April 5th, 2026Excitement turns to real fear during sea trip

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The idea

The idea seemed straightforward: a crew of three would sail from Tasmania to New Zealand. Two of them knew their yacht well, having sailed and lived aboard for around four years. The third was a builder of wooden boats with not a lot of offshore sailing experience but had read all the books. The boat’s owners are Micah Landon-Lane and his Swedish partner, Salome Tobin. Micah sailed dinghies when young, Salome helped bring a similar boat from Adelaide, and they later circumnavigated their home state, Tasmania.

Yimkin

Micah and Salome first planned to head for Europe, then decided on a less ambitious voyage on 38-year-old Yimkin, meaning “perhaps” or “maybe” in Arabic.

December to March is the best time to cross the Tasman Sea. After that it is notoriously wild as the currents of the Southern Ocean collide with those of the Pacific. They left at the end of April, “a bit late in the season,” says Micah. A sailing website warns that the voyage in winter months “is not free from danger”.

 The aim was to get across in two weeks. They could get a somewhat reliable weather forecast for the first week, but would then get whatever the weather gods threw at them for the second half.

Day two brought swells of up to four metres, which meant seasickness for Micah. Lifting the trio’s spirits was the appearance of shearwaters, and albatrosses including a black one with a white face as if it were in a bodysuit

 On the fourth day they had the swim of a lifetime, taking it in turns to jump in and be towed by a rope, 800kms out to sea, with 3000 metres of the deepest blue water below. Dolphins and a small family of pilot whales accompanied them at times.

Day five brought a lumpy sea, rising strong winds and, Micah messaged, “a sky so low with heavy clouds that you could touch it…” More seasickness. Sleep came in three-hour shifts. They had been aiming for the northern tip of NZ.

Their feelings had gone from excitement to some fear as waves turned the cockpit into a big bathtub.

Lord Howe

Next they saw Lord Howe Island on the map and nervously considered it. The winds were due to ease, but not for a few days. For four days they ran with the wind and surfed the waves, which were building to six metres, putting them in fear of being overturned. Then they found that a leak had taken half their water supply. They decided to turn north for the shelter of Lord Howe,1600km from Tasmania. After 11 days at sea came the cry from Matt: “Land Ho!”

But first they had to skirt Ball’s Pyramid, the tallest volcanic stack in the world, rising a straight 572 metres from the seabed. Formed 6.4 million years ago, it is about 20 kilometres from Lord Howe and in the centre of an underwater shelf surrounded by rough seas, making an approach difficult.

Border Force

They were welcomed by the islanders, although the ever-cautious Australian Border Force on the lookout for illegal arrivals, wanted to know why they had “left” Australia but were still in it.

Once this was settled, Micah and Salome waited another eight days before continuing their calmer journey to New Zealand. Matt had to return to his family and boat-building business in Tasmania.

Nine more sailing days took the pair across the Tasman. They then continued north to Fiji, finding the port in Suva cluttered with shipwrecks, some on dry land. Coming to Suva fulfilled a longing for Micah: he went to school there 19 years earlier, leaving with his family after a military coup.

Home

 Then it was back to Australia where, fittingly, 32-year-old Micah is completing his PhD in seaweed palatability and cultivation. Only during a visit to Micah’s grandmother, Sue Butler, who lives in Hepburn, did they exclusively tell their story to The Local.

“Sailing is incredibly romanticised, and you don’t know what it’s like until you’ve actually been out there yourself,” Micah says. Adds Salome: “You will get to know a whole new part of yourself as a part of the journey, a lot of it from learning how you deal with proper fear.”

Words: Kevin Childs | Image: Contributed