Tuesday 11 May 2004
Greetings from Down Under!!!
Yes we are alive, no we did not sail off the edge of the world and sorry we left most of you hanging out there in terms of our arrival in Australia. Needless to say, and as some of you know already, we arrived safe and sound in Sydney mid-December after a nine-day passage from Noumea, New Caledonia. It was a dramatic landfall to enter through Sydney Heads at just after first light with the impressive steep cliffs on either side of the entrance. This was one of the most spectacular landfalls of our trip so far. Sydney is a vast, busy harbor with all manner of boats on the water. They have the most varied assortment of ferries we have ever seen, probably 10 different designs ranging from older small foot ferries to modern, sleek, low-slung catamarans that go up the rivers. Sydney is perfectly laid out for ferry service with distances frequently shorter by water than land and we understand ferries are becoming more popular again as road congestion increases.
Our passage was good with light winds for the first five days and almost flat seas. We flew our spinnaker for the first time in over two years and had some fantastic days of sailing. The strong East Australian Current runs south along coast with eddies heading north off shore at times. As we got closer we started to feel the effects of the current making only 80 miles one day with the current against us and then 170 miles the following day with the current pushing us along. The long beaches and high sand dunes spectacularly marked the coastline as we paralleled the shore heading south the last day.
Sydney is blessed with a very fine harbor with steep hillsides to the waters edge and deep water right up to the shore. A yacht could cruise along the shoreline for days and never leave the boundaries of this city of four million people. Our first three nights were spent in Farm Cove, surrounded by the Botanic Gardens and right next to the famed Opera House with the Harbour Bridge as a backdrop. It was a magical setting with a million dollar view and a "pinch us is this real" feeling, a great welcome to Australia. We felt a little bit on display however as a circuit of Farm Cove seemed to be on the itinerary of every chartered party boat out celebrating with parties or weddings the weekend before Christmas. The constant ferry and boat traffic made it too rough to tie the dinghy up along side a dock with out risk of destruction, so we had to take turns exploring on shore. But it was fun to step ashore in Sydney at Man of War steps where sailing captains have stepped ashore for over 200 years.
After three days we moved further into the harbor to Blackwattle Bay, a semi-industrial setting but at the edge of a small park, well protected and with easier shore access. We used the dingy dock at the Fish Market and had an easy walk into the center of Sydney. One great thing about Sydney was that we were able to anchor out at a variety of locations for the whole time we were there. Generally when we are in bigger cities, we have had to pay to be in a marina, so this was a unique experience.
Christmas is a summer holiday down under so "Sydneysiders" generally have cold seafood for Christmas dinner instead of roasts and many people go to the beach or parks complete with elaborate picnics and presents in tow to celebrate. The Fish Market was an absolute hive of activity right before Christmas and stays open for a marathon 36 hours straight from 9 a.m. on the 23rd through 5 p.m. on the 24th. While we were tempted to get up at 2 a.m. to go in and watch the action, somehow we did not make it in. We have never seen so many types of prawns/shrimp and lobster in one place, both cooked and uncooked. In addition to seafood to take home, they also sell all sorts of cooked seafood to eat there and we would see families with platters loaded with their selection for a feast – Lobster Mornay, Oysters Kirkpatrick, shrimp on skewers, fried fish, and chips tossed in to fill it all out – you just point and chose what you want from the vast selection.
Christmas Eve we spent with our great friends Carl and Kathleen on Silverfin. Though it has never been planned, we have spent the last three Christmas’s together and it has become a nice tradition all of for us. After dinner we walked over to Darling Harbour for carols and Santa dropped in for a visit on his jet ski.
Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, is the start of the famous Sydney to Hobart Yacht race, 600 miles down the coast and across Bass Straits to Tasmania. A fellow cruiser invited us to go along with a group of friends on his 40 foot catamaran to watch the start. The race was started almost 60 years ago, and while the fleet has been up to over 350 boats, this year there were only 57 entries. It was exciting to watch the boats race down the harbor towards Sydney Heads under spinnaker and follow them out into the ocean at the start of this famous race. The water was rough and choppy with the wake of the huge spectator fleet and we were very glad we were on a friends boat and not out on Altair.
New Year’s Eve we shared with other cruising friends and watched the incredible fireworks show from the heart of the harbor. Sydney does two separate fireworks shows, the ‘Family Show’ at 9 p.m. and then the ‘Grand Midnight Show’. For each show they shoot fireworks simultaneously off four barges spread down the harbor plus fireworks off the Harbour Bridge itself, for the Midnight show. This has to be the most incredible fireworks show we have ever seen. Although with all the fireworks, it being summer, and being with a group of Americans, we repeatedly referred to it all as the ‘Fourth of July’.
