Barrenjoey

After our mortgage-worthy lunch Nick and I decided we would go in for a swim. The depth was now registering as 60 cm under the boat...which is shallow...really shallow...and low tide was still 2 hours off. We didn't know where the depth was being measured from underneath the boat...so we thought a physical investigation was worthwhile in the clear-ish, albeit cold, water.


Nick went in, and to the bottom of the keel, and measured the clearance above the sand and weeds...


We then yelled up to Emily to see what depth was registering on the bridge. For future reference...the instruments were showing as 0.6 m, while Nick measured 1.3 m with the stick...so we have about 70 cm more than the instruments say!

By this time the instruments on the deck were starting to sound low water alarms...and showing 0.5 - 0.4 m depth...UGH...but Nick wanted to clean some of the barnacles off the keel...he was sure they were slowing us down...SIGH...



(Emily watching the hull cleaning progress through the trampoline)


Finally, he said we could go, and we pulled out with readings of 0.2 m (but really 90 cm) depth, and every alarm imaginable going off...really ANNOYING noises too...I was contemplating turning all the instruments off....I could see the darn bottom myself, and I didn't need them beeping at me!

We cranked up the engines on the way back , and easily got another knot of speed due to the partial bottom cleaning (7.1 kts at 2000 rpm)...Nick was very pleased.


We've come back to America Bay...and if the winds swing to the NE later tomorrow, as forecast, we will make the trip back to Sydney Harbour. In the meantime, we have spent the afternoon making, decorating and devouring gingerbread men...YUMMY...




(and decorating Oscar our Burmese cat with seashells while the gingerbread men were cooking).

...the final product...


:-)
Sam.

Gunyah Beach, Hawksbury River

Yesterday morning we did a bit of tidying and pottering about the boat. We also discovered a school of what we think were baby Trevally, under Lucey Blue, so we opened one of the emergency hatches and fed them some bread...



After lunch we left Refuge Bay and motored across Cowan Creek and a little way up the Hawksbury River to Gunyah Beach, which we had all to ourselves...


We took our sand castle building equipment ashore, and started work...





Nick and Ryan took the dinghy out and did some drive-bys to create some artificial surf, to try and fill the castle pool and test the wall integrity ;-)...


Emily also did some beautiful sand drawings, this one of a reindeer was especially cool...


I was sad to leave our sand castle....who knows, she might still be standing! We motored back to good old America Bay where we spent a very peaceful night, no wind, no wash...just the sounds of cicadas and kookaburras in the surrounding trees.

Today is another overcast day...

(Lion Island in Broken Bay)

...and we have motored up, and anchored off Barrenjoey Head at the top of Pittwater (think Palm Beach, Home and Away), in about 1.5 metres of very clear, but cold, water. Nick went in to check the anchor...which we hope will hold in the sand and weed, as long as the wind is minimal...which it is, for now...


Might even be fish and chips for dinner, as we are close to shops...yeah! :-)

Sam.

PS. Nick just went ashore to get take away lunch from the Boat House at Palm Beach and for two fish and chip meals, two burger and chip meals, two 375 ml cokes and two 250 ml juices, it cost....SEVENTY ONE DOLLARS...OMG! Don't get me wrong....my meal was lovely, it had a lovely aioli with it, and even came with limes and watercress as decoration...but seriously...a take away lunch that requires a second mortgage? YIKES!!!!!

Exploring Cowan Creek and environs...

Yesterday we got up, had a quick swim in America Bay, Nick tinkered with some boat 'stuff', then we went for a little motoring adventure up Cowan Creek.

We went to Cottage Point first, and admired the seaplane and HUGE houses...



Then Nick went ashore in the dinghy, and the kids and I did circles in the channel for 20 minutes. He brought back some petrol, ice, bread and treats :-).

Then we went and had a look in Yeomans Bay, and then to the end of Jerusalem Bay, where we anchored and had lunch. Unfortunately the wind funneling down there was upwards of 20 knots, and the anchor started dragging, so we packed up shop and headed off again. Ryan assisted with the navigation, wearing a pair of the previous owners' sunglasses that he found (which we will also try and return)...


