Lord Howe Island : One more Drama

I spotted Lord Howe Island at 0438 hrs this morning on an orange predawn cloudy horizon. A little blob on the horizon that merged with the cloud it was the width of my index finger on my outstretched arm,38 miles away.The wind had dropped and also gone to the west so it was directly behind Sapphire. There was a swell coming in from the north so the end result was Sapphire rolling wildly if we aimed straight at LHI. The Hydrovane hates these conditions so I started handsteering because I was keen just to get to the Island and to get inside the reef close as possible to high tide which was around 10. We made slow but steady progress and the blob became a sort of camel hump and then other little blobs appeared and eventually they all joined together - now all I had to do was speak to the Harbourmaster on the radio and he would guide me in. Apparently he often goes up onto a little hill overlooking the narrow and shallow gap in the reef to direct events and sometimes if condition s are not good yachties are directed around the other side of the island to lie on their own anchor until things improve. I read a blog where one group stayed around there anxiously for three or four nights before they could get in. And no one is allowed in after dark so arrival too late means going back to sea for the night. That's why I was keen to get there and get in. And the wind was picking up... So around 1130 I was two miles off the reef and rang the harbourmaster to give him time to get up on his hill - no reply! I tried the handheld VHF instead - still no reply so I headed in a bit closer to the reef, a long white line of breakers well out from the beaches - thinking maybe I was in a bad spot for him to hear me - or maybe he was hearing me but I wasnt hearing him ? I knew my signal was getting out because when I used one radio the other picked it up...I tried again, and again no reply. Nothing from either radio. Now it was after 12 - I concluded something must have happened to my radios and I wouldn't be able to get help from the harbourmaster if I was to go in behind the reef to a mooring. But how on earth was I going to do that? I could see two other yachts there but they were no help. There were no fishing boats or other vessels outside the reef that I could have gone over to hail...what a dilemma ...maybe I should just keep going to NZ? I didnt even know where the gap was! Shit shit shit was all I could keep saying to myself, futilely trying the radios again and again and trying to sound calm 'LORD HOWE MARITIME RADIO, LORD HOWE MARITIME RADIO, LORD HOWE MARITIME RADIO THIS IS SAPPHIRE, SAPPHIRE, SAPPHIRE OVER" ( you're taught to say everything three times at the Maritime radio operators course)

I got the binoculars out and examined the reef line - the breakers looked massive in the binocs- and I studied the chart and the drawings in Alan Lucas' book and the chart on my handhelp GPS. I worked out roughly where the gap should be and scanned again with binoculars and saw on the beach a couple of markers - they're the type that when they're on top of each other you're in the channel. I also saw a green starboard channel marker, and just as on the chart, several mooring buoys, two of which were occupied. I decided I would just have to go for it on my own, and I would go really slowly, and I would back off if things got too scary. Well let me tell you thy got f'n scary : I was going to take Sapphire into water as shallow as 1 meter on the chart with coral rock "Bommies" all round and breakers rolling in on either side of the gap,and not have a single word of help from anyone. Was I completely mad? Was I just too exhausted to think straight?

So in I went feeling absolutely terrified - I guess I reasoned that because I know there actually IS a way in I should be able to find it. Just be careful and be lucky. Inevitably I got to a point of no return - directly to my left and right, meters away was a coral shelf with breakers curling over it and in front a narrow channel with water flowing swiftly out. The Depth gauge suddenly went to 3 metres then down further to 2.4 then 2.3, 2.0. 1.9..and ahead I saw a float in the middle of the channel - what side was I to take it on? My heart was racing, I felt sick with fear,I dint know what to do but I looked at the GPS and the colour of the water and decided go left - it was 1.7, 1.7. 1.7, 1.6 and then I was at the green starboard channel marker and turned around it into the lagoon toward the other two moored yachts and the vacant buoys...I was in. I was ecstatic.

What an extraordinary day! But I made it.

Sapphire Out

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com/