0800 position 29-03S 167-58E. At anchor in Ball Bay, Norfolk Island
Yesterday morning the crew dinghied ashore to be met by the Quintal family and we spent a few hours touring the ruins of the penal colony that once thrived here. The chart indicated that we were anchored in Sydney Bay, but a sign ashore said it was called Slaughter Bay. Claire confirmed that the name had been changed to honor the many people slaughtered here in the name of the King's justice.
The prisoners on Norfolk did an amazing amount of rock and mortar construction, ruins of which can be seen near the pier. Many structures have been restored as well. Houses, offices, churches, a hospital, mills, boat houses, barracks, salt works, a lime kiln, stables, and storm water culverts all line the waterfront. Further down the coast was a sign in the pine trees indicating that artifacts from a prehistoric Polynesian settlement were excavated there. I didn't know the Polynesians made it as far west as Norfolk Island. The grave yard on the far end of the beach was fascinating. Still in use today, most folks who died on the island since its discovery by Captain Cook are buried there. Many of the grave stones offer interesting clues into life on Norfolk. A few headstones state that the deceased were "executed for mutiny". One was "killed accidentally by a whale". How did they know that the whale didn't do it on purpose? A fellow with good genes died at age 105 in 1895, but it looked like a lot of folks died in their twenties. There were dozens of Quintals.
We drove to the other end of the island and went to Dino's Restaurant, a converted house out in the country, for lunch. In business for fifteen years now, it was reputed to be the best restaurant on the island, and we could see why. The food was great. After lunch Jimmy and Claire took us on a hike through the "Hundred Acres Forest". I half expected to see Winnie the Pooh pop out from behind a tree.
We have been concerned about a 3 meter southwest swell that was scheduled to arrive last night. Sydney/Slaughter Bay is exposed to waves from that direction and Jimmy said he didn't think that we'd be comfortable there after the swell arrived. The sea was starting to build when we went back to the boat to get ready for dinner ashore. Rob decided to stay aboard to mind Van Diemen but encouraged the rest of us to go. While dinghying back to the pier we were hit by a rather large breaking wave. We managed to keep the dinghy upright, but it got our attention. Geoff and I decided that we'd go back to the boat and stay with Rob after getting Marie safely ashore. It would have been difficult for Rob to move Van Diemen on his own if the anchorage became untenable, and we likely wouldn't have been able to get out to the boat later in the building surf.
Our decision turned out to be a good one. At 230AM this morning Van Diemen was pitching and rolling excessively in the backwash off of the cliffs to the north. The swells were growing larger and larger and the boat would jerk and stretch the nylon anchor chain snubber as she rode over the top of each wave crest. The increasing swells weren't scheduled to peak in size until 5AM, and it seemed like only a matter of time before something broke under all the stress. It wasn't safe to stay put any longer so we weighed anchor and powered around to Ball Bay on Norfolk's eastern shore. Ball Bay provided good shelter from the southwest swell, and we found it to be calm in comparison. We tucked in deep in the bay and anchored in fifty feet of water. We were all back in our bunks and sound asleep by 330AM.
One of the plaques we read while touring the ruins yesterday discussed the shipwreck of HMS Sirius in Sydney Bay in 1790. In a situation similar to our own last night, HMS Sirius was driven ashore and destroyed during a southwesterly storm. Their story would likely have ended differently if they'd had the weather forecasting tools, GPS, and a diesel engine like Van Diemen does.
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