Lyn's Log, 31st January 2012
Sydney, New Year

Pittwater, Sydney
S33º39', E151º17'
36,823 miles

Happy New Year to everyone!

Before we left Bundaberg, Queensland, at the beginning of December, we invited Stephanie, my daughter, out to join us for the famous Sydney New Year celebrations. She eventually found a cheap flight that arrived on Christmas Day evening. We booked her into a hotel for a night and arranged to meet her on Boxing Day, as we could pick up a hire car that morning.

The time of year and not knowing anything about the area made things difficult for us. While we could have anchored, we thought a mooring would be easier if we were going to travel around with Stephanie. But all marina berths and moorings in the area were fully booked and prices hiked for the holiday season. Pittwater had been recommended to us, being only 15 kms north of Sydney, and eventually we found a swing mooring there. Then we found we had to book a car for at least 10 days, as any less days doubled the daily rate. With extra for insurance to cover windscreen and tyres, it was already extremely expensive. If we had realised how difficult it is to drive and park in Sydney, and how good the public transport service is, we wouldn’t have bothered but instead relied on the buses.

Pittwater is an offshoot of Broken Bay, a beautiful area also encompassing Cowan Creek, Hawksbury River and Brisbane Water. The name Broken Bay comes from the land being largely of broken sandstone cliffs and rocks, which with the deep bush, make it very scenic.

Low bridges prevented us from going far up Hawksbury River, but had a pretty anchorage off Danger Island by the first railway bridge. We could sail a full seven miles up Cowan Creek, set in the beautiful Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. We also drove along one of the few roads into the park and found many well marked walking tracks, very popular during the holiday season. On walking one of these we saw a swamp wallaby eating at the side of the track before disappearing into the bush. After Stephanie departed, we enjoyed sailing around and anchoring in some of the many bays.

We went into full tourist mode in Sydney. The botanical gardens were made particularly memorable by the flying foxes that were hanging in the trees. I had never before seen these large creatures which made me think of vampires, and that perhaps it was not a good place to visit at night! We enjoyed the maritime museum, particularly the submarine and the other boats on the water. The “Powerhouse” museum of technology, the aquarium and the zoo were all first-rate. On foot, we strolled around the “Rocks”, the oldest part of Sydney, with views of the harbour, bridge and opera house. We visited famous Bondi beach, marvelling at the surfers, and watching the beginning of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. After Stephanie left we were fortunate enough to see a performance of Mozart's Magic Flute at the opera house.

But the highlight of Sydney had to be New Year’s Eve. Along with many other boats, we motored down to Sydney Harbour. We were able to anchor to the north east of the bridge, almost in front of the zoo. Here we had a view of the bridge with the opera house to the left, and four of the six firework barges dotted throughout the harbour. We dressed the yacht with all our flags and Stephanie wore her sequined union jack dress. In the afternoon we were entertained by a stunt plane, and later by another plane sky-writing with smoke. At 9 pm there fireworks from the barges for the families, followed by a parade of ferries and other large boats dressed with lights. Just before midnight, a big clock lit up on the bridge and counted down the last 10 seconds and the main event began. All the barges set off identical fireworks, co-ordinated with fireworks from the bridge and some rooftops. It was a truly awesome display and the best we have ever seen.

Before we returned the car, we had a wonderful trip out to the Blue Mountains, which indeed were covered in a blue haze. The scenery around Katoomba was fantastic – almost like a small version of the Grand Canyon. We did walks around the top of the cliffs, took cable cars and a scenic railway to the valley below and did a board walk through the bush. There were waterfalls and strange rock formations. We were sorry we couldn’t stay longer to explore.

So Stephanie got to grips with rowing the dinghy ashore, had a vain attempt at fishing, sunbathed on the deck, even while we very tacking into a fresh breeze, went in the sea and lay on the sands, had a barbeque at one of the barbees provided free in one of the parks, drank in an Australian bar, saw a penguin in Pittwater, a wild swamp wallaby and colourful parakeets, experienced the tropical vegetation, and marvelled at Sydney and its New Year extravaganza.

During Stephanie's stay we heard the sad news that Andrew’s mother had been taken gravely ill. We would have to return to England. It took a while to arrange somewhere to leave Sentinel, but eventually we flew out from Sydney on 27th January.