We went right to the end of Smiths Creek, which is a very beautiful and tranquil little place. We spotted a Lagoon 47 called The Classic, who we think is about the same age as Lucey Blue (who was built by Tillotson Pearson Inc. Rhode Island, in 1992) and Nick wanted me to do a slow drive-by so he could take a sticky beak...


Unfortunately all the National Park moorings in Smiths Creek were taken, and as we've dragged the anchor almost every time we've put it down up here, and strong windes were expected, we decided to move along.

We headed further down Cowan Creek, all the way to Bobbin Head. All the moorings were taken along the way, so we turned around and hightailed it back to the good old America and Refuge Bays parking lot...where we picked up a mooring on the Refuge Bay side...for a big change of scenery ;-).

We got there about 5 pm, so we took a quick dinghy ride ashore. Nick found another anchor, unfortunately it wasn't big enough to help solve our dragging problems, so Ryan and Emily used it to plow the beach instead...

Emily steered us back to Lucey Blue...


After dinner the kids and I played hair salons...they did my hair first, but we didn't get a shot of that...oh, that's too bad ;-)


...then a big electric storm hit. I sat in the cockpit for 15 minutes trying to get a shot of the abundant lightning...this is the best I could do...


It POURED down with rain after that, so the decks have all had a good wash down.

I went to bed pretty early last night...but was woken by Nick telling me that the Coastguard had just brought another yacht in to the bay! I hope they are ok...but not sure that it warranted a wake-up call ;-).

It looks like it is going to be a rainy day today...so we might do some exploring up the Haweksbury (where we can't go very far due to the rail bridge), and perhaps around Umina.....or maybe we'll just chill out here!

:-)
Sam.

Fishermans Beach

Yesterday we left the America Bay mooring and motored across Cowan Creek to anchor off Fishermans Beach. Nick and Ryan took the dinghy ashore, and Emily and I swam ashore...we had the beach all to ourselves at first!


We took one of the foam squirters ashore and had fun squirting each other with that (we can't seem to locate the other one at the moment...it'll show up in some locker eventually...I hope)...


...and the beach ball, and played a bit of raucous beach volley ball (in the water)...


...we snorkelled, the vis was pretty much non-existent....but don't I look fashionable ;-)?



...we built multiple sand fortresses...




On the way back Emily had lessons using the dinghy outboard, and I swam back with Ryan...


In the afternoon...while I was snoozing in the shade in the cockpit...Nick, Emily and Ryan were hunting down transducers in the forward cabins (don't you wish you could be part of that fun?). While he was on his adventure (which involved pulling apart the beds and tunnelling below them)...he found a small pink iPod (we'll contact the previous owners and see if they would like us to send it back), and a little coin...which Emily thought might be pirate treasure, but turned out to be 10 cents from the East Caribbean States....how cool is that?


...we also went back to the beach in the afternoon...once the tree shadows covered the beach, and I ended up helping a couple search for their wedding ring in the sand. She found it in the end, but not before we had all searched a significant-sized patch of sand!

...Nick has also been tinkering with the BBQ onboard for a while now (it is called a MAGMA...so it 'sounds' like it should mean serious business...but unfortunately...not). Sometimes it works, most of the time, it doesn't. From the mutterings, I gather it is something to do with the regulator. The night before last Nick took out all stops to get it working...including removing the Captain's chair, in order to get it out of the wind...for optimum performance ;-)


He got it going in the end...but only just...and it had a tiny little flame. As we were eating our sausages (that took quite some time to cook), we looked over at the small yacht next to us...where their BBQ flames were licking skyward...I think Nick felt a bit of BBQ envy!

A little duck also recently came and visited Lucey Blue, so we got a piece of bread and threw some pieces to it. It was funny to see many of the pieces disappear from below the water, before the duck got anywhere near it. The fish around here are very fast!



Feels like it is going to be another scorcher here....with humidity of 1000%...UGH!
See you,
Sam.

PS. We had what sounded like a mini-hurricane here in America Bay at midnight last night, complete with wind, lightning and torrential rain...and of course we had all the hatches and portholes open, and a whole bunch of towels and wet swimmers hanging in our rigging. Nick and I bolted up and had to frantically pull everything in and hang it up inside...fun times ;-).