We met with our new friends from SV Illawarra on the jetty one morning and all rode our bikes down along the coast, parallel to the airport and then walked over a stile through a cow paddock and began following a trail through the forest and scrub. By the time we reached Muttonbird Point, we […]
Lord Howe Island : First week
I am very happy here. There are many birds. There are friendly people, but not too many friendly people. There are more bicycles than cars. As I write this I am looking at all the Sooty Terns settling in for the night on the point amongst a mixture of moss, grasses and scrubby looking teatree. […]
Southport to Lord Howe Island
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 […]
Southport. Decision time.
A beautiful day. The Brisbane sun is much more tolerable when you are moving through the water on your vessel, away from the sludge of the river. For those of you who don’t know, the Gold Coast Seaway is this weird channel (one of quite a few) that runs from Moreton Bay all the way […]
Brisbane to Southport
It’s an oddly comforting feeling turning up in places that you have some familiarity with. True, we often don’t penetrate further than a kilometre or so inland, but we do have to forage for supermarkets, boat parts, bulk food shops, libraries etc and this means that we get a reasonable knowledge of the area we […]
Brisbane
A brief stopover in Brisbane was what was planned – long enough to catch up with the Almost-Bus-Dwelling-Cousin and get a sail fixed. However, the aforementioned cousin texted me just after we’d gone over the Wide Bay bar – there was some work for me in Brisbane – so 24 hours later, we were motor […]
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Ratua Island on Espiritu Santo to Bundaberg, Australia.
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 […]
Espiritu Santo.
By the time we arrived on Santo, anchored off Beachfront Resort, I was SO READY for some urban life. That would be a guarranteed fruit and vegetable market and a supermarket. Luganville ticked both these boxes. I’m happy to rough it, but when food supplies get low after six weeks going from island to island, […]
Goodbye Honey…
She landed on all four paws. Honey the BoatCat was my midlife crisis. The Italian man I couldn’t resist, the Ferrari I had to have. So it should not be any great surprise that it didn’t work out. Honey is a gorgeous feisty fuzzbot, but, as it turns out, fundamentally unsuited to life on a […]
Asanvari, Maewo.
Our journey from Pentecost to Maewo was a wet one. The seas were confused and there was wind against tide through the awesomely named Lolvavavana Passage (LOL!). M says it looked a lot worse than it actually was and we expected things to get crazy, but it didn’t happen. Bella Luna sliced through it all […]