Today will be short and sweet as we are riding a bucking horse. A front came through last night which made for some interesting sailing. Yesterday afternoon was perfect and I was able to go up front and watch the world go by but today we have 'greenies' coming over the front.

Will finish off and go back up into the saloon as I don't won't to be down here at the Navigation Desk
 
Lots of Love Ann and Alec

Crossing the Tasman Sea - Bundaberg to Lord Howe Island, Day 4

Well we are still watching watching watching!!!! Another just too perfect day wind wise. Motor sailing yet again but in the last 24hrs we have had some time under sail only. We are all fine. No seasickness from anyone. We have that same bird which is following us. Think he is still waiting for me to catch him a meal. Line still out and nothing! We did watch the flying fish for some time yesterday. They are about the size of a small bird and can go for about 20mt or more. We passed a yellow buoy about an hour ago so circled round to pick it up only to find it attached to something. Looked like a long chain. We left well alone. Who knows how it arrived there as it did not appear to be moving?

Dad and I did the midnight to 6.00am watch and had a bute thunder storm with a great lighting show for about half an hour.

OK as you can see life on the high seas is full of interesting stuff. We could clean and all that, but who wants to when no one is coming to visit! Helen is making lunch so will away and eat.

Take care

Lots love

Ann and Alec

Crossing the Tasman Sea - Bundaberg to Lord Howe Island, Day 3

All is well had a great sail last night doing ave 10k for a good six hours. Wind dropped around midnight.

As winds so light we decided to give the MPS a go this morning but they were just too light. Anyway good practice at putting it up and down.

Have my fishing line out but have decided this is too far out or something for fish. Had a lone bird flying about looking for breakfast but told him there weren't any so he flew off. We fill in time sleeping, not eating much and watching watching the sea go by! It is not that bad really. Would rather have this than be in a storm. Oh we are stopping for a swim so will away.

Lots of love

Ann and Alec

Crossing the Tasman Sea - Bundaberg to Lord Howe Island, Day 2

Hello again

Well we are on our way. All happened yesterday. In the morning we took a quick trip to the market, came back put on fuel and water and were heading out of Bundy Marina by 3.40pm. Sunday that is. First night good. We are all a little tired today while we settle into the swing. Weather great, well too great as we are motor sailing. Not quite enough wind. Done the first 87nm. Only another 440nm to go. Lots 'blue ocean' out here. Saw lots fishing boat lights during the night and this morning I was on watch to see the sun come up. Just me and a sea bird. Boy they come a long way out. Maybe in Lord Howe by Thursday? Will keep you posted. OK will sign out. See you all soon.

Love Ann and Alec

Maryborough to Bundaberg

Hello Again

Well this is it. We have made it safely to our furthest point north for this trip. We will now be making preparations for the trip home!!!!

We were up at 10 past 4 yesterday morning and leaving the berth at 4.40 to make our way back down the Mary River on the incoming tide. It was a three hour trip out into the Great Sandy Strait. We motored sailed nearly all the way covering 71nm. It was hot and sunny and for a good part we had little or no wind at all. When it came it was from the north east again – just the way we were heading!

Mooloolaba to Maryborough

Hello Again

It was 10.20p.m. when we left our berth in Mooloolaba saying good-bye to our neighbours who untied our mooring lines, and we motored out through the entrance and into a rather lumpy sea. By 10.50 we had the sails up and proceeded up the coast. The funny thing was we had timed our trip to arrive at the bar at a certain time the next morning, but found with the 18 – 20kt breeze we were sailing too fast so put two reefs in the main sail [took it down reducing the sail area by about half] and only had half the jib out, and we were still doing 7kts. Alex took first watch and I stayed up with him. He eventually went down for a sleep about 1.30a.m. as we wanted him bright eyed for the bar crossing. David then Helen were doing the next two watches but I did not wake them as they had not been feeling too well so I stayed up till about 3.45am when Helen came up to take over. It was a lovely nights sail with a full moon, and it’s funny how you get into the rhythm of the ocean even when it is a bit lumpy.