Belated New Year's Eve

A little late but here are some better pictures of the fireworks courtesy of Caroline.

Work Experience Skipper

A couple of weeks ago Jenni & I took three of Jenni's UK friends out on a harbour cruise. John and Mario came too.

It was a beautiful day and we anchored at Athol Bay where we were joined by Mathilde. We all went aboard the cruiser for lunch. Then we swam and some bombing took place from the top deck. After a lovely day we set sail for our mooring in Balmain

and young Jessie was keen to try her hand at steering.

And she turned out to be a natural.

Cheshire Cat Wins Again!

Last weekend the ASCC held the Annual Treasure Hunt. Julie, Terina and I were the only stalwarts on Cheshire Cat. With predicted winds of 30 knots forecast we were a little trepidatious but set off anyway in light winds to answer the first questions at the western reaches of Balmain. The clues then led us towards Sydney Harbour proper. As we headed North to Yuralbin Point and the prospect of unporotected waters Helen phoned to say the southerly had arrived at Clovelly. And a minute later it hit Balmain. The whitecaps whipped up and before we reached Goat Island we had decided to call it quits.
Julie & Terina after a hard day Treasure Hunting

Laine and Neil on Topknot were ahead of us but they are more competitive than us when the alternative is a lesurely lunch on the mooring sheltered from the wind. At least so we thought. As we turned back John, Dayna, Roger passed us heading out in the 59 foot power boat Mathilde. Wind was no object to them obviously.
Mathilde - no sticks and rags here!

Rounding Yuralbin we saw Maria and David in Holy Spirit coming towards us with their headsail up. I thought they were mad but far be it from me.... But when they saw us coming back they wisely dropped the sail and followed us to the mooring.

Having secured ourselves we got out the charts, books on Sydney Harbour that we have on board and the mobile phone. This Treasure Hunt has no rules, specially not about outside help, so we phoned Helen, who got on the net and solved the questions about the Sydney Opera House and what one finds at the bitter end of an anchor line - the boat!

By then Laine had arrived back in our bay and John was quick to follow. Noone had gone all the way to the furthest clue point, partly cos the answer was to be found on the Pt Jackson chart - what is the bearing of the Obelisks at Obelisk Bay?

Then lunch - yum -prawns, oysters, salad etc with Maria and David joining us. There was some chat about pooling answers but we resisted, not because we felt confident given that John would have found many more of the answers having gone further into the Harbour. I can't remember why. I am sure it wasn't a sense of honour.

Cardinal TiTi and Friend
At four The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence arrived to bless the fleet. They were clever and funny as always with inside information about owners and their boats to add a little spice to the individual blessings.

And as if that wasn't enough fun then Commodore Jolly Roger announced the winners. AND WE WON!!! Amazing really. John lost lots of points for having four out of date fire extinguishes on board. Ha! And I was about to protest that being bigger of course they have more and shouldn't get extra points. I quickly shut my big mouth. The scratchie prize was welcome but failed to deliver.
3 Rev heads - John, Dayna & Roger

A BBQ on shore followed and then a quiet night on the pontoon with just us, Maria's Holy Spirit and Laine's Topknot remaining. At least it was quiet for me. Others may have a different story judging by some heads in the morning. We got reprimanded by Waterways Police the next morning for staying overnight on a 15 minute pick up zone. Next year everyone will have to anchor off instead.

Sunday was fine with a light breeze. Julie and I had stayed aboard and then picked up Jenni, Claire and Ros for the first race of the summer season. We had a slow start due to light winds and me trying to be start officer - not very well. I am surprised Topknot didn't protest the committee. We were the only two boats in the Fast division with Mercedes the only Faster boat. The course was one big loop around Snapper Spectacle Cockatoo and Goat islands followed by the smaller loop around Snapper Spectacle and Cockatoo. We trailed Topknot for quite a while but eventually passed them although we were never too far in front. Mercedes caught up to us before the finish but they too were not very far ahead.

The eastern harbour boats went straight home while we were joined by Graham and Bob who came over from Double Bay in the very splendid Mustang. After lunch and some mind boggling logistics I went back to Double Bay on Mustang, a real treat. Its quite ddifferent sitting in the cockpit of such a grand sailing boat while the skipper steers with the remote control!

Another Sydney harbour weekend. You wouldn't be dead for quids!