Unplanned Christmas in Sydney



A view of the Harbour Bridge from the Opera House

That is right: unplanned. Actually, we had "planned" to sail into Sydney Harbour on December 21st and anchor near other sailing friends for Christmas. We had tickets to see an event at the Sydney Opera House on Christmas Eve Day at 11AM.

Like I mentioned: we had "planned," but like many plans in the sailing world, Mother Nature rules! And so do mechanical issues. We left Newcastle as planned and went to Pittwater to grab a mooring ball near Newport for a few days. This way we would be able to leave for Sydney Harbour early in a morning and still get in with time to find another mooring ball or anchorage. From there we would plan our next move in the area.

Our view as we passed on the ferry

While friends, John and Leanne on Songlines, suggested we join them in an anchorage in a nearby bay, we opted to go further in and make arrangements to leave S/V Trillium for the New Year's holiday while we go to Sydney. That was a good decision as things went downhill from there!

Inside Sydney Opera House

We actually found a good, but tight, mooring and prepared to go ashore to make arrangements. The dinghy was lowered into the water; the new Mercury 5 hp motor was put on and we were ready to go. NOT! The new motor would not start!





Great architectural design.

Okay, no problem; we have another outboard - our old Yamaha 8 hp. So we swapped motors. The Yamaha started with a bit of a protest, but it hadn't been used in several months so it didn't surprise us. We made it to shore and took care of business. On the way back to the boat, it quit! Just froze up so Dennis couldn't even pull the starter rope!


This is where the oars we struggled to get two years ago back in St. Martin came in handy. It was a long way back to the boat. We learned of a Mercury dealer between where we were and the boat, so we decided to row there. Fortunately, a helpful sailor offered a tow which we graciously accepted.


The exterior roof is tile. That is how it can bend.

Of course, it is a few days before Christmas and they are not accepting any new work. Can't even look at it until January 4th! It seems that places close between Christmas Eve Day and New Year's Day.


Okay, plan C or is it D? Then we rowed to the boat. Online I found a Yamaha dealer in the area, but too far for rowing. We wanted to buy a new Yamaha, but learned the 8 hp model we wanted would not be available until April!

So we bought another 5 hp from him. Now we have to get the motor delivered from somewhere and commissioned before they close for Christmas. Mission accomplished and we got the new one in time. Rod Waterhouse of DBY Sales gave Dennis a tow to pick it up and leave the older 8 hp for service. Merry Christmas, Dear. Santa just delivered early!

Interesting angles and details everywhere!
 

Now I am depressed as it had been raining for two days and was forecasted to continue for several more. We have been stranded on a mooring ball without a motor and we may miss our Sydney Opera House event! My dear hubby accepted my suggestion that we take the bus to Sydney and instead of staying just for the day, we stay for Christmas. Thank you, Dear.



Okay, where are the statues?
 

Christmas in Sydney did not feel like Christmas at home, but it was wonderful. We saw "The Impressionists 1903" in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House. Loved the performance and the architecture! Our hotel is the same as where we will be for the New Year's Eve celebration, so everything is within walking distance.






It helps to be in the Catholic Church when looking for statues!

By a stroke of fate, I messed up the directions to the Catholic Church on Christmas Eve. We thought we had found it, but once we sat down we knew something was missing: Mary, the Crucifix, etc. I asked the gal next to me for the name of the church: St. Phillips Anglican! I loved it because the Protestants can really sing and the Carol Service was the right place to be on Christmas Eve! 
On Christmas Day, we found the Catholic Church for Mass. It was across the park from St. Phillips! Without family or friends near, we had nothing to do on Christmas Day after brunch and Mass so we decided to take a ferry ride in Sydney Harbour.



A view of Manly Beach, New South Wales

We will be sailing into the area after the New Year's holiday celebrations are over, so we thought it would be good to look at the entrance to see where we might anchor for the first night. The Manly Ferry took us from Circular Quay in The Rocks area to the town of Manly.

