A flight to Sydney

Unfortunately, due to the time of year we couldn’t sail further south than Mac Kay as LUSH would have had to pound upwind into low after low on the East Australian coast!  What a killer!  It would have been spectacular to sail into Sydney Harbour, nonetheless we weren’t gonna give up the chance to see it while in Oz especially as my best pal, Emer and her hubby live there.

After sailing 16,000 nautical miles it felt a bit odd hanging around an airport and boarding a plane.  What a sight to behold flying in over this world famous harbour, following our 3+ hour flight.  At 19kms in length and covering 52 square kilometers, with numerous inlets and bays it truly is an awesome sight especially when you get your first glimpse of its two most iconic structures, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.

Emer and Robbie brought us to all the famous sights; we climbed the bridge, visited the Opera House, shopped in the Rocks, walked the 6km along the coast to Bondi beach and had numerous ferry rides back and forth in the harbour.  In the Maritime Museum we certainly didn’t pass on an opportunity to board the replica of Endeavour, Capt James Cooks boat.  Pondering life onboard in the 18^th century certainly made us appreciate, all the more, what we have today.  It’s hard to imagine sailing unchartered waters doing an average speed of 4knots and eating sauerkraut daily.  Needless to say we’re very content with our 21^st century Oyster 885 averaging 9 knots, charts galore and a daily menu to die for 😉 …. plus engine, VHF, sat phone, computers, shower, aircon, fridge, freezer, ice machine, etc…!  Only thing I reckon hasn’t improved is our lee cloths (apparently designed to keep us in our bunks when heeled), looking at the hammocks and the boarded-in beds (cots) on the Endeavour I’d say they might have had a better nights sleep… although without air-conditioning and showers I guess that’s debatable!  Luckily, Skipper didn’t get any ideas when he saw the cat and nine tails hanging in the crew quarters!  Sure the only person you’d need that for on LUSH is the boss, hardly for the tiptop, well-behaved crew and first mate onboard!

I really didn’t expect the city to be as awesome as it was, with the harbour such a massive part to it, it really was a shame we couldn’t have sailed there.

Emer and Robbie wined and dined us all week and boy did we eat in style.  One thing about the Aussies, they are serious foodies and yes we did put on the ‘Sydney stone’ while there… nothing an offshore passage with no chocolate or bread onboard couldn’t put right though!!.  Anyone planning hols to Sydney I would fully recommend dining at Café Sydney (book a window table for spectular views of the harbour bridge) and the French restaurant Felix.

Emer and I visited the Sydney Fish Market on the final day of hols.  This is the largest market of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere and the world’s second largest seafood market in terms of variety outside of Japan.  It’s a working fish market and we managed to sneak in to see the commercial auction first thing in the morn.  You can actually book a place to go on a tour of this but it was fully booked well in advance of our stay.  This market trades over 14,500 tones of seafood annually – with more than a hundred species of seafood traded daily!  I would highly recommend a visit whenever you go to Sydney.  After spending over three hours there and buying some tasty bits for lunch the only thing that bothered us was the cost of parking!!!  Now this is something I haven’t missed!!

Saying farewell is never much fun but with such super friends living there and it being such a magnificent city I know we’ll return again, hopefully next time it’ll be by boat.

One Life…. wining and dining it in Sydney!

Lots of love,

 

Audrey  xxx

 

The Whitsundays, Australia    (Audrey Adamson)

 

After a few days in MacKay getting Lush in order we set sail for the Whitsunday islands.  Martin and Bernice McCarthy (of National Yacht Club fame) joined us for the trip and were a joy to have onboard.  They brought out a package from my folks.  It’s just such a treat to get some handwritten letters and always a joy to get some new sunnies (thanks Clods!!).

We weren’t particularly sad to leave MacKay that’s for sure.  It was just a bit too chilly for our liking, wearing long sleeve tops and jackets is just not part of the contract!  The fact that we couldn’t get into any pub/bar in town, as they wanted ID from us (clearly the sun is doing our skins wonders!!??), had absolutely nothing to do with it!!!!

Now, I’ve heard so many wonderful stories of the Whitsunday islands from every Irish backpacker that’s been to Oz and boy did it live up to its reputation.  It’s class to see lots of day-tripper boats along with sailing schools and weekender trips in operation, certainly a thriving marine industry (they’re certainly not plagued by the same rules and regs as Irish sailing businesses are thanks to our beloved Dept of Marine and all that unnecessary red tape!!!)

On route to the Whitsundays we pulled in at Brampton Island and on exploration ashore came across hundreds of kangaroos!!!  Wow, it was just sooooo cool to see these guys, one jumped out at us unexpectedly and we got the land of our lives!  We were walking around the island keeping an eye to the ground for fear of snakes and so were fully caught off the hop (excuse the pun!) when the kangaroo jumped out at us. Onto the Whitsundays and we couldn’t pass on the chance to visit Australia’s famous Whitehaven Beach, a 7km strand of white silica sand (as fine as my baking flour).  Breathtaking!

There are some 74 islands in the Whitsunday group (discovered by Capt Cook in 1770) and we hardly saw them all, however we weren’t going to miss the chance at calling to Hamilton island where all the rich and famous Aussies holiday.   This is an island full of activities, resorts, pools and restaurants.  Everyone drives about in golf buggies.  There’s just a total holiday atmosphere ashore and we had access to numerous pools around the small island.  Our holidays in the Whitsundays finished up with a stylish Oyster Rally party.  We all glammed up and were served the finest platter of shellfish ever.  Just scrumptious!!  We partied the night away and dropped our lines the following day sailing north to Cairns.  LUSH sailed along the shore all the way, this was a first for us on a passage and certainly a welcome change to sail by such a spectacular mountainous coastline.

Now, in Cairns it was work as usual using this as the main pit stop of our trip.  There was a seriously massive list of jobs and servicing to be tackled in the 10 days there and we were delighted to have our mighty engineer, Alan, back onboard after his two months off.  He had a fantastic break back home with his wife Kizzy and daughters and was all set now to tackle LUSH and her systems!!

Happy days!

Audrey

 

A right pair of Kangaroos!!