Sydney

Date: 22nd December 2024

Location: Rose Bay, Sydney

No caption required!

We're here. Sydney for Christmas. How cool is that?

We left Pittwater and surprisingly sailed the 25 miles down to the entrance to Sydney Harbour. Not what the forecast had predicted but thank you, we'll take that. We sailed in between North and South Heads and then because it was our first time in we took the sails down and followed Meraki in. Well! Wednesday afternoon is race day. We went from no boats to hundreds of boats. Dinghies, massive race boats practising for the Sydney to Hobart race on Boxing Day, mega ferries flying between the various bays. Mayhem. We picked our time and crossed a racing fleet as we rounded a corner and there in front of us was the Opera House and the Bridge  Absolutely amazing. We've sailed to Sydney. It's hard to comprehend. We had planned to go under the bridge and find an anchorage but Athol Bay on the way in provided a great view of these iconic landmarks so we dropped anchor there and sat down to marvel at the view.

Sydney is a fantastic city for cruisers. Accommodation is really expensive but with your own boat you can pretty much anchor where you want - for free! And if you need to get to another bay you just tap onto one of the many green and cream ferries with a credit card, fly along at 25 knots and tap off at the other end. This has to be one of our most favourite cities ever. The buses and light railway complete the excellent public transport. And because just about everyone has a car there's always plenty of room too.

So, Sydney for Christmas and New Year. What events are not to be missed?

Date: 29th December 2024

Location: Sugarloaf Cove, Sydney Harbour

First up was our Christmas present from daughters Jenny and Emma. A trip to The Opera House. But not just any trip. They had bought us tickets to this year's final performance of The Messiah. Kevin and Shawna had tickets too so we decided to make a day of it. By now we had moved to an anchorage even closer to the middle of town so we dinghied over to the ferry and walked through pleasant gardens and waterfront paths to the Opera House. There we had an hour's tour of the building, learning history and architecture on the way. It was built in the 1960s after this Danish guy named Jørn Utzon had won a global design competition. It's made from a bunch of precast concrete blocks strung together on steel wires. This means there are no internal columns holding the building up and each of the nine theatres within the building is a standalone unit. It really is an amazing design based on a series of arcs of a sphere especially when you think it was designed back in the late 1950s.

All dressed up for the Opera House. Onboard the ferry.

A quick lunch and back in for the performance. A chorus of over 600 made for a never to be forgotten afternoon. I've never heard applause before after the Hallelujah chorus and of course I couldn't resist a smile when the soloist sang "we all like sheep!" (Yes, I know, very puerile and not quite correct). It was the conductor's 81st and final performance. All very emotional with the chorus stamping their feet in recognition as the final notes died away. What a way to start our time in Sydney. Thank you so much girls.

Next morning we were awoken by shouting and sound of paddles in the water. Our protected downside anchorage was being used as the site of the New South Wales dragon boat team selection exercise. Wed seen plenty of these boats previously with crews of 20 or so. But today it was the state trials. Every person had to paddle the boat on their own over a timed and fixed distance. It looked VERY hard. At the end they were all put into teams and they raced each other including a tight turn around Mehalah. Most entertaining.

New South Wales state dragon boat trials.

It was about this time we had an amazing stroke of luck. Back in Pittwater we had purchased some raffle tickets in support of VMR. VMR or Voluntary Marine Rescue are a sort of cross between the UK Lifeboat service and the Coastguard. They tow broken boats in, keep an eye out for rule breakers and act as a check-in/check-out service when you are on passage along the coast. Well what would you know. As predicted again by me Gill won first prize. $5,000AU (£2,500) worth of Woolworths vouchers!! Woolworths here is a bit like Waitrose or Sainsburys in the UK so this was a good prize indeed. We've had such excellent service and support here in Australia that as well as giving some of it to our friends she has also given some back to VMR (it will buy the sausages for their Summer Sizzler event) and also donated to a homeless charity that Woolworths will match fund. It feels like a win all round.

Next day Gill wakes up with a sore eye. Not just a sore eye but a very sore eye. Doctor, then A and E where drops every four hours are prescribed. The following day she thinks she might lose her eye it hurts so much and is bright red. We go early to the Sydney Eye Hospital, rumoured the best in the southern hemisphere. More drops, every hour for 48 hours! "You have keratitis, an infection of the cornea". It hurts. Big time, especially when the light hits it. She wears hats and a hoodie and slowly it gets better.