Just a short walk from the wharf through the town on the Corso took us to the Manly Beach. It is one of the most popular in the Sydney area. Manly Beach is located on the north side of the harbor and Bondi Beach is on the south side. We will visit there on our next trip to Sydney.

One family celebrating Christmas at the beach.

We enjoyed the Christmas decorations in the city square and watching families celebrate Christmas Aussie-style! They take a picnic and their gifts to the beach. After eating, the gifts were passed out and opened. No one was dressed up; no big dinner, etc. Just summer fun at the beach. It was difficult for me to get in the Christmas spirit here, but it was interesting to see how it is done by some in the warm climate of a summer Christmas.



 

Down Under Rally: FUN Part 2

As you can see from the previous post, The Down Under Rally has done a wonderful job of keeping us busy and connecting with all of the yachties in the rally. John and Leanne Hembrow have really outdone themselves along with the help of Howard Keegan and the many sponsors of the event. All of their efforts were frequently applauded by the ralliers. The events continued for a few more days:

They even served Vege-Mite sandwiches. Dennis loves it.
I can't stand the smell of it. Most of the sailors hated it!
I guess you have to be an Aussie to enjoy Vege-Mite!

• Straya Mate Lunch: This was a most interesting event! Originally I did not sign us up for it because I didn’t know what it was. It turned out that “Straya” is a nickname for Australia, but with the accent, I did not put two and two together! So once I had been enlightened, we joined in and found it fun and informative.John shared a lot of Aussie humor and terms with us. It was hard to understand some of it due to the accent and speed to speech, but it was obviously funny for those you got it. I laughed hard at John laughing at some of the things he was showing and Robin was saying with emphasis on the humor. There are a few things we need to know:

Refer to your butt as bum and NOT fanny (vagina here!) So you fall on your bum, not your fanny!

A bathing suit is Bathers or a Budgy smuggler (Also: Budgie smuggler) which is a nickname for Speedo swimming trunks for men! Cozzie is another word for swimming suit.

I laughed so hard at John laughing at the Aussie humor!
But I missed a lot of it due to the accent and lack of context.

Bikie is someone who rides a Harley Davidson, but most commonly used to describe the member of a bikie gang, while a Bikkie means cookie (short for biscuit).

Chuck a sickie means to call in sick to work for a day off.

Dead horse means tomato sauce (ketchup).

Dog’s breakfast means something is a mess; Dog’s eye is meat pie.

Fairy floss is cotton candy.

To be Knackered is to be pooped; tired; exhausted.

You can buy some Lollie water (soda pop) at Maccas, the nickname for McDonald’s (pronounced mă-kahs or mackers).

Me = Depending on where you are and who you are talking to, some Aussies say “me” in place of “my”, so instead of asking “Where are my sunglasses?”, they might say “Where are me sunnies?”

Off your head means high on drugs. “Caz was totally off her head last night at the party.”

Brian's idea of Glamour???

On the piss means drinking alcohol.

A Poo man is a plumber and Poo tickets are toilet paper! And a Sparky is an electrician.

Power point = Power/electrical outlet, not a Microsoft program.

To Rug up = Bundle up to keep warm when it’s cold outside.

Snag means sausage and Snag bag is sausage roll.

Thongs = Flip-flops. So when the sign says No Thongs, it is not referring to your underwear!

Up the duff = Pregnant (usually referring to an unplanned pregnancy).

Woop Woop is a made up name for a tiny town in the middle of nowhere.

And a Yank is an American. Not intended to be offensive at all. Whew!



Glamour Girls having fun!

So these are just a few of the Aussie terms to give you an idea of how difficult it is to follow a conversation at times. Then add the Aussie accent to it and hope you don’t make a fool of yourself when you respond! I hope I can speak proper American English when I return!

Since it was such a busy Rally Week, the saga continues here.

• 
  

  

  And the winners are ...

