Happy New Year from Sydney Harbour and Lucey Blue

This afternoon we decided to be brave and take Lucey Blue out onto Sydney Harbour for our first fireworks afloat, and we are so glad we did!

We are currently anchored in a small bay just opposite Cockatoo Island, and we have a beautiful view right up the harbour to the bridge...


We had our dinner and dessert aboard...


...and then watched a glorious sunset...


...before watching the 9pm fireworks with the kids...





...we've decided that as we've come this far, we'll stick around for the midnight fireworks. We've put the kids to bed, and we might get them up just before 12...maybe ;-).

Happy New Year!
Sam.

It was a sunny day...

...and the wind was light and from a good direction so first thing this morning we ventured off the marina berth and onto the fuel wharf. We came on and off the marina and fueling wharf without incident...yeah!

The biggest obstacle was working out how the 24/7 self serve fuel pump actually worked...I stood there like a twit, credit card in hand, for about 15 minutes reading the pump literature, until I figured it out...it wasn't hard either.

While we were there we also took the opportunity to trial the new sullage pump out point that Nick installed in the starboard side stern locker this week. It worked perfectly...if pumping sullage can be described thus ;-).

Nick has also been very busy making some temporary 'porta potties' because...well, the sullage tank is very small and Sydney Harbour is a nil discharge zone...say no more...


The kids then spent some of the afternoon hanging off the stern steps 'prawning'. I know...not likely to find prawns off a marina, in 6 metres of Sydney Harbour water, with a 20 cm net...but you won't know for sure unless you try...right?



Hope you all have a Happy New Year!
Sam.

PS. Just thought I'd show you the crystal santa that we have growing onboard (thanks Grandi). We also have a beautiful crystal Christmas tree, and they are fabulous little things. They come as a kit of cardboard coloured with food dye and a little sachet of liquid with glycerin in it (I think). You then stand the cardboard in a tray, and pour in the liquid and as the liquid is drawn up through the cardboard and evaporates, the crystals grow. Great fun for the kids:

A rainy day on the marina

It has been grey and drizzling on and off all day today:


...so we have been entertaining ourselves:

...colouring and painting...


...and fending off pirates with our pirate slaying device (well, that's what Mr 3.5 said he was doing)! Most of the neighbouring boats had gone out to see the start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race (I'm only s'posing that's where they went....great day for it...NOT), so at least none of them were harmed during the pirate duels ;-).

Luckily we had visitors too, otherwise it would have been a very, very long day here on the marina. This afternoon the rain stopped long enough for us to visit a local park for a bit of mad running, screaming and climbing.

:-)
Sam.

Christmas on Lucey Blue

Happy Christmas from Lucey Blue and crew!

The kids woke (late...almost 8 am!!!) to a Saloon table full of pressies, and all fears about Santa not being able to find us on Lucey Blue in Sydney Harbour, were allayed!


After a big breakfast of yummy fruit salad we all went ashore in the morning and had a play on Cabarita Point beach, just opposite the marina, with some of the new sand buckets and spades.



Then we went back to Lucey Blue and had MORE yummy food...cold ham, prawns and chicken, salad and bread....and bon bons with paper hats, trinkets and bad jokes (of course)!


By then the wind was picking up, and it started raining in the afternoon, so we stayed aboard and rested (Dad), read a book (me), and watched a DVD (the kids).

What a perfect way to spend Christmas day. Hope your Christmas day was wonderful too!

Sam.

PS. I got a little purple plastic anchor in my Christmas bon bon...which we thought was particularly cool, and it will be saved...'just in case' ;-).

Just some photos...

On Monday morning, after an amazing sunrise:



...and some time getting a feel for the steering ;-):



...we left the Manly mooring:



...and motored up Sydney Harbour:


City and Bridge from afar...


Pinchgut and Opera House...


Luna Park...