We move again. This time to Manly. On the Pacific side is Bondi Beach, home of the cool surfing dudes. And, it seems, just about everyone else in Australia. I'm glad I've seen it but crowds are not my favourite thing so I'm pleased when we move on. Walking back we come across Jim the Butcher. Kevin buys a Christmas turkey and sausages and we learn that Jim has sailed round the Horn in his friends 32' boat.

Bondi Beach - cheer up John.

Christmas approaches and we have stores to buy and boats to organise. By the morning of the big day (it's still Christmas Eve in the UK) the crews of Mehalah, Meraki 2 and Viridian gather early in and on their respective canoes and paddle boards and set off around the bay. It's that weird Christmas in the southern hemisphere vibe. Girls in bikinis and Santa hats, the sun nicely warming things up, "merry Christmas" ringing out across the bay. Greg managed to stay on his paddleboard and we called on a Swedish boat to invite them to the beach for drinks at 11am. Gill had a traditional Christmas Day swim and amazingly so did I! Back to the boat to prepare the beach food and off we went. Blinis with caviar, beetroot, cream cheese, smoked salmon and other things I've forgotten. Plus Canadian muffins. And of course Bucks Fizz which only the Brits knew about. "Ah ,you mean Mimosas". No, Mimosas are 1 part fizz, 1 part orange juice. Bucks Fizz is 2 parts fizz, 1 part orange juice. We went with Bucks Fizz. Yumsters. More people arrived. Go, a catamaran friend of Greg's and the four Swedes came ashore too as did Brazilians Dorival and Katherina from Luthier who we first met back in French Polynesia. The cruisers amongst you will know how this just happens and we ended up with 14 sailors playing Mölkky, a Finnish game that involves throwing a wooden cylinder at twelve other wooden cylinders. It's great fun first introduced to us by the post Covid lockdown crew in Carriacou. New friends made, coincidences unveiled and mutual acquaintances discovered.

Bucks Fizz on the beach at Manly.

The Mölkky pitch

Beach Chill Out.

Flying the flag on Christmas Day - COYS.

Our hosts.

The rest of us.

Back to the boats and time to prepare for Christmas dinner. Held on M2 because that's where Kevin's BBQ is, eight of us squeezed around the big table for a sumptuous northern hemisphere feast of turkey, sausages, creamed Brussels sprouts, cranberry sauce, roasted veg, Canadian stuffing and gravy followed by toffee banoffee, fruit salad and cheese and biscuits washed down with much red wine.  Great work especially by Shawna and Gill who managed to produce a full meal for eight on their two small work surfaces. Christmas Day is a special day for me as I allow myself to relax my prostate cancer induced no sugar, no alcohol, no meat diet for the day. I loved it and happily indulged all three.

No peace for the wicked though as next day was Boxing Day. And in Sydney that means the start of the Sydney to Hobart race. It starts at 1pm but you need to get to your viewing point early to catch a good view. So we motored back to Rose Bay, caught the ferry to Watson's Bay and walked to South Head, the point where the 105 boats would leave Sydney Harbour and turn south for the 680 mile sail to Hobart in Tasmania. With three hours to wait before the start Gilly decided to visit the portaloos. She came back saying "I'm hurt". She was rushing back and got knocked off the path and badly bashed her left knee. Blood everywhere and a big lump on her shin. Anyway much concern before Shawna came up with some wipes and plasters which slowed the bleed considerably. The race started. And mayhem ensued. The course is delineated by a series of yellow buoys up the harbour. All racing boats must stay inside. All spectator boats outside. Law Connect and Comanche the two massive yachts were first and second as they got to us followed by a mass of other monohulls (no catamarans, it's a race just for monos). And outside the buoys hundreds of spectator boats jostling for position. We had briefly thought about joining them but the view from South Head was fantastic. It was the correct decision.

Awaiting the start.

Mayhem!

Unfortunately there were two deaths and numerous withdrawals this year prompting accusations the race should have been delayed. Conditions were challenging but not ferocious and after all it's the skippers decision as to whether they should sail.

But another great day out. The Bridge, the Opera House, The Messiah, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. That just leaves New Year's Eve in Sydney Harbour to come!

We've moved again now to quiet Middle Harbour for a couple of days of R&R before heading to Farm Cove for the fireworks. After that? We'll be looking for some nice southerlies to start our trip back north before we fly to New Zealand.

So it only remains for me to wish all our friends, sailors, family and blog fans a very Happy and Prosperous New Year for 2025.

Or 17,000 miles to London by boat.

Sydney Waterfront.

Sydney Fish Market.

Pittwater

Date: 9th December 2024

Location: Jerusalem Bay, Pittwater

Pittwater showing our anchorages.

Typical Pittwater anchorage.

