Once we arrived in Blackwattle Bay we found an anchorage in amongst the many other boats already there. It was a real international anchorage with two Canadian, one French and one New Zealand boat interspersed with a variety of Aussie vessels. It was nice to see some familiar faces as, on the New Zealand boat as well as one of the Canadian boats, were people we had met in other places. It’s quite common for people to hop into their dinghy and row over to say hello to each other either to re-acquaint or acquaint themselves with other yachties. Strangely enough, four of the boats in Blackwattle Bay at that time had a Michael on board as their skipper!!!
On the way to Blackwattle bay
The international anchorage at Blackwattle Bay
The view from our boat at night
In the three weeks we were there Mike and I found the diversity of Sydney Harbour a pleasure and a surprise as we moved from cove to bay to marina. Each place was totally unlike the one before.
We took a light rail into the city to have one last look around. We went to Paddy’s Market and Mike bought himself several new peaked caps to replace the large number he’s lost, mostly overboard but one or two left on public transport, in a restaurant, or Laundromat, anyway now he has some new $2.00 ones and he’ll probably keep them forever!!!! [Jo was upset that I only bought four caps – she said I should have bought ten – time will tell whether she was right! Mike] We had morning coffee in the magnificent Queen Victoria Building and lunched alfresco in China Town.
Next morning we took the dinghy over to the fish market and stocked up on delicious goodies to see us through our trip to Broken Bay.
After collecting Ben from shore, we secured the dinghy on the foredeck and then we were off!! The weather wasn’t looking too exciting but then it wasn’t looking too threatening either- so we kept our fingers crossed and set off, sailing up the coast to Broken Bay. The trip turned out to be uneventful but very pleasant. We were able to put up the sails and turn off the engine for a short while much to Bens approval. After checking the bible (Alan Lucas cruising the NSW coast) we found a suitable anchorage in Pittwater amongst the beautiful backdrop of Kuring Gai Chase National Park. We settled down to a relaxing evening of eating (the prawns and snapper bought earlier in the day at the market) dinking (some of the red wine brought on board at different times by Ben) and chatting. I think we managed to solve some of the worlds political and environmental problems by the time we finished the second bottle!!!
Ben as Master and Commander
Our aim next day was to get Ben up the Hawkesbury River to Brooklyn where he was to catch a train back to Sydney. The chart indicated that the entrance to the marina where we intended dropping Ben off was quite shallow in places. We made our way up the channel very very slowly, our draught is 1.7mts and we were in 2mts of water a lot of the time. Anyway to cut a long story short we got Ben and the boat safely to the marina and we then cautiously turned around and headed to deeper water.
A relieved Ben back on terra firma!
We had decided to stay at anchor again that night. I had seen a place on the map called Smiths Creek which looked fascinating. It was a very narrow arm off Cowans Creek only about 500mts wide but it was between 17 and 24mts deep which really intrigued me. There were meant to be courtesy moorings in the area which make it a bit easier than putting the anchor down. Unfortunately when we got there there wasn’t a mooring to be had plus there were a number of yachts and motor craft already there. We found a spot however and put the anchor down and had some lunch. It was all still part of the Kuring Gai National Park so you can imagine how beautiful it was and why it attracted so many visitors. It was impossible to go ashore with the dinghy because the whole shoreline was covered in sharp crustaceans. It was certainly worth heading up there and having a look even if we couldn’t go ashore.
Entering Smiths Creek
Next day we were going to make the passage to Newcastle. It was going to be a full day so an early start was in order. We decided our best option therefore was to anchor close to the Heads and save time in the morning. We set the alarm for 0530hrs and after having a cuppa and logging on with Coastal Patrol Sydney we headed off.
I don’t know if we’ve made mention before of the Volunteer Coast Guard. They come under a variety of names – Coastal Patrol, Coast Watch, Coast Guard and Sea Rescue, but in essence they are all part of an organisation that is set up all round Australia’s coast, and who are a constant presence on the VHF radio band. Yachties like us rely on them to keep their eyes and ears on us as we create havoc up and down the coast! The protocol is to log on with them as you leave a port giving them relevant details such as size of vessel, number of persons on board, ETA at destination etc. As you move along the coast, they forward your details onto the next coast watch, who wait for you to contact them, and who start calling you if you don’t do this within a reasonable time. The only tricky thing about interacting with them is that you have to get their name right, or they get put out: so when you get to a new coast watch area, it’s a bit of a lottery – is it a patrol, a watch, a guard or a rescue organisation??? The other thing of course is that when you speak to them on the radio you know every other boat out there is listening to what you say and it’s very embarrassing when you inadvertently end your call with ‘Roger over and out’ (a legacy of watching too many American cop shows in times past) Despite this, they are a really excellent organisation, who make those longer passages across open water feel less lonely than they might otherwise be.
The forecast was for SW/SE winds 10/15 knots becoming 15/20 in the afternoon, understandable we thought YES!! this is perfect, wind behind us at 15 knots finally we’ll get to sail and we did for about 2-3 hours the whole day. Never mind it was a lovely sunny day and we always love being on the water wind or no wind, it was beautiful. We made the most of it knowing that we would very soon be back on dry land for a month.
We are now in Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club where we will leave the boat until the end of June. It is a relatively new marina and seems very secure. The manager has reassured us that he will keep an eye on Meander for us while we are away. The rest of this week we will spend doing maintenance (Mike’s already started with some varnishing and having one of the stanchions welded) so I’d better go and look busy too I suppose.