We had a blast exploring all of the museums and points of interest that Sydney has to offer. It was difficult to choose from the many choices but we made our list of the ones we most wanted to see and started to check them off. The last week we moved Altair over to Manly on the north side of the harbor, checked out their famous beach, and did some hikes with friends. We ventured under the Spit Bridge to visit with friends Ken and Janet on "Aquila" at Cammeray Marina where it was much quieter than the semi-industrial Blackwattle Bay. In early morning and evening, the sulfur crested cockatoos would swoop out of the trees, land at the top of the sailboat masts and attack the rigging. Some had discovered they could grab on to the wind instruments at the masthead, flap their wings and get a "merry go round" ride. They were almost like a group of young kids out having fun and could not understand why the yacht owners objected to their antics. Needless to say this is not the best for the longevity of the masthead gear and some yachts had to replace these expensive parts.
After the month in Sydney, we sailed 20 miles north to explore the Broken Bay – Pittwater area. Much of the area is a national park with deep fjord like arms that reminded us of the British Columbia. There were a great variety of secluded anchorages where we enjoyed hikes, swimming, relaxing with a good book on the beaches and even managed to get the occasional boat project completed. There were also large louder anchorages if you were in the mood, with lots of people enjoying the summer boating season in all manner of boats and many parties of boats rafted up together. Here we came face to face with a goanna, a very large lizard (about 4 feet long) similar to a monitor lizard. Along with several other people, we were having a picnic on this goanna’s beach and he felt he was entitled to share in the food. He would charge people, scare them off their blankets then proceed to see what was for lunch. He was very wily and would watch and plan his attack for best advantage.
One of our favorite things is the abundance of tropical birds everywhere. It’s just such a treat to be walking down the street and see a flock of lorikeets with all their bright colors. This was true even in Sydney where you would see exotic birds in the most common places. We have gotten to see kookaburra with their disproportionately large heads, and have heard their distinctive "laugh" which sounds almost human. On the other side, it was a sad sight to watch elegant ibis rummaging in trashcans for food like common seagulls.
We have discovered that Australia is a REALLY BIG ISLAND!!! Well okay it’s actually a continent but it still seems vast after all of the other places we have visited and the distances seem huge after New Zealand. It took us two weeks to work our way up the coast from Broken Bay to Brisbane, a distance of about 500 miles. During that time we experienced some amazing thunder and lightning storms that light up the sky all night with almost constant bolt or sheet lighting. It was quite the show, and as with many things in Australia, not done by halves. One evening there was a dark space ship shaped cloud moving very rapidly towards us with winds up to 30 knots and water being whipped up off the surface below. It was looking like water spouts would be forming at any moment. This provided a bit of a test of the marriage and we decided to high tail it back down the coast for shelter in the Clarence River.
Clarence River was to be our first river bar crossing so we wanted to make sure we got it right, we had no problems and followed the local fishing fleet in at first light. Time and patience always seems to pay off in this type of situation. We enjoyed a nice break in our passage here for six days while waiting for another Southerly Buster (southerly wind) to push us north. We ran into old friends and explored the small resort towns of Iluka and Yamba and even took in a movie at the small movie theater.
A 24 hour sail north found us at the famous Gold Coast (the southern end of the state of Queensland) Australia’s most popular resort area with beachfront hotels and condos stretching for 20 miles. The high rises seemed to stretch along the coast forever as we sailed by for hours making Hawaii’s Waikiki Beach seem small by comparison. We entered into protected inland waters through the Gold Coast Seaway. The Seaway gives access and protected anchorages for the Gold Coast, without having to round Cape Moreton much further north. Although fun to see the famous Gold Coast, after two days we were ready to move on and leave the high rises behind. We then spent two days winding our way through the Broadwater with channels that were frequently fairly shallow as it is much like the Sacramento Delta region of California. Nice change of pace but meant we had to motor rather than sail. We then explored some of Moreton Bay before putting the boat in a marina north of Brisbane.
We have just returned from a visit home where we were able to spend some wonderful time with our parents helping with various projects around their homes. Paul’s Mom had moved to a retirement community last August and was ready to sell her house so our main project while we were home was to help her get it ready and listed. We are excited that she received an offer a week after listing the house and everything is progressing nicely with the sale. We worked to fit in visits with as many friends as possible but there was not nearly enough time to see everyone we wanted to spend time with. We are now busy with boat projects and planning the initial part of our trip north. We have to make hard choices on where we want to go, as we don’t have time to go to all the places we would like inside the Great Barrier Reef.
We will leave you with a couple of fun Aussie facts: An average Australian backyard contains more reptile species than all of the United Kingdom. More than 80% of Australia’s plants and animals are unique to Australia. And it seems under every rock or around every corner there is something that could bite you or kill you.
We hope everyone is well, that you had a joyous holiday season and are off to a good start with 2004. Hard to believe it is already well into May! How time flies.
Hugs – Suzette and Paul