  The Welcome Cocktail Party with a theme of Glamour was a highlight for us as we won the prize for being the Most Glamorous Couple. The prize was a night in a local hotel with a suite including a bath tub! I love a bath so I am really excited because the last one I had was in December! Of course, I do shower regularly just in case you were wondering. Anyway, it was a fun night and will be a fun night!

• 

  And then there is Happy Hour every night!

  The daily schedule included several informative presentations on Aussie culture and language, when and where to land cruise this big country and when and where to cruise their beautiful coastline. Of course, the timing is important for both types of cruising due to high heat in the Outback during summer months as well as the cyclones north of New South Wales during that time period. So we are planning our travel accordingly. We were also given a bit of information on the 10 most dangerous creatures on earth that live here. I am not too excited to meet any of them!

• 

  At least it was cool in the tasting room. We (I) bought
  some good wine to have onboard for dinner parties.

  

  This pool felt soooo good on a 107 degree day!

  There was a day of learning to surf. Dennis and I took a pass on that.
• We did enjoy the Mecure Resort Hunter Valley Winery Day Trip with a tasting at one of the larger wineries. It was on a 107⁰ day! The bus was air conditioned as was the tasting room so part of the day was very comfortable. The rest of the day was outside where the breeze was about 85 degrees. Fortunately, the resort where we had lunch allowed us to use their swimming pool so we did! It was a lovely way to spend a hot afternoon. The wine was good as was the food, but the swim was the best.

• The rally hosted Down Under Dock Pizza Party and a number of lunch sessions and Happy Hours daily at the Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club (NCYC). Our final event was a Down & Dusted Party at one of the sponsors, The Albion Hotel. I gathered that Down & Dusted is a saying that means: this party is over!



Friends from Vancouver and England at the Pizza Party.

All in all, the rally was a fun and well organized event. Now we need a week of rest to recover. Some of the boats have set sail to other destinations. We will be here in Newcastle for a while and do some land travel. Then for Christmas we will head to Sydney by boat. We hope to see the start of the Sydney to Hobart race on Boxing Day then sail north to Pitt Water. We will return to Sydney by train or bus to spend several nights there over the New Year’s holiday. So we will be among the first to ring in 2016!



An international group of Ocean Cruising Club members.

The Down Under Rally: FUN

Having sailed with the Island Cruising Association (ICA) Pacific Circuit Rally from Opua, NZ to Tonga, we rejoined them in Vanuatu for the passage to New Caledonia. It is fun to be with a group of people and participate in a number of activities. This is a nice way to get to know other cruisers from all around the world. The ICA encouraged us to join the new Down Under Rally which is based in Newcastle, AU.

Dennis with John at a NCYC function.

Originally, we had planned to sail to Brisbane, AU, but decided to try the Down Under Rally and Newcastle. Several people bad-mouthed Newcastle as a blue-collar mining town. We said, “So, we are from Detroit and don’t see a problem with Newcastle!” Right we were!

Newcastle is a coal mining town that has done a major transformation over the last 15 years. We are very happy we came to Newcastle – and because it is close to Sydney, we will get to sail into Sydney Harbour after all. And we will spend New Year’s Eve at the Rocks near the bridge where it is all happening! 

 

The Tram Tour was a fun way to get an overview of the area.

As for the Down Under Rally, John and Leanne Hembrow and Howard Keegan, the Dock Master at the Newcastle Marina (and he is Mr. Newcastle Marina and Cruising Yacht Club!) have created a fantastic week of fun and friendship. We highly recommend participating in this rally. Newcastle has welcomed us and opened the doors to their yacht club with complimentary social memberships while we are here.  The members and staff are great; good food and drink and wonderful facilities. No one should ever bad-mouth Newcastle! I hope this rally is successful for years to come!

The week was filled with fun activities, Happy Hours and many meals together. Here is a sampling of what we did:

• Yoga for Yachties (every other morning): I dragged my stiff weary body out to do this and found it very enjoyable. I think my back would rather to yoga at 9 AM instead of 7:30 AM, though.