...we had a dedicated lookout on duty during our voyage:



...and on the way we spotted OUR NEW BOAT:



...since arriving at Cabarita the kids and I have done lots of shopping, and Nick has been fixing stuff, but there has also been time for playing in the sails:





...and making pretty cabins with the linen Grandi gave the kids for Christmas:



...looks like another scorcher today...best get a move along now while it isn't too hot!

Sam.

All Aboard SV Lucey Blue

WELL...what a very long day it has been!

After getting up at 6 am, running around like headless chooks, then leaving home at 9:15 am, we finally arrived near Narrabeen Lakes, Sydney to pick up the keys at around 2:30 pm.

We then drove back down to Manly, found a parking spot near the Manly Boatshed, and thence followed numerous dinghy trips back and forth, with all of our gear. By about 5:30 pm we had loaded up Lucey Blue and we were all aboard!




We had a good old look around, opening and closing just about everything that opened and closed. Oscar found a dark corner to go and hide in, and the kids set about claiming their cabins and running around in a state of high excitement. I made up the beds, we found spaces for our clothes, and then thought about what to do for dinner.

So we piled back in the dinghy and went back ashore and drove up to Balgowlah shops, had some Thai (wrote a shopping list as we ate), and then did a spot of shopping at Coles.

It is now 10:00 pm and we are back aboard. We have packed away the food, fed and watered Oscar (who I think was a bit concerned that we'd all gone off and left him here alone)...and now it is time for BED.

The view from here is beautiful. To the SE we can see right out through Sydney Harbour Heads, and to the north, we have a beautiful view of Manly. I'll try and get some photos tomorrow before we head off to the Marina at Cabarita.

The wind has died right down and the water is calm...so it is perfect conditions for our first night aboard Lucey Blue.

Nightie night!
Sam.

$$$$...

Well, the Solicitor made a Telegraphic Transfer (for the cost of the boat) to the seller yesterday...so as of today she's all ours! OMGOODNESS!!!

We head to Sydney on Sunday to get the keys and check her out...I can't believe we are almost there. This has taken a long, long time!

Next time I write...I s'pect it'll be from Lucey Blue...then I can show you some more pics and stuff.

Happy Christmas,
Sam.

Almost a done deal...

...well, the deal on Lucey Blue was supposed to have been done some time last week, but AQIS decided that she needed to be inspected for termites (which I think a pretty boat like Lucey Blue would find kind of insulting ;-)!

Nick went to Sydney on Friday and met up with Buc and the people from K9 and their cute little beagle/termite detection dog, Mandy. I wish he'd got a picture of her because she sounds cute...but he didn't. Mandy even sat on his lap, in the dinghy, on the way out to Lucey Blue.

We hadn't really been concerned about termites at all. We'd seen Lucey Blue in Fiji...and she didn't look infested with anything but fun! This all changed though, because on Monday night (7th December), as we were quietly sitting at our kitchen table at home, we noticed a swarm of winged insects attracted to our kitchen light. Nick caught a few and went and looked them up online. He came back a short while later and said he thought they were TERMITES...NNNNNOOOOOOoooooooooo!

So we got Rentokil in the next day and the guy confirmed that the winged insects that Nick had caught were termites. We discussed the fact that we had had a termite inspection with them only 4 months ago, and the house had come up clean. This being the case, it was unlikely that a mature colony could have sprung up in the intervening period. We didn't have the gum trees in the front yard tested in August, so we have decided to do that now...they are going to come and drill them the week after next. The man from Rentokil did say though that termites can travel (especially on warm, still nights - as Monday was)...so it is possible that the colony is not on our property...and after chatting with the neighbours (who also had a swarm)...we are hoping that the colony is SOMEWHERE ELSE!

With this disturbing episode fresh in our minds we were wondering if the termite dog would find something on Lucey Blue afterall...but luck was on our side, and the little beagle didn't find any termites (apparently they bark when/if they do)...so the sale should go through this week. FINALLY!

The organisation of this sale has been a task of epic proportions for Nick...and I highly recommend that anyone considering purchasing a boat that has foreign registration, insist that the owners go through a boat broker...I think that whatever they charge...it'll be worth it to you, your sanity and your pocket in the end!

