Thursday, March 24, 2011

Back in Sydney

Busy, busy, busy!!! We arrived back in Sydney on the 8th of March and have not stopped for breath since.
We spent a couple of days in Quarantine Bay, dinghied ashore to Manly and walked to get back our land legs. Then over the harbour to Glebe and the fish markets. It was a murky rainy day but through the rain we spotted old friends "The Road". As we hadn't seen the boat since 2001 in Curacao we had our fingers crossed and sure enough it was still our old friends Shirley and Taff and Rubbish the parrot.
The St Patrick's Day photos will follow.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Moving South


We set off from Southport on a sunny Saturday lunchtime expecting to motor for the next 72 hours then hop into the nearest port. Less than an hour after switching on the engine to pick up the anchor we were sailing in a lovely 15 knot breeze past the high rises and beaches of the Gold Coast.
By mid afternoon we had found the Eastern Australian current which added a couple of knots to our speed.
Monday afternoon we were heading in to Port Stephens. Just 2 miles off the entrance we caught a mid sized tuna. Fantastic trip!
Tuesday was hot breezes and high humidity. The water here is so clear that we had a dip which cooled us down nicely. The skies started to darken and, as we sat in the cockpit drying off, a squall came through the anchorage with gusts up to 50 knots. Cannot imagine what the cyclone was like with 150 knots!
Some interesting skies - the clouds below looked as if they were tumbling!







Next week will see us day hopping down the coast to Sydney.