• 

  The lovely Memorial Bridge walk.

  An Aussie BBQ: Our first introduction to the barbeques for which Oz is famous. Apparently, throughout the country in the parks and along the roads, there are BBQ stations where you put in coins to use the propane Barbie, then clean up after yourselves for the next people to use it. Steak, chicken (chook, here) and sausages (bangers) are the usual fare.

• Discover Newcastle Tram Tour: This was a fun day of riding on a restored tram car to get an overview of the greater Newcastle area including across the river at Stockton. We saw their famous walkway that goes for miles between the harbor and the southern area of Merewether. Along the way we visited the oceanside saltwater swimming pools, a number of beaches and walked on the famous Memorial Bridge.

• 

  What a view from Memorial Bridge

  Cruising New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland (QLD): It is now obvious that we should have planned for two years here! There is a lot to see and do both on land and by boat. The cruising grounds all along the coast make it one of best cruising areas in the world. And they speak English –sort of!

Dennis and Michael, a new sailing friend from California.

• Newcastle by Bike Street Art Tour: Bicycling is big here. And so is street art and pubic parks. Like New Zealand, Australia is a real outdoors place. We did not participate in this as we were scheduled to do a different bike tour that got canceled. We did ride bikes from the marina all the way to the end of the breakwater at Nobby’s Head. It is about a three mile ride out there. So I consider a six mile trek my exercise for the day!

And this was just the first half of the event! More to come...



Not a coast where you want your engine to fail!

 

Ahhh! The Land of Oz!

Our first dinner in Oz at the Newcastle Cruising Yacht
Club with Anita and Glenn. So good to be on land again!

We have arrived in Australia! Or Oz as it is known here. Or is it Auss? Or Ahhhs?

All I know is that it took me a while to figure out people were talking about Australia when they were referring to Australia in this way. Whatever it is or whatever they call it, we are here now! And we will be based here until September 2016 to avoid cyclone season in the South Pacific Islands.

Just like in the USA and Caribbean where boats need to be out of the hurricane belt during the months of June through October. That is, if you want your insurance policy to cover any damages. Most policies will not pay out if you are hit in a named storm if you are not out of the designated latitudes. Down here cyclone (hurricane, if in the northern hemisphere) season is from November through April.

Like everything else, we need to “stand on our heads” to figure things out. Everything seems upside down and backwards. The seasons are the opposite; the winds move in opposite directions from the northern hemisphere, etc. And then there is the challenge of meters and liters vs. feet and gallons! Add to that the temperature conversions. I still have not figured out an easy way to convert it.

We are now coming into the heat of summer while back in Michigan, winter has set in. Today is going to be another 100+ day. The temperature could go up to 40⁰ Celsius which is something like 107⁰ Fahrenheit. Someone told me that 28⁰ C is 82⁰ F. So I know that I am not going to like anything higher than 28⁰ C! You may think I am crazy, but I miss those snowy days and a warm fireplace!



The Down Under Rally has planned a
very busy week of fun activities. We
look forward to getting to know the
other cruisers in the Rally and sailing.

Since this is a huge country, almost as big as the continental USA, we plan to do some land cruising. Instead of buying a vehicle like we did in little New Zealand, we will probably fly to a region and rent a car for touring the area. Then fly to another area and do the same. The distances here are huge! And there is not much between the major areas – except kangaroos and other critters. And the kangaroos are like Michigan deer: they like to hop in front of you and do damage!



This is now home for the next few months. The
Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club is a great club and
they have given us complimentary social memberships.
How is that for welcoming us to Oz!

Another challenge here is the visa issue. We have a 12-month visa which allows us to leave and re-enter as often as we like. That is nice. The challenge is that it also requires us to leave after 90 days before returning. We must clear out of the country and clear back in. The boat can stay; we have to leave! If they would study the loss of revenue while we are gone, they might rethink this policy. I am just saying ...