This is one of the places Gill has wanted to visit since we arrived in Australia. I have to say it is pretty magical. Just 20 miles north of bustling Sydney, much of the vast sunken embayment of Pittwater is like another world. Once you are away from Pittwater Bay itself and a couple of miles upstream there is nothing but forested rocky outcrops with trees down to the water's edge. It feels primeval. At times the cicadas are so loud you can hardly think. And then, as if by magic they all stop before suddenly deciding to start again rising to the next deafening crescendo. (In fact they are so loud we can't hear the engine buzz when it is first switched on). Fish jump, eagles soar overhead and here we bob on our small yellow mooring ball courtesy of the National Park and totally free of charge.

The Great North Walk.

Pretty Ferns.

This morning together with Kevin and Shawna we dinghied to the head of this arm of the bay and walked a trail up the ridge to the small settlement of Cowan. A quick scramble across the oyster strewn shore and we were onto The Great North Walk which runs almost a hundred miles from Newcastle in the north to Sydney in the south. An hour's climb through the most amazing forest. Red trees losing their bark, white trees split in two by something or other, knobbly trees, trees with bark standing out at right angles and a great feeling of permanence.

White Tree.

Knobbly Tree.

The cicadas, if indeed that's what they are, got even louder as we reached the top of the ridge, soon to be outdone by another buzz, the hum of the M1, one of Australia's main arterial motorways. We crossed the footbridge high above the road and watched people rushing to important meetings, off to visit family or to broker some financial deal. Two worlds briefly met before we crossed the railway line at Cowan station and walked uphill to the coffee shop. As we passed houses to our left we became aware that almost every letter box had a small yellow plastic duck glued to it.

Hardy Treckers.

[Here I must divert and explain how M2's Canadian English is just plain wrong. A letter box is not a mail box, the barriers between two lanes of a motorway (not a freeway) is not a median, it is of course a central reservation (which in turn is not an Indian homeland)].

Ah yes, Cowan's shop/cafe. "Eclectic" Shawna called it and that's a great word for it. It's the first cafe I've been in that has a rock python in a large glass tank ("we feed it a dead mouse every two weeks"), the first cafe toilets I've been in that has a shower in it complete with female mannequin who watches you pee and a small seating area with well worn comfortable leather chairs and sofas on which you can play with a wooden train or the chess set or else have a game of cribbage.

We asked about the ducks. "Ah", said the gorgeous teenager with the sultry dark eyes. "We have a duck fairy in Cowan. One night she visited every mail box (yes she did say mail box) and stuck a small duck to the top. Only a few people suspect who the culprit might be but the children love them so they have stayed."

A duck.

We danced back down the track and as we arrived back at the big boats another yacht was taking the third yellow ball in our little bay. Eudora is sailed by a New Zealand couple and we all met up on M2 later for sundowners, reminiscences of places visited and boating acquaintances.

Back on Mehalah I decided to put a small dead fish I had caught earlier onto some heavier line and see if I could catch a kingfish for dinner tomorrow. I left it in the rod holder and went below to waste more time reading about the sorry state of my football team when Gill shouted down "John, it's going, it's clicking". "Dinner, I though, Kingfish for all". I struck and I was into a good fish. A few minutes later I saw it. It was big but it wasn't a kingfish. Instead I had hooked a most annoyed shark! I bought it to the boat and cut the line just above the hook. It swam away happily. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

Back on the boat after a great walk.

Mehalah and Meraki 2.

Re-Rig and a Scary Gust

Date: 5th December 2024

Location: Port Stephens, 300 miles south of Brisbane, 100 miles north of Sydney.

This one's for all you sailors and techies though I've put a few nature pics in at the end.

A month ago now we motored 6 or 7 miles up the beautiful Coomera River to Boatworks. According to some reports this is the biggest boatyard in the southern hemisphere. After a night at anchor in the river and a serious bout of food poisoning (listeria?) for me we were lifted out very efficiently and trundled over to our working spot.

Lift out time again.

We were here to be re-rigged. Every ten years our insurers start to say we must replace all the wires (stays) that hold the mast up as well as the associated connectors and plates. In addition we decided to inspect and replace where necessary the big steel plates that bolt the stays to the body of the boat. Without the stays connected the mast would fall over so that has to come off too. And if the mast is off then by definition the boom comes off too. And whilst we were at it we decided to replace the big chunk of wood that separates the anchor locker from our living room (saloon). Why? Because it supports one of these chain plates and we know there is rot in there. Plenty to do.

