Bureaucracy

0600 position 31-33S 159-05E. On a mooring off of Lord Howe Island, Tasman Sea

First off, I must apologize for yesterday's misleading blog title. I have been reading The Saturday editions of the Sydney Morning Herald and Daily Telegraph in the Anchorage Cafe over lunch for the past couple of days, and I believe the sensationalism permeating those tabloids has rubbed off on me.

We ran into the sole Lord Howe policeman on the pier when we landed two days ago, and he told us then that there might be a problem with Zappa joining us for the sail to Australia. Visiting vessels are not normally allowed to take on additional crew in Lord Howe. He was trying to get an exception since Zappa had been aboard when we arrived in Norfolk, but he needed to wait for instructions from the mainland. "I hope common sense will prevail," he told us, "but common sense and Border Force don't often agree." Yesterday morning our policeman called on the VHF radio to inform us that permission had been denied. Zappa will not be permitted to fly in and join the boat in Lord Howe today as planned. But wait, it gets better.

Van Diemen's considerable size allows us to have a spare dinghy, and it comes in handy at times like these. We inflated and launched it this morning and transferred the outboard engine over from the damaged dinghy. The spare dinghy is smaller than the RIB, and we can't all fit aboard at once. Rob, Geoff, and Marie dinghied ashore to manage bicycles, call Zappa to let him know the bad news, and do some last minute shopping while Michael and I stood anchor watch aboard Van Diemen.

Zappa, in the meantime, had been in touch with the Australian Border Force to try to facilitate our arrival on the mainland. "You were on the boat when she cleared in at Norfolk, mate?" they asked him. Zappa replied in the affirmative. "Then you must be aboard when she clears into Australia," they insisted. Ah, bureaucracy. I feel like I'm back in the USA. So now Zappa will join us as planned. But wait, it gets better.

At 430PM yesterday afternoon Michael and I were below and heard desperate shouting from on deck, "We're sinking!" The fabric floor of the spare dinghy was apparently a lot less watertight than it used to be. The inflatable dinghy had gallons of water in it as our returning shore crew pulled up along side Van Diemen. There was, in fact, a seam separation large enough to see through where the floor connected to one of the tubes. Marie had also taken a spill getting into the dinghy on the beach and was completely soaked. They used everything at hand, including Geoff's Sebago boat shoe and and the cowling for the outboard, as bailers to stay ahead of the water flooding into the dinghy. The new outboard that Rob had purchased in Noumea was on the dinghy, and Rob said if the rubber boat sank he had decided to go down with the ship. We got the crew and inflatable aboard safely though and have attempted a seam repair. We'll have to launch the dinghy and test the repair when we go in to pick up Zappa this afternoon. Stay tuned.

We've also moved up our departure from Lord Howe Island to this afternoon after Zappa flies in. There is a low pressure system moving north towards Sydney that should arrive there on Friday, and we want to be nestled in securely on the Australian coast by then. The current plan is to sail directly to Sydney, which should take just under two days, clear customs there on Thursday morning, and zip north to Pittwater that afternoon. We should have a pleasant run all the way to the coast in brisk easterly winds.

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