Sailing the harbour.

Eastern suburbs waterscape..


Parsley (!) Bay


Sculpture or lighthouse?




Cooks resembling a gumnut baby in the stay sail cover.


YAY!


and...


under we go!

4.45 disco inferno.

Never underestimate the effect of music on a leaden atmosphere.

If you want to know what it's like living on a yacht, then move your family into the bathroom for the weekend.

I'm serious.

... our solution for those times is to pop on our "4.45 disco inferno" cd:

I start it off slowly,
Cooks' shoulders start rising to the beat,
Roo turns away from whatever he's doing,
I start tapping my feet,
Cooks' runs to turn it up,
Xave's hips start swingin'
Roo commands the starboard couch position,
and then IT'S ON FOR YOUNG AND OLD!

our playlist:

We are Family - Sister Sledge
Love Train - Keb' Mo'
California Gurls - Katy Perry
Could You Be Loved - Bob Marley
Let's Stay Together - Al Green
I Gotta Feelin - Black Eyed Peas
It's Your Thing - The Isley Brothers
I Wanna Be The Only One - Eternal
More Than A Woman - Bee Gees
Would I Lie To You - Charles & Eddie
Express Yourself - Charles Wright

Result:

an exhausted and happy boathold.

Lets Get Physical!

Enough said.

Evacuation.

Yesterday, the alternator on the generator cracked it, and caused one of our batteries to boil thus emitting the most DISGUSTING, REVOLTING smell of sulphur, which then proceeded to infiltrate every little nook and cranny of Awaitea.

It hit our nostrils like a blow to the face -and so we putted over to the marina to breathe fresh air.

Xave spoke to every man and his dog about the cause / solution, then returned to the boat with instructions to remove the boiling battery carefully whilst Roo Cooks and I waited it out on the dock. (Cooks being Cooks announced proudly to all the blokes that our boat smells like 'egg farts'.)

Nice one Cooks.

Today, the battery has been replaced, and some bloke has got the alternator and may or may not be able to look at it today.

So, we are on the boat with no 240 volts, which means no hot water or fridges, probably at least until Tuesday.
Fun and games...

Change of scenery...

This morning we sailed down to Sydney Harbour for my very fist 'ocean sail'.

Now before you correct me, I know it's a 'sea' not an 'ocean', and then if Xave's putting his two cents in it's 'only coastal cruising', which sounds even more lightweight. But, for me, it was a HUGE step as I've been freaking out about going through the Heads -

out into the deep, blue, yonder

where the rogue waves lurk....

... and jaws of course.

Cookie: Do sharks have teeth?
Me: Yep.
Cookie: Do they bite?
Me: Uh huh.
Cookie: Do they eat bones?
Me: Yep....

All fears aside, it was an easy sail - not quite enough wind, and a bit too rolly, but event free WHICH IS GOOD!
Xave saw whales, and we were treated with dolphins riding the bow wave. Unfortunately there was some pretty toxic looking ochre coloured 'stuff' on the surface of the water in places, (which the dolphins didn't want to swim through) - I later googled it to discover it is algal bloom.

We arrived 3 hours later, then had to hang around for an hour to wait for the spit bridge to open. That was pretty exciting, and the kids were mesmerised.

(It's also nice to know when you're 40 and little bit fat that you can STILL stop traffic!).

Tonight we are in Cammeray Bay, in a very crowded anchorage (welcome to Sydney Harbour) and we're looking forward to exploring the harbour over the coming weeks...


leaving the calm waters of Pittwater, for the, ... calm waters of the Tasman.


Farewelling Barrenjoey Head (for now).


algal bloom


Yuk




Playing in the bow wave.


Middle Harbour's Spit Bridge. The traffic is stopped at certain times throughout the day, to let tall masted vessels through.


.. and through the other side.

Hungry.

Sorry Jack. We got hungry. and besides, your face has caved in and you're not freakin' us out like you used to.

x

Mind Games.

Well it was a long night to say the least. As forecast it blew up big time, and in the dark of night, boyo, does one's mind play tricks...

