The boat is now safely parked out of the water in Oyster Cove at the far western end of Port Stephens, and Deb and I are writing this from Alice’s lovely apartment in Bangkok. We are on our way to the UK and breaking the journey here for a few days.
We have really enjoyed our time cruising around the Sydney waterways since the new year. It has been a fine mix of beautiful anchorages, time on board and ashore with friends and family, and making the most of the glorious beaches and surf.
We did have an excursion south to the harbour for a few nights, mostly because we felt we should, but also as an excuse for a sail, (it is about 20nm from Pittwater to the Harbour). The weather has continued to be very variable and unsettled, but a perfect window did appear one Wednesday and we were all set with Edward and Alicia joining us for the ride. Sadly, it wasn’t to be because that morning Deb missed her footing in the cockpit and badly hurt her ankle/foot – in fact she declared that she had fractured it. So instead of a sail in the sunshine, we headed to the Urgent Care Centre, (which by the by she used to run), where it was confirmed that she had indeed broken a bone in her foot. Very painful and needing to be supported in a CAM boot – which is not the best set up for living on a boat! As you can imagine, the prospect of 4 to 6 weeks of that left her rightly cross (to say the least).
Anyway, soldiering on, the weather repeated the opportunity a week later and we had a glorious sail down to the Harbour getting the asymmetric spinnaker out for a fun trip in the sunshine. Once within the Harbour however, the sailing was anything but relaxing. We had forgotten what a zoo the place is – a fleet of racing boats to dodge, ferries, navy ships, working boats zooming to & fro. We made our way to the bridge for the photo op, then hastily headed back up to Forty Baskets to meet a friend of Edward and Alicia’s before finding some relative peace tucked away in Collins Beach, near the Quarantine Station. That anchorage was really pleasant, with a cute little beach and very few folk around. It was blowing fairly hard, so we had a couple of nights there before the southerly kicked in and we headed back north to Pittwater and some sanity! Glad we did the trip, but it did remind us why we so rarely have been down to the Harbour.
As a side note it should be mentioned that the broken foot was not the first trauma Deb had suffered. There was the infamous “Crab Attack”. We had been enjoying a few days up the river with Piet and Kirst who joined us on their boat. Rather optimistically we felt, Kirst had a plan for crab linguine for dinner bringing only the pasta, a lemon and 2 brand new crab pots. Not wishing to appear overtly sceptical, I did note Deb rummaging amongst the provisions to check that there was a tin of tuna to hand “just in case.” Anyway, the dinner plan required the setting of crab pots and, of course their safe retrieval. Phase 1 went very well, and a couple of lovely blue swimmer crabs were procured. Thinking this might not be quite enough, (and perhaps a little over confident after the initial success), the pots were reset. The waiting for results did include a certain amount of fine wine which I am sure had nothing to do with the “incident”. Deb and Kirst set off to retrieve said pots (with Piet and I supervising from the cockpit) and one pot did have a very large specimen in it. However, it decided it was not going to play nice and managed to get itself into the bottom of the dinghy instead of the bucket. Whereupon it then attached itself with significant determination to Deb’s leg. It took both of them to lever the claw off her leg and left a decent set of cuts and bruising! Needless to say there was plenty of crabmeat for the linguine and the flavour was enhanced by a good dose of revenge extracted!
We also really enjoyed the opportunity to spend time with some old and special friends. We have known Rick and Bella for many years (and in fact they joined us for several months on our last trip on Vagabond Heart up in the Whitsundays on their boat Sijo with sons Fred and Jack), and so it was a real pleasure to catch up several times out on the water as well as join them for a joint birthday celebration down in Maroubra.
We also were delighted to host some guests from the UK. Deb’s cousins, Neil & Anita, were on a grand adventure in both SE Asia & Australasia and were able to join us for the day on the boat. Fortunately the weather obliged & we were able to show them the beauty of Pittwater including an obligatory stop in the Basin for swimming and paddleboarding, as well as a walk ashore to enjoy some Australian fauna – specifically kookaburras, goannas and wallabies.
Our other special guest was Deb’s best buddy from her medical school days, (and “foster mother” of our kids when they are needful of solid advice and a bed in the UK). She joined us on her way to NZ to catch up with her son and partner there. Tammy is a special family friend, and it was so good to be able to host her on the boat for a few days, enjoying lots of laughs with Deb & plenty of fun together.
Our time in Pittwater had certainly flown past and (again a very short) window appeared for us to head north to Port Stephens. We were all set to leave early on a Friday, but the weather did not cooperate. Torrential rain, 25-30kn southerly and a very choppy sea. We did stick our head out into Broken Bay but very quickly decided to abort. Fortunately, things had settled down the following day with 15kn easterly and we again had a lovely reach all the way up the coast.
What followed was a few days prepping the boat for haulout, having a mechanic on board to go for a run and check out the engines and a few last minute arrangements. The folk at Oyster Cove did a very professional job of hauling out and Mowzel Cat is now on the hardstand in Oyster Cove with a set of work programmes organised for whilst we are away and when we get back in July. Nothing too substantial at all, but she has been in the Pacific for nearly 5 years and it is time for a bit of TLC. I have been doing quite a bit of cosmetic work inside (completely updating the galley for instance) but there are some things we need the professionals to do. So, the engines and saildrives are out, which will make their overhaul much easier and I can clean up the engine bays. The hulls will get some cosmetic fixes and a good polishing and we are getting some upgrades to the canvas work to make the cockpit more liveable when it rains.
….and now we are off to the UK for nearly 4 months which will be another adventure.