 

Look at the name of the racing sailboat across from us!
I don't think I want to mess with him rounding a mark!

So now we have a very tight travel schedule which makes it challenging to move with the weather. And sailing is weather dependent! We will leave for the first two weeks of February and take a Mekong River cruise to see Vietnam and Cambodia. We will return to Australia for 90 days and then fly to San Francisco for a few days and then to Michigan for six weeks. In between, we will see as much of Australia and, hopefully, Tasmania before rejoining the World ARC in late July. Then in September, we sail to Indonesia and on across the Indian Ocean to South Africa where we will spend Christmas next year. So we are working our way back home!

Time to say: Au revoir to New Caledonia

Thank God for Dennis, Anita and Glenn. They
ruled the galley when I was seasick -again!

We have had a great time in New Caledonia – especially in the Loyalty Islands and Ile des Pins. The Bay of Prony was lovely as well. And of course, we like Noumea as it is the first real city we have seen since leaving Auckland last April. Sometimes it is nice to have a healthy dose of restaurants, supermarkets and some of the amenities of life!

Our friends from Norway and Sweden arrived as planned but our departure from Noumea was delayed a week waiting for a package with a part for the Watt & Sea water generator. Since the Watt & Sea provides a lot of electricity while we are sailing, we wanted it functioning for the 1100 nm crossing to Australia.



Anita at the helm. She took my watch. It was the first
time I was too sick to do my watch. I was disappointed
with my inability to get the mal de mare under control.

Even though the package was sent the “fastest” way on FedEx, it took over 10 days for it to arrive in New Caledonia. It made a number of stops before arriving here, but then there is customs, etc.

It sat somewhere for a few days and since the FedEx tracking did not give us notice, we did not have any idea of where it was. Then, of course, there was the weekend!

We finally hired someone to search for it. She found it and arranged to have it delivered. After waiting for nearly two days for the delivery, she finally drove Dennis to where he could put his hands on it!  
 

Dennis loved eating "European style!" Cheese, sausage,
rye breads, sardines, and more yummies!

So late on a Friday, with package in hand, we finally sailed out of Noumea! Since it was too late in the day to maneuver through the numerous islands and reefs inside the barrier reef, we took a mooring ball for the night at Ilot Maitre in preparation for an early morning departure though the Amedee Pass southwest of the Amedee Lighthouse. From there on, it was a straight shot on the rhumb line to Newcastle, AU – 1088 nm as the crow flies.

Fixing the Watt & Sea before leaving New Caledonia

Our goal was to arrive in Newcastle, which is about 60 nm north of Sydney, Thursday or Friday (6-7 days). The winds were favorable at the start and we sailed along nicely. Anita and Glenn were great crew so we took three hour watches twice a day which made the watch schedule easy.

There were a few days with little wind so we motor sailed some; there were a few days with a lot of wind, so we flew. And there were days when the wind clocked around 360⁰ and back again. At one point and at night, of course, the wind turned the boat around 180⁰ in less than 30 seconds! Anita was alone at the wheel and didn’t know what hit her! It had happened to Dennis twice before. And it always seems to happen at night.

I hate it when Dennis stands on the stern platform at sea!

On Wednesday night, we had finished a lovely cockpit dinner in nice conditions when there was a big change in the wind. I started my watch at 2000 hours (8 PM) and the wind was a steady 19 knots – nice sailing. Within minutes it jumped to a steady 30 knots so I called Dennis to tell him what was happening. We discussed a strategy and he went below to prepare for his sleep time, but said to call him if it when any higher. I don’t think he even had time to brush his teeth when I yelled: It is 35 knots!



Anita, this is NOT how you keep your day watch!

That was the beginning of a very long 36 hours! Earlier in the day, we were only going 2.5-3 knots under sail so we made a decision not to motor since we couldn’t make it into port during daylight hours so we would have a relaxing day to let us arrive on Friday without having to stand off shore overnight.

