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.

We then headed to Neds Beach for a swim with the king fish. Yes that is right - it is in a marine reserve and one cannot fish there. In fact you take bread over and feed them. There are these fish up to a meter in length swimming all around you. All we could think of was a nice big fish steak on the BBQ, but 'think' was all we could do! The water was just beautiful. We came back to our side of the island and later Alec and I went out in the tender after the 'big one' for dinner. We ended up having lamb chops! But we did see a couple of reef sharks. I don't want to catch one of those.

This place is just beautiful. By far one of the best, if not the best, Island in the whole of the South Pacific. It has not been spoilt by big hotels and businesses. The 300 odd locals run everything. The Island only has 400 beds available at a time which helps control things.

17th December

4.20pm We have arrived back to the boat with a bit of a squall passing through. We had showers ashore which was a total waste of time as we got soaked.

Alec has just dived under the boat to check out all 'parts' are working. We also halled him up the mast again this morning so he could check the rigging. You would have enjoyed seeing that Murray. Jobs that need to be done before a passage.

Ashore we took our bikes to do a few jobs and collect supplies.

OK will sign out.

Take care and tons of love Alec and Ann