We had a plan, well sort of a plan, to head out to sea again as a family between mid 2015 and early 2016. The objective was to find somewhere warm, with plenty of fish and lots of islands to explore, but as always the exact destination was unclear.
After the usual challenge of packing up the house, sorting out schooling and escaping work we found ourselves aboard Lucey Blue in mid May still with a moutain of work to complete - including replacing all the house batteries, installing a new Dometic Masterflush toilet, servicing the Liferaft, updating all the running ropes and provisioning the boat.
We hoped to leave Sydney in about three weeks and sail away as quickly as possible. We really wanted to explore New Caledonia and Vanuatu this year, but to do so we needed to stay on track and avoid unexpected delays.
The kids settled into boat life quickly and we hurled headlong into the list of jobs while exploring Sydney and visiting our favourite locations - including Quarantine Station and Bantry Bay.
We even made it to a few of the Vivid Sydney locations to watch the light shows which was a real hit with the family.
While our return to boat life was relatively easy we ran into a series of issues that took longer to resolve than anticipated - including a cracked end cap on our Spectra Watermaker and damage to one of our large curved saloon windows caused by a flying dinghy in a 40 plus knot southerly change.
We ended up stuck for several additonal weeks waiting for parts. Once they arrived we decided to head north to Queensland to escape the cold of Sydney. The South Pacific would have to wait for another year, but we were all looking forward to the adventure ahead...
Posts
