As we ready things to leave Deal Island for George Town, two more boats turn up. It’s time to go. I love this place, I love that people visit it – but I don’t want to share it – the very loneliness of the locale leaves me requiring solitude to enjoy it. Meeting caretakers is …
My eye has been on Lord Howe Island as a destination for many many years. My former boss at my university job had regaled me with the story of his horror sail to the island, and I’ve read several others. I remained undeterred. Sailing was pretty much the only option – it’s so bloody expensive …
Having pulled it all together in a rather wonderful way (cat adoption, mega-shop, cooking frenzy, check-out of customs, happy dinners, sad farewells) we were ready to leave bang on time – on the morning of Friday 5 October. The weather forecast had remained fairly steady. Most importantly (for me) was minimal swell – I was …
A long day. A good day. A day of perfect weather. A day that thwacked me repeatedly to remind me that gluten is everywhere no matter how you endeavour to avoid it. I hired a car! It was manual, because automatics cost more. I drove on the other side of the road – for the …
Holy moly. It is so easy to leave Australia (once you have that ship’s registration thing) – but it is so HARD to enter New Caledonia. Not hard as in physically hard (although the passage did suck) – but hard as in knowing which regulations to observe. First of all we believed that we could …
I delight in the fact that Queensland does not have daylight saving. I do not delight in waking up with the sun at a quarter past five every morning, but I’m learning to cope. But today, even at that early hour, I could tell that the day was going to be a hot one. Fact: …