6 months later...

After spending a year on board the kids are not keen sailors. Today we tried a different tactic and suggested they invited a couple of friends along for the ride. Enter Mia and Tara, lots of giggles, fun and games... 

We have recently had Meander on the hard redoing the anti-foul and fixing under water things so it was good to be sailing with  a clean hull. We hit more than 7 knots on the way over. 

We anchored just off from  Altona, last time we anchored was at la Perouse, NSW. We have been celebrating 4th July  (early) with lots of American goodies... Hotdogs, Apple pie, lemonade, oreos, pretzels and hot chocolate. 

Talk at Hobsons Bay Yacht Club

The Lessers are continuing to settle back into their shore based life in Melbourne. Giles is back at work, Lauren is back studying at Uni, the kids are back at school, and Meander is coming out of the water tomorrow for some anti-fouling....

We are currently working on a talk to share our adventure. If you're based in Melbourne please come along.

7 - 10pm 
Friday 10th June, 2016

Hobsons Bay Yacht Club
Nelson Pace
Williamstown

Cronulla to Hobson's Bay - Meander delivery

Well, we're off to a good start. Departed Cronulla 1330 on Saturday after reorganising amazing piles of "treasures" from one part of Meander to another and generally clearing the decks for action.

Tom (from HBYC) and Michael (family friend) both arrived before I had finished my tidying and the promised NE sea breeze came in exactly as forecast, so we left ASAP. 

Mentally, we have 3 legs planned : Cronulla to Eden (200Nm), Eden to Wilsons Prom (220Nm), and Wilsons Prom to Port Phillip heads (145Nm). 200Nm takes about 36 hours to sail - give or take

As of Sunday 1600 the wind has been kind, although it went very quiet overnight last night and we motored for 4 hours. We're currently abeam of Bermagui and are doing a nice 7.5 to 8 knots in 15 knots of wind from the NE. The wind is forecast to build to 20-25 knots tonight, so we're planning to skip Eden and head on around the corner, rounding Gabo Island around 0100 on Monday

From there it looks like we may have a bit of motoring to do across "the paddock" through the gas rigs to Refuge Cove, possibly reaching Wilsons Prom on Tuesday afternoon - too early to tell...

Anyway, so far progress has been good and today we've seen 2 sharks and an orca!

Fingers crossed for continued favourable weather. 

Looking South down the coast from Cronulla

Mike, after finding out that this is a cruising yacht and that he didn't need to helm unless he felt like it...

Heading south in beautiful conditions

Tom, regretting not being at work.

Update 2030

Roughly abeam of Eden.

Check out the speed  YeHa ..! 

As well as an AIS transceiver on board I am also transmitting AIS data to Marine Traffic from my mobile phone. With our external antenna our mobile data has much better coverage than the shore AIS base stations

Update 0245

We are back in Victoria! We rounded Gabo Island as predicted at 0100 Monday. Kinda scary in the pitch black, no moon and few stars, just a few flashes of lightning and several ships. Then, also add predicted, the wind died as soon as we turned the corner. So now our glamour run has come to an end and we're motoring. Perhaps for the next 24 hours...? As a consolation, we have amazing photo luminescent dolphins leaping around us in the dark like crazy torpedoes! I'd take a photo, but it'd never work out. 

Update 1100

Motoring across "The paddock". Yes, we're still motoring. We've been motoring for 9 hours now and have covered about 55Nm since Gabo Island, only another 128Nm to go to get to Wilsons Prom - which we could do in 21 hrs if we keep motoring at 6 knots. Problem is that this evening a SW wind of 15-20 knots is due to arrive, so we won't make it and will have to beat into the SW. Oh well, the lads had been complaining they hadn't had a chance to sail to windward in Meander yet. Looks like they'll get their wish. Oh well, in about 4 hours we have the first of the gas platforms to look forward to. There's stuff all else to do out here at the moment...! 

"The Paddock" at its most serene.

Update 2100 Tuesday 

Forgive me reader, it has been more than 24 hours since my last update... 

That's what you get when you go to windward - no updates! The promised W - SW wind came , just as forecast, but right on the nose until we got around Wilsons Prom. What we didn't count on was that our approach to the Prom coincided with ebb tide in Bass Strait and we got pushed way of course and basically prevented from rounding Wilsons Prom until the tide turned at 9am this morning. Until then we were travelling at only about 4.5 knots to windward in choppy seas. Yuk. 

