Apologies to all my followers for not posting any updates for the past week or so. I appreciate both of you for your interest in our adventures.
Catherine and I have had a good break since arriving in Sydney from our long voyage from Melbourne. Big thanks to the crew: David, Steve, Jane and Andrew did a great job getting us here safely. Sharing three watches on the Bass Strait sector made it an easier voyage. Although weary, we weren’t “wrecked” by five days of non-stop travel. We enjoyed having you on board for the start of our adventure.
For those who want the numbers, the trip was 585 nautical miles (over 1,000 km) and took 101 hours. Not fast but economical, burning only 311 L of diesel. For those not into numbers, I’ll leave the stats there and move on.
Catherine and I had a few days in Sydney to ourselves at first. Although we had a spell of cold, wet weather, it didn’t matter as we spent a lot of the time tidying up the boat, restocking provisions, doing the laundry and tending to repairs (nothing serious, just minor repairs, like replacing the toilet door handle that fell off; I guess it must have had a workout en route). Looking through photos of the voyage to Sydney, I was shocked to see the state of my hair, so a visit to the barber was also a top priority.
Our kids and their friends joined us for the Easter long weekend. Alex, Cam, Dan, Gigi and Grace all stayed on board, so it was cosy but terrific spending time together. Apart from sailing, they’ve been shopping in the city, walking around Rushcutters Bay and Potts Point, swimming at Bondi, going out to night clubs and staying in to play cards.
We’ve been on several Harbour cruises with different groups of friends. First, Trudi and Warren spent a day on the water with us. All was well until Warren took us on a white-knuckle ride across The Heads through the rolling ocean swell. His look is of genuine thrill; Trudi was more shrill!
Then we took Emma and Alice for a sail. Emma also brought her friends Gus and Ken along for the cruise. Earlier in the week we had dinner at Emma’s delightful apartment in Lavender Bay. It was so delicious we did not hesitate in accepting Emma’s offer to provide lunch for the cruise, and she did not disappoint the passengers and crew with her gourmet chicken rolls.
Alex also had her friends Justin, Ben and Sydney on board for a pleasant twilight sail. Thanks for the awesome photo, Justin!
As you can see from all the blue track lines in the map below, we’ve sailed around a lot of Sydney Harbour since we’ve arrived!
Just a couple more days in Sydney. We plan to leave on Wednesday for Southport on the Gold Coast.
Debonnaire 