We lept out of bed in the middle of the night CONVINCED we'd come off the mooring as we were suddenly really close to the other boats, which yesterday had seemed further away. Xave was even tricked into pulling up the mooring buoy to see if the chain was still attached. It was, and still is. Logically, we would have travelled a lot further if we had come off the mooring. The canoe was banging against the hull, the wind was howling, and the jack-o-lantern was oooooooing all by itself.. This all combined to make it a long and spooky night....

This morning, we are STILL really close to the other boats, but we can see why. We are all swinging around willy nilly, rather than being pushed away from our moorings by the wind in the same direction. Consequently, at times, we ARE very close. Close, but ok.

Be good today kids, mum and dad are a bit fractious.

Social Life.

At last! We've (I've) had my social fix. This last week has seen us kicking around locally, accepting (and delighting in) a dinner invitation, welcoming visitors aboard Awaitea - including kids HOORAY - we've undertaken plenty of boat borne adventures -some serious cubby houses, premature pumpkin carving, an 'undie sundie', to name a few. We've gone from boat to beach to boat to beach, the kids' confidence in the water increasing every day. Cookie now adores leaping bravely off the front of the dinghy, lifejacket clad, and swimming the 10 or so metres to shore. As does Roo. Roo loves leaping off the pier, and is [somehow] making it to shore!

We are currently sheltering in Morning Bay with big winds forecast....

Drama in Bobbin Head!!!!

now that I've got your attention, given that we're living on a yacht, when one reads that title, one might imagine some sort of boating excitement:

a near miss,
overboard child,
run aground.

The reality is that our first day at Bobbin Head was spent at the emergency department of Hornsby hospital after Roo dove head first off the playground equipment in the local park. HE IS FINE. His ear looks like an eggplant but he is fine.

It frightened the bejesus out of us tho, and alerted us to the fact that we are so busy checking out charts and depth sounder that we have no idea what is on the other side of them thar hills.... thankfully we were only a 10 minute drive to the nearest hossy. (extra thx to the parks guys and lady who drove us to the hospital).

Bobbin Head was NOTHING like I remembered (we hired a houseboat here as kids). We had a great couple of days tho' - bushwalking, and taking it very very easy....



'down' the creek.


'rock eating tree'


High tide on the mangrove walk.


Captain Roo (check out the facial expression!)


Cubbys are SERIOUS business!

... spew corner.

"Spew corner", despite not living up to Roo's name for it - loomed, so I took a tablet to prevent seasickness.

I. Was. Incapacitated.

Silly thing was, there were no waves, and was no swell, and I wrote myself off for nothing.


note to self: You are more capable of looking after your children whilst seasick than whilst on seasick medication.

Irony. Love it.

Ah that's where the waterfall is....

Xave's eldest son Alex has just been to stay for a couple of nights - as always, Roo & Cooks were soooo excited to see their big big brother again.



We sailed away to Refuge Bay through a terrifying swell (apparently the biggest wave was only 1.5 metres - which is quite ridiculous as to me it looked at least 5 metres tall...). Anyway, it was enough to scramble the kids together in the 'safe zone' (which for us is the dog house). Unfortunately they both felt quite seasick before their defense mechanisms kicked in and fell asleep.

Poor little mites.





They woke feeling fine, and we spent 2 blissful days lazing on the boat and the beach with handfuls of happy-go-lucky kids for Roo & Cooks to play with.

What a great spot.

Q: What do you do when 2 boatloads of Beautiful Tall Fit Canadian Male Medical Students appear glistening out of the water on your beach.....

A: sigh appreciatively....... ahhhh........
( Then snap back to reality, run for my sarong, sidle up a bit closer, in case I can answer any of their questions ).

Xave, in all his tact, suggested in front of them that I might like to go party with them. They laughed. Nervously.

What would YOU do?....

Whirlwind visitors....

So, what to report?....

We had a brilliant (if not tooooo short) visit from Em and the girls at the start of last week...

24 hours of sailing, swimming, canoeing, bbqing and sunning with family is THE. BEST. TONIC.

Thanks so much for staying with us.











The end of the week was spent in Sydney with Xave's school friend Nick and his various young French friends. 3 days of museums, wine, cheese, dogs, playgrounds & passionate conversation.

BLISS.

Xave's oldest son Alex arrives tomorrow for a couple of days.

Time to handwash some sheets. Now that WILL be fun. x