11 May 2012, Lord Howe
Lord Howe! Paradise circa 1950…. What a landfall – spotted in moonlight at 4 am, it grew magnificent as a looming outline framed against perfect sunrise. We sailed in between the reefs, breaking waves either side of us and into a picture perfect aquamarine lagoon, Mount Gower, unhindered by the apparently constant cloud that sits over it, lording majestically over us.
The land Telstra forgot, apparently: Lord Howe has to be just about the last inhabited place left on earth without a mobile network of any type. Animal was appalled. Mild amusement turned to silent disbelief when the locals could not answer his simple but increasingly pleading question: How do I get internet access? It turns out that the Museum is the go, unless you can bootleg onto the Post Office’s network from the café across the street. Sweet.
The gurus quickly each exploited their unique strengths. Mike interrogated each and every innocent bystander to establish the best place for dinner, making friends everywhere. John – appalled beyond belief at the lack of renewable energy – rustled up the local Elgas rep to fix our gas regulator. Bill and Ken worked our way around the coffee shops, carried gas bottles wherever John so directed, and set to work being laid back….
Bicycles rented, the gurus set off just before sunset, heading south, in search of, well, whatever. The bicycles found their way to the golf club, bizarrely, given guru golf form. Of course ‘one for the road’ became ‘another rum and coke, chaps?’. Bill found, as Bill does, some long lost friend sitting sat the next table. Another round? Finally, in the dark of night, said Gurus determined to cycle home – in pitch dark, no lights, sunglasses. Yep, another Blues Brothers moment….. gurus proceeded to rear-end each other, but somehow, managed to find our way back to the dinghy, and with true dumb-arsed luck, on to Resolute…. wherein…. well, it was Friday night, after all. Animal decided to share his playlist with us all, John found the subwoofer and decided it needed testing and Pornstar wanted to showcase some new dance moves. In other words, another boat shed moment….
We’ve got a weather guru called Bob McDavitt helping us decide when and how to get from here to Fiji. Bob is a kiwi who used to work at the Met Office there. He provides routing advice to many cruisers, including Jessica Watson, and he has told us to stay put until next Tuesday, or face 6 metre swells. Easy choice! A lazy weekend awaits, and further adventures no doubt. Love to all!