2020-02-25 – Ball’s Pyramid

Ball’s Pyramid is a sea stack located about 12 miles southeast of Lord Howe Island.  The boat ride took us along the cliffs at the far south end of the island.  It was our first view of the island from this angle.  This end is pretty spectacular.

It was windy, overcast, and a bit rainy and the swells were pretty big…but we made it out to the stack.  Apparently, because of the frequent bad seas the cruise is cancelled more often than it is run.  50% of the trips don’t make it because of bad seas.  So, we were very fortunate.  

Except that Paul got pretty seasick in spite of having taken pills and wearing wrist bands…he just doesn’t like rough seas, especially in small boats.  He mostly sat in the back of the boat, uncovered section, because that was the least bouncy.  But between the spray and the rain, he got pretty wet (was wearing a rain jacket though).

This sea stack is a remnant of a volcano and, at 1,844 feet high, it is the tallest sea stack in the world. 

 It is also home of many bird colonies…mostly various types of shearwaters, petrels, and occasionally a masked booby.  We were often surrounded by curious birds.

Masked Booby:

Our pilot, did a bit of fishing and pulled in a small shark.  He harvested the liver out of it and threw the rest of the shark back into the water.  The diced liver was then thrown into the waters around the boat to draw more birds close.  It worked (but seemed a bit brutal).

Shearwater:

We hit some rain but it did clear a bit.  The views of the pyramid were great.