While Nick was in Sydney he bought some of the Navionics Platinum Charts for the East Coast of Australia...so we are all charted up here, with no place to go (yet).

I thought I'd also pop in a picture of where Lucey Blue has been moored while she has been in Sydney Harbour (for the last two weeks):

Hopefully next time I post here...we will be the proud owners of Lucey Blue!

:-)
Sam.

Bundy Day Trip

Yesterday (31st October 2009), Nick got up at stupid o'clock and flew up to  Bundaberg to be there when Lucey Blue came out on the slips for her Marine Survey, and antifouling. It was a long way to go for a day trip, but we decided that it would be a worthwhile exercise...wish I could have gone too!

He managed to get some nice shots of her while she was out:

Lucey Blue - on the slip at Bundaberg Slipways and Midtown Brokerage, Bundaberg 

Lucey Blue - antifouling in progress

 

Lucey Blue - from across the Burnett River

Lucey Blue - port side

Lucey Blue - starboard keel

Lucey Blue - propeller and rudder 

One of the pretty locals!

Ushuaia

He went for a walk around the yard up there and stumbled across the cat Ushuaia (shown above), out of the water. She is also a Lagoon 42 TPI. Apparently there were only 50 of them ever made, so it seems pretty unusual to find two of them at the same place in the world, on the same day!

We have been to Ushuaia too, it is a town in Patagonia on the Beagle Channel at the very southern end of Argentina (el fin del mundo), one of the last places to stock up before you head off to the Antarctic Peninsula. It is a very beautiful area.

BTW...The surveyor said that Lucey Blue is sound...so it is all systems go as far as the purchase is concerned :-).

Ciao ciao,

Sam.

She is here...

Lucey Blue arrived in Australia on Sunday night!

She is currently located somewhere in Port Bundaberg, probably at the Bundaberg Cruising Yacht Club:

We are trying to sort out where she can be lifted out of the water for a Marine Survey...but being 22ft wide, this is not a simple task. She may have to be sailed a bit further south, towards Brisbane, to find a slipway that can handle her.

I'll keep you updated!

Sam.

ETA: The Marine Survey is going to happen on Saturday (31st October) in Bundaberg, and we are going to get her anti-fouled at the same time. She is going to come out of the water by sitting on her keels on a concrete pad as the tide goes out, like this:

Deposit PAID!

It was a bit of a drama, and involved the Man toting large wads of cash through the streets of Canberra in a manilla envelope (wish I had a picture), but on Friday we paid the deposit on Lucey Blue. There is no turning back now...not unless the marine survey finds her unseaworthy/unsound...which it won't!

Lucey Blue is expected into Bundaberg tomorrow...so it is not very much longer until we will be seeing her in Sydney Harbour (around the end of November)...WOOHOO!!!!!

Lucey Blue - from up mast

Lucey Blue from bow

Lucey Blue galley

Have a great weekend,

Sam.

Things are still moving along...

Well, we are finally about to sign the contract for the purchase of Lucey Blue...so things are getting considerably more exciting in this neck of the woods.

Lucey Blue and her owners are currently in New Caledonia, and are joining in the Port2Port Rally....arriving in Bundaberg some time between the 26th and 28th October.

We may be going up to Bundy, to be there while the Marine Survey is carried out, and also to get her anti-fouled (as she will be up on the slips anyway). So if that comes about it will be a fun little jaunt. Fingers crossed!!

In the mean time I thought I'd load some more pictures here...I find it helps keep the excitement going strong :-):

Lucey Blue - Starboard side stern

 Lucey Blue - Port side stern

Lucey Blue - Cockpit

Lucey Blue - Anchor lockers

Lucey Blue - Saloon

(I love this shot...to me it looks like it is from a sales catalogue, with the caption:
'You too could be this happy in the saloon of your new Lagoon!')

Back another time with some more pics...

Sam.