So, we finally got around Wilsons Prom at 1500 today (about 5 hours later than planned) and then had a nice run down wind through the islands on the west side of Wilsons Prom before changing course and heading for Cape Liptrap. 

We roared across to Cape Liptrap in a building SE wind and, just before dinner decided to take the main sail down completely for the overnight run down the coast as we weren't going to be in time for the 6am slack tide at Port Phillip heads and needed to kill time. Now the sun has set the wind has, of course, dropped and we may have to motor through the night to ensure we cover the remaining 64 Nm by 1200 tomorrow, for the next slack tide at PPH. Ah well, such is life. 

Not sure yet what we'll do on arrival in Port Phillip as there is a big SW due tomorrow evening and I want to be tied up somewhere snug before that arrives... 

Tom either snoozing or checking out dolphins as we pass "Flounder A" platform

Rounding Wilson's Prom

Running down through the islands on the eastern side of the Prom

Sunset near Cape Liptrap

Sunset in Bass Strait

Update 0630 Wednesday 

Dawn off Cape Schank. Peaceful trip down the coast last night with just enough wind to keep us on target for our noon appointment with Port Phillip Heads. See you soon Melbourne! 

Dawn off Cape Schank

Update 1700 Wednesday

We're home! 

Despite our best efforts to go slow we arrived of Port Phillip Heads about 1000, just after the peak of the ebb tide. We hung around a bit about 3 miles out looking at the conditions and nothing looked too  scary so at 1030 we started our approach. As we would be pushing the ebb tide we used the "Four Fingers West" yacht channel, out of the main shipping  channel and the worst of the (4.5 knot) current. Progress was slow and we got down to a minimum speed of 1.9 knots over the ground as we raced the point Lonsdale lighthouse, but Mike did a great job of keeping us in line through the swirling turbulent eddies and we prevailed eventually. Arriving off Queenscliff at 1230 there was no sign of the promised northerly wind so we took advantage of the light easterly and pushed on into port Phillip. About 1/3 of the way across the 30Nm to Hobson's Bay the wind abruptly swung to the NW and increased to almost 20 knots, but this gave us a nice angle to head directly home without tacking - nice! On arrival at HBYC the moderate NW wind made it a bit awkward to back into the (temporary) marina pen but we made it on the second attempt without damaging anything or anybody. We were all tired up by 1700, a mere 99.5 hours after leaving Cronulla. The trip was non-stop at an average (rhumb line) speed of 5.5 knots. Not too bad. A most employable 4 days actually. 

Many thanks to Mike and Tom for taking the time out of their busy lives to help me bring Meander home so efficiently. I hope I have the chance to sail with each of you again in the future. 

Entering Port Phillip Heads. Notice the glassy-looking swirls of water

Meander safely back in her temporary pen at HBYC.

Update 1900 Wednesday

The timing of our arrival was very good actually as within an hour a major westerly squall hit Port Phillip with wind of 43 knots for a few minutes. We are up in the yacht club having a beer by then, but the squall caused problems for others... http://www.9news.com.au/wild-weather/2016/01/13/18/18/damaging-winds-to-lash-melbourne-as-dust-cloud-moves-through-rural-victoria

It also seems that I left the AIS reporting app running on my phone. Sorry about that, embarrassing... 

The last leg home was, umm, by car...

Cronulla to Newport - the return (land) journey

And we're off!

The kids and I decided a 11+ hour train journey made more sense to return to Newport than a one hour flight. After all it took us 11+ months to get this far!

The trains have a special on at present. A full fare paying adult can take up to 4 children at a $1 a piece. So our tickets coast around $135 compared to a possible $800 if we'd flown.

Our day started early with a 5:55 train from Cronulla to Central station in Sydney. Thankfully Giles decided to join us for the first leg and helped carry the bags from one end of central to the other.

Our tablets are fully charged. We have new books. We've packed playing cards, sketch books, hair wrap fixings and a ton of snack and supplies. The money we saved on tickets will absolve any guilt over buying the buffet car food and drink.

So we're good to go!

9:24am some tablet and reading time followed by yummy breakfast of yoghurt, fruit toast, tuna(?), croissants, orange juice  & coffee. 

4pm keep thinking about taking more photos but the view inside and outside the train doesn't change much. Kids have found others kids to share tablet love with so they are happy. 

