I first came to Lord Howe Island via Middleton Reef on board my friends prawn trawler “Sea Dreamer” in 1975. Unfortunately, the “Sea Dreamer” was wrecked on the Clarence River Bar with loss of life of my friend in 1979. Yamba was the home port for “Sea Dreamer”.
It was not until the cargo boat at the time, “Sitka”, which was servicing LHI as a cargo ship, that I had the opportunity to return to LHI. I was a wharfie at Goodwood Island, Clarence River, leading the “Sitka” with its cargo bound for LHI, when the chance to crew on the Sitka came my way. Naturally, I jumped at that opportunity to be part of the crew and a watch keeper. I spent a lot of time on Sitka doing voyages to LHI every 2 weeks. It was at the Sitka that I clocked up the majority of my voyages. Some were good and some were just absolutely horrible in bad weather and saying to yourself “What am I doing here?”
It was a good job working on the “Sitka”. With a family of four boys, it kept the bills paid.
After the “Sitka”, the next opportunity to return to LHI came along with Gary Payten on his fishing boat “Darcey Grey”. That saw me having an extended stay on the Island for couple of months.
Other voyages to the Island were on a friend’s yacht “Coswecan” and another yacht “Steel Breeze” that we were taking to New Zealand 3 years ago.
I could see that I was getting close to logging up voyages 100 and I was not quite sure as to how I was going to achieve that goal.
Even though I have a 47-foot ex Tassie Cray boat with sails, I did not want to bring her out even in the right conditions. “Leerunna”, my boat, turns 108 years old on Valentine’s Day and, in my book, she has done her hard yards on the ocean working the west coast of Tasmania.
It was not until Gary “Toss” Payten purchased his latest boat, “Stardust”, that we picked up in Melbourne and took to the Clarence River, that I got a bit excited as I could see that the chances of logging trip number 100 could happen.
Thanks to Gary “Toss” Payten and “Stardust” trip number 100 became a reality and a personal milestone on the last voyage. To my good friends on LHI, I value and treasure that friendship.
Best Wishes to all
Boots
