Time warp and new year's eve fireworks on Sydney Harbour

Wow where does time go when you are having fun??????

Work on Lucey Blue has continued interspersed with a few weekends away and a range of other developments including a new member of the crew who is due on the scene in late January.


Our next crewmember currently affectionately know as “thumper” has certainly made moving about the boat more interesting… amazing where you can get stuck when 38 weeks pregnant…

Nick is working on a range of short blog updates to cover completion of the smart regulator upgrade, maintenance of the spectra watermaker, installation of our new vacuflush toilet and holding tank, the acquisition of a sustainable solar system to help meet our electrical requirements and a minor renovation of the bathrooms and saloon seating…plus a thousand and one other jobs including upgrading our sail wardrobe. He has been busy and the boat has looked like a bomb site over the last few months...


But Ryan has enjoyed stomping around the boat helping dad and it has not all been work – at least that what we have been telling ourselves …


We even made it to the new year's eve fireworks on Sydney Harbour under a fantastic spinnaker we purchased on eBay. Nick really likes red and yellow – it harks back to his 12 foot skiff sailing days – and when we saw the near brand new 1.5 oz “flames spinnaker” made by Hasse & Company, Port Townsend Sails we were hooked...





The spinnaker trip down the harbour was great fun, the kids loved the ride. Before long we were anchored out of the crowds ready for the fireworks. When we come back from our sojourn later this year we plan on braving the “excitement” of Farm Cove right next to the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge to really be part of the action. But Nick was not keen on potentially delivering a baby while dodging other boats in such close confines - slack I say!!!!

Anyway the view from our “2010” anchorage in Rose Bay was not too bad and it was a good place for a swim….





The fireworks were as spectacular as ever and after a great night out we headed back to Middle Harbour to continue work on Lucey Blue…….

Woolwich Dockyard – Work complete and we head home

We arrived late on Saturday afternoon to find Lucey Blue snuggly in the old dry dock marina. After chatting to Gary about the last few jobs we set about “finding food” and getting ready to go the next day.

We topped up the water tanks after dinner and were amused when a large halogen street light – more like a sports field light – came to life to illuminate Lucey Blue….


The kids came out with some unique perspectives on our preparations to depart and "the light"….



The next morning Jess and Pete arrived for the trip to Middle Harbour. It was a beautiful day and after some piano and “pretend” fishing we slid out of the dock and waved goodbye to Nikki and Buddha.



The trip up the harbour was fun and we made good time so we decided to have lunch at Store Beach. There were a few black clouds to the west, but the bay was empty and everyone was keen to eat.



We anchored just off the beach – well right up against the “Little Penguin” protection zone. I still find it amazing that Sydney has a few penguin breeding colonies within a stones throw of the city. The penguins are very timid and nothing like we have experienced in Antarctica, but that’s a story for another day.


Anyway shortly after we had finished lunch the “black clouds” otherwise know as a storm front hit……it went from about 20 degrees celsius and 5 knots of wind to about 12 degrees Celsius and 40 knots in a matter of minutes. Lucey Blue held fast for a while, but before long we started to drag our anchor and given our location close to the beach we decided to “up and go”.

We were disappointed not to have our new Rocna anchor with us (or at least Nick’s real wet weather gear) as it would have been much nicer to sit out the storm front. But Pete and Nick seemed to enjoy the icy blasts on the “outside” while we enjoyed playing in the saloon.



Despite the excitement we all made it home on time even if some of us were a little wet…..

Noakes – Rigging replaced and back in the water

During the second week Noakes removed and replaced all the standing stainless steel rigging on Lucey Blue. The job was undertaken with the mast in-situ so it was one stay at a time and a guy at each end – one at deck level and the other up the mast.

We missed the show, but they kept the old rigging for us to inspect…


The original rigging was “apparently” new in 2005 and looked in reasonable condition except for one lower stay which had three broken stainless steel strands.


We could not confirm the age of the rigging so given the size of the mast and the fact we only have one forestay we decided to replace the lot and start afresh – thus giving us at least 5-10 years of trouble free service.


Shortly after the rigging was replaced Noakes lowered Lucey Blue back into Sydney Harbour to await our return…..

Noakes – Awlgrip spit and polish with a spot of antifouling

As we entered the second week on the hard it was time to tackle the antifouling and chance our arm cleaning the Alwgrip topsides with Awlwash followed by Awlcare. The antifouling task was taken care of by Noakes under their winter special deal, which was great as it left us free to do other things…




The biggest “other thing” in terms of physical labour was the spit and polish job on Lucey Blue’s 168 feet of Alwgrip topsides – its great owning a 42 foot catamaran at moments like these!!!!

The paint job itself is in pretty good shape - Hinkley Yacht Services painted Lucey Blue using a 50 50 mix of Flag Blue and Aristo Blue in 2005. But since the boat was out of the water we thought we would see if we could improve the surface and extend its life.

The first step was to wash the boat using Awlwash and then remove any built up salt using vinegar. The wash itself was pretty quick, but there was some pretty amazing salt deposits under the bridge deck which extended the job well into the night…..



With the boat clean and all traces of salt removed it was time to apply the Awlcare - a protective polymer sealer formulated to protect and remove mild stains from Awlgrip. The sealer is simple to apply and after the normal “wax on wax off” routine the results were pretty impressive (the Karate Kid has nothing on us)!



Water now beads off the topsides and with a bit of luck the Awlcare sealer will last until our next haul out. If you are ever considering a similar job the "Maintaining an Awlgrip, Awlcraft 2000 or Awlgrip HS Topcoat" page is worth a read......