02 December 2016 (+11 UTC – Eastern Hemisphere)
Dear Friends and Family,
We have have arrived after an almost exactly 4 day trip.
Yesterday and last evening, the seas were calm with a 2.5 meter (8 foot) and 1.5 meter (5 foot) swell from two different directions, but flat seas.
We motored the last 28 hours as we\’ve had very little wind.
The island is picture postcard stunning. Google Lord Howe Island for some nice aerial views.
The inner lagoon here is very shallow and we were led in by the local Harbour Police boat which was very nice.
We delayed sending this update to see what would transpire with the local Border Patrol and Customs folks. They told us by email that essentially, we wouldn\’t be allowed to do much….Shhh!! Good news…they said \”have a nice time\” and we had a lovely day ashore.
Their concern is that someone trying to enter the country illegally could come on a boat and then just catch the daily flight back to the mainland and not have gone through immigration (who are not here). As such, they looked at my passport, (they know I have a visa) and Nikki has an Aussie passport, so all is well.
Glad that worked out okay! More on this later when we\’re on the mainland.
For now, all is well and we had a lovely dinner ashore and got a little wifi to boot! They have NO mobile phones on this island and it is a bit strange to see people using a phone booth! (kiosk).
We\’re watching with Bob McDavit for the next weather window which may be mid week? The trip is 425 miles and should take about 2 1/2 days to Sydney!
Tomorrow, we\’ll do some touring and we\’ve rented some bikes. We might even do some of the big hikes. Think climbing the mountain at Bora Bora! Yikes!
KIT,
Scott and Nikki
COMMENT: Beach House – MOORED – Lord Howe Island, Australia
TIME: 2016/12/02 00:36
LATITUDE: 31-31.42S
LONGITUDE: 159-03.05E
MARINE: NO
WIND_SPEED: 10
WIND_DIR: NW
CLOUDS: 15%
VISIBILITY: 40
BARO: 1015
AIR_TEMP: 26.7C