Boatworks is amazing. It's not cheap at around £75 a night but the facilities are great. You get a little covered workshop area, access to every possible trade you might require, a fantastic free laundry, a chandlery and best of all free courtesy cars to take you to Bunnings to buy everything from timber to tools and bungee cord.

We had already engaged our rigger when back in Scarborough and what a find he turned out to be. Darrin Carter, "The Yacht Rigger" was amazing. He turned up when he said he would, often at 5.30am, he taught us loads, he expected us to do 13 hour days of the more mundane work, he told us of his mates who would do work quickly and at reasonable rates and of course he ate most of our energy bars! We called him the Duracell Bunny because he never stopped.

When you buy a boat the books say you will spend around 10% of its value each year to keep it maintained. Most years we don't because we do everything we can ourselves but this year was a definite exception. With a boat value of around £85k we have probably spent almost £20k to get everything sorted after the termites and now to be re-rigged. Hopefully that's the last time we have expenses like this.

So the crane arrived to remove the boom and then the mast but we had to have all the stays loose before that. Thanks to Darrin we paid the crane direct rather than him putting his own markup on the job, the first of many savings he made for us.

Cables to disconnect at the base of the mast.

Prepping for mast removal.

Off with the boom.

We had already measured the lengths of all the original stays. Several had been made a bit short so were tighter than they should be. All this was taken into account for the new ones. The two front stays which each support a sail that rolls up around it were a particular issue that had required additional pieces to be shipped from the UK in advance (thanks again Mike). By judicial use of lube and heat we were able to successfully dismantle them, replacing a few parts (Sta-Lok fittings) rather than purchase new at an extortionate cost as Selden would prefer.

The old tricky foresail connector.

Cleaning the reusable bits.

Anyway it all came down OK giving us chance to get at those critical chain plates for the first time in Mehalah's 41 year old life. Hidden behind cabinets we had to remove woodwork and lever them free. Then check for cracks. Darrin the rigger pointed us to a crack detection kit which we used to check their integrity. Four of them looked a bit suspicious and we decided to replace them though I now think the 'cracks' we identified were simply scratch marks. Darrin's friendly stainless workshop made new ones though that entailed two trips in the free courtesy car back north of Brisbane to deliver the old ones as templates and then collect the new new ones.

Spraying the crack tester.

Maybe a crack? Let's replace it.

It was at this time too that we now had the opportunity to replace that bulkhead between the saloon and the anchor locker. Suffice to say after a week of work we ended up with a very satisfactory job with a new thicker, rot free bulkhead glassed into place. But it was a messy, frustrating task as we got more and more tired each day.

Old bulkhead removed, ready for the new.

Now then. I just need to seal that hole!

To alleviate the intense work we would visit Kevin and Shawna who were still in the water but working on replacing the rubbing strip along the side of the boat. Kevin is either a perfectionist (says Kevin), or suffers from OCD (says Shawna). A few meals out and a film night in the communal cruisers' lounge took us away from the work for a few precious hours.

Meraki's smart new white rub rail.

As you can see we are juggling with a lot of dependencies here with each day on the hard costing us money and time when we could be sailing towards Sydney for Christmas 

Then the new stays arrived and despite accurate measuring two of them were 40cm too long. More delay. And what a day that was. One of the wettest November days recorded. It rained and rained and rained. But, cold and wet through eventually all the work was completed and next day we were lifted back into the water.

Shiny new rigging.

My, did it rain!

The new tricky foresail connector.

The Duracell Bunny came back for a final in-water check as the hull changes shape in the water and he made a few tiny tweaks before we treated him and Tammy, his wife, to a well earned and famous Boatworks "Big Breakfast". What a star.

The Duracell Bunny.

Then it was back down the river with Kevin and Shawna on Meraki 2 and a return to the crazy world of Surfers' Paradise and Southport before we set off south at last.

Surfers' Parasise Beach.

So from Southport to Port Stephens where we are now has basically been two legs each of around 160 miles. That's more than we can cover in a day so both have involved an overnighter at sea. And for us the first time back in the open ocean for over a year. First up we had to time our departure through Southport Seaway back out into the Pacific. Luckily conditions were good and we left the narrow exit with little problem.

Back out into the Pacific Ocean.

There's a massive south going current down the east coast of Australia called not surprisingly The East Australia Current which greatly enhances our speed by an average of three knots! (Going back north will be much more of a challenge). We were all tired after our efforts at Boatworks and anyway the first night at sea is always the hardest. But the new rig felt great and we sailed beautifully. Small things went wrong though. In particular the bed for the rebuilt autopilot was still not strong enough, we reefed several times during the night and generally we struggled with getting much sleep at all as the downwind course left us rolling about and we hadn't set up the pole to sail wing on wing (goosey goosey Jen). Not helped by the fact that Kevin and Shawna got six hours good sleep each. In the end the autopilot was moving so much we took the sails down at midnight, turned the engine on and hand steered for the rest of the passage  before taking up a mooring ball in the protected bay of Coffs Harbour.