8pm. Back in Newport. Beds made. Sitting in our local pizza place waiting for our dinner to be cooked. Tired but content. 

Sydney Harbour NYE 2015/16 ... Photos

Wow!

The fireworks were AWESOME! No other word for it. Katherine gave it 10/10.

Our location was superb and was further enhanced when the (really nice) people on a yacht immediately between us and the bridge had their anchor drag at about 7pm after having sat there happily since 6am. They did get it reset, but this commotion moved them out of our direct line of sight - we weren't complaining!

OK, so here are the photos. I took 521 of them! I've tried really hard to whittle them down, and have got them down to the following 42 (less than 10% of those that were taken). Remember, these were taken hand-held off a moving boat. I'm pretty pleased with what I got. For the technically inclined, most of the fireworks photos were taken on a DSLR with a 50mm f1.8 lens. It helps that they were close to us - no zooming required to get them to fill the viewfinder!

TIP: to view the images best, use a computer and click on the first image to open a full screen image window, I reckon some of them are worth it!

The fireworks were very impressive. We were only about 200m from the nearest fireworks barge and the thumps of the large fireworks exploding were physical and made the deck bounce under our feet! This was all a bit too impressive for Arthur who went to bed half way through the "family friendly" fireworks at 9pm.

Intro and welcome to country

Welcome by the Port Authority

Our (old fashioned) NZ flag flying proudly.

Ditto for our HBYC and QCYC burgees

To give you a sense of scale.

Check out the images (and movies) projected on the bridge piers

The Opera House looked simply magnificent throughout. You'll notice I keep coming back to it...

Family (9pm) fireworks

Sydney, very thoughtfully, puts on two fireworks shows on NYE, the first at 9pm and the second at midnight. Even the 9pm display was pretty spectacular - too spectacular for Arthur who decided that he preferred to watch the fireworks from downstairs in the comfort of his bed!

The Opera House and Bridge through the twinkling lights on our radar arch

Arthur, before he retired to bed

CaBOOM! Right overhead

I'm sure this is how the Hubble Space Telescope photos are actually taken!

Sensory overload!

Video here. Just remember that the tinny-sounding "pops" in the video were actually boat and body shaking BOOMs...

Light ships parade

To fill time between 9pm and midnight there was a parade of lit ships up and down the centre of the harbour. They looked quite spectacular, although quite eerie I thought. Having run our one little string of Christmas lights we appreciated the effort that must have gone into preparing these much larger vessels.

Very spooky ships gliding silently through the night.

Still looking good!

What the skateboarding lady in the bikini has to do with spooky ships I have no idea

Ditto for the surfer, but he is HUGE. I reckon the ship is the James Craig in fancy dress.

 The main event - the countdown and midnight fireworks

 This is it! We all made it to midnight, with the exception of Arthur, it was well worth the wait!

30 seconds to midnight!

Midnight! and the action begins on the bridge

At our location our attention is dragged back and forth from the bridge to our left and the nearest fireworks barge slightly to our right (down-river)

Actually blowing up the bridge wouldn't be half as spectacular as this!

The waterfall. For some reason I just wanted to try sailing through it - don't think that would be good...

And it's done

The smoke slowly clears away from the bridge

 The morning after... 

At the end of the fireworks the maritime exclusion zone is lifted and a mad migration of boats takes place in the dark. We decided to avoid all that by staying exactly were we were until the morning. Seems like quite a few others did the same. We woke early - it was great to see the city so quiet and still, before the cleanup began. We had a cleanup of our own - sweeping and washing a large quantity of ash and firework paper shreds off the decks and out of the dinghy.

The CBD from our anchorage in Farm Cove (note the fenders still on the rails from last night)

The Bridge - looking all very innocent, as if nothing spectacular had happened last night at all...!

At 7:30am we set sail and drifted back down Sydney Harbour - probably for the last time - and went and found ourselves a beach to swim at which wasn't littered with Champagne corks. Balmoral Beach has served that purpose very nicely.

Drifting down Sydney Harbour on New Year's morning

Still looks busy in Athol Bay - these boats all still anchored - looks as tight there as Farm Cove

Must be fun in those moored boats with the Manly ferries passing by...

Harbour Hangover - spot the Champagne corks in the foreground!

Tomorrow we head back further south to Cronulla where we'll have a few days on the beach before Lauren and the kids head back to Melbourne by train on the 9th. It's sad, but our year away is coming to an end...