It was a good day until my watch began! The wind was ranging between 35-48 knots! Now we are moving along at 8-12 knots which is too fast as our hull speed is 7.5. And the waves are crashing over the top and we can’t see anything in the dark night. We can only feel the size and direction based on what they were doing to the boat!

Most of the passage was beautiful sailing.

These conditions continued throughout the day on Thursday making galley work challenging. It was impossible to sleep as we were being thrown around in our berths even with lea cloths to hold us in. No one got any real sleep and our muscles were tired from trying to stabilize our bodies.

At least during the day we could see the size of the swells: 3-4 meters! No wondered we were being tossed about all night. Our weather report showed no indication of these conditions. In fact, it was predicted that we would have a nice sail with some motoring on the rhumb line all of the way. Right!




At times there was no wind.

When nightfall came again and I went on watch at 2000 hours, it kicked up again in to the high 30’s and low 40’s. I knew what to do so I just went with the plan and held on! Actually, we had gotten closer to Australia than we wanted to be at that time so we turned south to stay further off shore. And once we got over the continental shelf that runs along the coast, the waves settled down somewhat. There is a dramatic change where the depth goes from 3000-4000 meters deep to 150 meters once you make it onto the shelf. That brought some relief.



 

Glenn is a great sailor - and a 747 Captain!

The next challenge: the southbound current! There is a strong southbound current that runs down the east coast of Australia at the rate of 3-5 knots depending on where you are and local conditions. We hit the current just after arriving on the shelf. So now I am trying to keep us on the shelf and off shore with the wind behind us. We had out less than 20 % sail just to stabilize the boat and balance it for the autopilot. So here I am: little sail, strong wind, fast current and cargo ships!

This is what the saloon looked like during the passage.
I guess we didn't stow very well - or was it the wild ride?

Newcastle is a huge coal mining area and there are numerous cargo ships coming in and out in addition to the regular cargo traffic up and down the coast. Much of the coal goes to China and Japan so they come out of Newcastle and turn left to go up the coastline. I had to maneuver through a field of moving targets for several hours as there were seven ships moving in the area. I like to stay at least a couple of miles out of their path, but that was impossible so several times I was within less than a mile of them. Thanks to AIS (Automatic Identification System), I could see their speed and course over ground. It also told me our closet point of contact and when it would occur. It made for a very interesting watch!


This is what it was like at 8:30 PM of the coast of Oz.
 

At about 2230 hours (10:30 PM), I passed the entrance to Newcastle. We were headed south and the current and wind had us going up to 12 knots at times. There was no way to slow down so I figured I should just keep steering through the traffic and we will deal with our position when the guys come up for their watches. I knew we should turn back to the north, but that required waking people up and putting us back into the cargo traffic.




At the beginning of the passage, we had moonlight.
During the last two nights it was blacker than coal and
you could not see anything except the waves hitting!

During Dennis’ watch following mine, he awoke Glenn and they turned us around to head back north toward Newcastle. The trigger for this was when he saw a huge black cloud down by Sydney and lots of lightening. No sailor wants to deal with lightening! So once we were headed north in the current, our boat speed dropped to 3 knots with the engine running! It was that north wind and the southbound current working against us. We finally approached the entrance to the Newcastle Harbour about 9:30 AM and were happy to see a sunny day with light winds – AND LAND AHOY!

The black cloud over Sydney was described as a “tsunami cloud” and it was in the BBC news. I posted tis on my Facebook page right after we read about it. The result is that we had a fun and exciting passage with the best crew ever – so much fun with Anita and Glenn! – and we made it there safely with a bit of excitement.



Happy to be at the dock. Sundowners for some - not me!

I was happy to be on land again. The “Passage Diet” kicked in again on the first day right after lunch. This time the mal de mare was the worst ever and I was not able to do my watch for the first 36 hours. Just when I thought I had mastered the problem … Delta, Alpha, Mike, November!