We really liked Coffs Harbour. A relatively small, self sufficient town with a wooden pier where youngsters showed off their diving prowess and couples came for wedding photos (in the same spot at the same time). After many autopilot discussions we decided to bolt its support in more securely rather than glassing it in so that's what we did although this entailed a 6k walk through town to the local Bunnings warehouse for long stainless bolts some of which I unfortunately purchased slightly short. Anyway we did a 'good enough' job to it. At the same time Kevin was trying to sort out his AIS system which broadcasts the boat's position making ailing close to them much easier. Despite donating our old cable he can still only get it working intermittently. Another job for Sydney.

Coffs Harbour has what used to be a small island but is now connected to the mainland by a causeway. It's called Mutton Bird Island and is the home to thousands of Shearwaters in the breeding season. They live in burrows while the young are being nurtured and you see them everywhere as you climb the island on a lovely manmade walkway looking over the vast ocean below.

The pretty town of Coffs Harbour.

After two days at Coffs the weather showed a nice window coming up so we decided to push on as far as we could starting early in the morning. So early in face that with the change in hour between Queensland and New South Wales it was still dark at our planned departure time of 5.30. We called Marine Rescue as we departed to let them know we would head for Newcastle (190 miles) but might well stop at Port Stephens (160 miles) or even Port Macquarie (80 miles) depending on conditions. Port Macquarie came and went with speeds of up to 9 knots (love that EAC). We were sailing beautifully and even got the very heavy pole deployed to let us sail dead downwind). Continuing to Pittwater though looked a stretch so we opted for Port Stephens where we are now.

Kevin, Gill and Shawna on Port Stephens Beach.

We had had a great brisk downwind sail in around 26k of true wind under either main with one reef or main and poled out yankee (front sail). All was good. Night came and the wind, as predicted, started to decrease. We decided to leave the sails as they were for the night and started our watches. M2 still had all four of its sails up, unreefed with the jib poled out. And then, out of nowhere, the wind increased over the course of a minute from 14 knots apparent to 36 knots apparent. By this time we are travelling downwind at nine knots. To calculate the true strength of the wind when travelling downwind you add apparent to boat speed. So we were looking at well over 40 knots of wind for five to ten minutes, only just under control. We managed to furl the yankee and held on for the ride. Meanwhile, looking back, we see M2 lying at an angle of about 70° and in serious trouble. Thankfully a few minutes later we saw her lights and knew they had survived. But it must have been VERY scary for them. Amazingly they had no damage other than a mess of items strewn around the inside the boat.

Mehalah under full sail.

Talking afterwards it seems that they normally reef at night but maybe because they were overtired they hadn't on that one occasion. My log entry at the time reads...

Sudden wind (36k, 33k, 35k). Holy moly!! M2 over at an angle. Hope they are OK... Can see their lights now.

This prompted us to take a second reef in the main and we continued safely. Even so Gill was up several times during my watch to gybe and to discuss an approaching ship. M2's engine was overheating too so we followed then here into the beautiful Port Stephens anchorage at around 9am yesterday.

We all slept for 12 hours last night.

Today we climbed the local hill and generally took things more easily. It's lovely here.Tomorrow it's another early start but with luck we will arrive in Pittwater some 80 miles south late tomorrow and only 25 miles from Sydney. We hope to spend a relaxing few days there in the nature reserve before that final push to Sydney.

You've waited so long. Here's the nature bit. More excitement. At Boatworks we found a Huntsman Spider on deck, then again in the little workshop and finally back at the dock inside our bedroom hatch, finally dropping onto our bed! Twice he was spared. The final time he was squashed and thrown overboard. They are pretty venomous though not generally aggressive. But we heard they are territorial and we really didn't want him in bed with us!

Our Huntsman Spider.

Whilst in Southport we walked along a nature trail adjacent to the bay where the Olympic rowing will be held in 2032. In this short walk we saw a 2m green snake (?), brush turkeys, an ibis (they are everywhere and called bin chickens), lizards and some colourful galahs. And as we approached Coffs Harbour at night we heard squeaks and pings as a group of small unidentified white whales played alongside us for almost an hour. Was that worth the wait? Probably not.

Galah.

That's it for now. Next update should see us in Sydney.