The Trip: Gold Coast - Lord Howe Island - Sydney, May 2022
The Yacht: 70' Custom steel ketch

I'm sure most of us have a bucket list destination and for me, Lord Howe Island was certainly on mine. So when I was offered the chance to join the expedition yacht SV Salt Lines as co-skipper, I jumped at the chance. Salt Lines is a very well proven steel ketch that's been just about everywhere around the globe. Onboard we had Matt who is the owner and skipper of the boat, five paying crew plus myself.
Leaving Southport, Queensland, we sailed east for 3 days to reach Lord Howe which was about 350Nm off the coast of NSW. We had a number of crew aboard who had never sailed offshore or spent a night at sea so it was a pretty special occasion for them.

Luckily we had a brilliant full moon lighting up our first two nights and pleasant sailing conditions so they thought it was Christmas. Things got a bit more challenging on Day 3 and the various sea sickness potions and remedies got a workout. Hats off to Rachel who in real life is a chef and she worked magic in the galley despite feeling quite ordinary at times.

Closing in on Lord Howe was pretty special as it's mountains loomed up ever closer on the horizon. The western side of the island offers the only real anchorages and because of the deep draft of Salt Lines, we had go to the more isolated and exposed anchorage at the southern end of the lagoon.
There were mooring buoys there but it was not a manouvre you'd take lightly. Basically the boat had to be threaded through a narrow passage in the reef with surf crashing either side. Once 'inside', there was very little room to manouvre picking up the mooring buoy. Either get it first time or run the risk of running out of room to turn around and end up on some nasty rocks. Suffice to say we got it right but there were big sighs of relief once we safely tied up.
The highlight perhaps was the local policeman/harbour master/guide parking his car on the hill above the anchorage, using his headlights to guide us through the passage!
We spent two days on the island exploring what can only be described as little bit of paradise on earth. It's a World Heritage area and it's easy to understand why. Quite pristine and 'relatively' untouched by man. There's a multitude of walks to do ranging from easy to quite challenging, including the climbing of Mount xxxx. Superb views and magnificent beaches everywhere. If you get a chance, you should make the effort to go.
One of real highlights of this voyage was the chance to sail around Ball's Pyramid. If you don't about this incredible natural phenonomon, please have a look at the photos before reading on.
Located 12Nm south of Lord Howe, Balls Pyramid is 550 metres of solid rock that rises up out of the ocean in the middle of nowhere. It's truly spectacular and when we approached it from a distance, it looked like some mystic cathedral rising up out of the ocean on the horizon.
So after our flyby, we headed west again towards Sydney and our final destination in Pittwater. We had it pretty lucky with the ride home for 2 and half days with a nice south easterly giving us a broad reach home. Things got a little messy as we neared the coast with a few squalls coming through to keep us on our toes. And as swe got near the coast, of course being Sydney weather, it started pouring rain. At least the boat got a good fresh water wash before docked.
All in all, a brilliant trip. Just not sure about those night watches anymore....

Here's some images from the trip - enjoy :-)

• Category Title

Sailing The Sporades, Oh Mama Mia!

Greece is famous for it's islands and it easy to see why. There's over 1000 of them and most people have heard of the more famous one like Mykonos in the Cyclades and Corfu in the Ionian. The Sporades islands are not so well known and to me, that's a big plus. I've sailed out of Skiathos a few times now, south towards Skyros and east to Skopelos and Alonissos. It's Skopelos that put the Sporades on the map as it's where the movie Mama Mia was filmed. Until that film, the islands where probably not on the sailing radar as much as they are now. Having said that, the sailing in the Sporades I have done has never been crowded. 

So on this trip, we had a group of 3 Australians, 2 Americans, 1 French and 1 Brit. An interesting gaggle of people if ever there was.

One of the highlights was sailing north up to the uninhabited island of Kira Panagia. There's a very narrow entrance to the anchorage but once through, it opens up to this enormous bay with so many options for safe anchoring. The isolation was wonderful and we were entertained by the goats that were the islands only inhabitants, save for a few fishermen that have a shack there. I've included a quite a few photos from the island that hopefully give you a good impression of what's actually like. We kept bumping into a solo sailor over the course of the week in different bays and passages. He was sailing this magnificent wooden boat that was indeed a thing of great beauty. You could tell he was completely at ease making his way amongst the various islands. I've got some nice shots of his boat in the photo gallery. 

Our base for the week was Skiathos. I enjoyed taking Nathalie to the taverna that sits on top of the point that overlooks the town. Nestled amongst the pine trees, it's just enchanting. A taste of what you think visiting the Greece islands should be. Once we sailed over to Skopelos, we all split for the day and did our own exploring. We hired a car and drove the length of the island to find the chapel that featured in the wedding scene from the movie. It's not that easy to get to so on the day, we were there by ourselves. Always nice when you are not a fan of tourist throngs. It never ceases to amaze me the effort and difficulties that were overcome to build such churches in ancient times. We had a hard enough time climbing the cliff face to the chapel via a vertical stainless steel stairway/ladder. How on earth did they manage to build this centuries ago??

Sailing The San Blas Islands

Sailing to the San Blas Islands has been one of my true sailing highlights. I was on a Lagoon 450 catamaran participating in the World ARC and were on our way to Panama City via the canal. We'd stopped in Colombia for a few days and the San Blas were just off the coast of Panama. 
Relatively untouched, we anchored off islands that had just a few shacks used by the Kuna Indian fishermen and their families. They moved from island to island in their small traditional sailing boats. Put us to shame I'm afraid.

The Kuna Indians from what I could see still live a pretty traditional life and their handwoven mola are incredibly colourful and intricate. The kids we met on one island we certainly pretty happy just playing and swimming amongst themselves. It was a pretty special time just getting a glimpse of how simple life could be. It helps when you live in a tropical paradise I guess!