Tuesday 31st - New Years Eve

Waking up on Sydney Harbour was a pretty special moment. Fantastic views of the Opera House and bridge.

The girls were keen to get off the boat onto shore, and Trent had a full day of exploring Sydney planned.
The Cremorne Point jetty was only 5min away and a good place for pickup/drop off. I dropped the four of them off and went back to do boat jobs/cleaning.

Cremorne Point Lighthouse - built in 1909.

The Meade Clan turned up after lunch. Jo and the kids went for a swim, while Justin and I took the gear back to Lazuli.
J and I then went back to ferry Jo and the two youngest back to Lazuli, and then made our way to Maccallum Seawater Pool for a refreshing pool.
We got a bit of a distress call from Jo who was on board and concerned about all the boats that were around us.

Once all back on board we settled in for sip’s ‘n dips. I collected Trent at 5pm after he’d been off exploring.

The kids did some crafting whilst we waited:

Bubbles to bring in ‘25:

We had dinner and a few drinks and sat back for the first wave of entertainment: watching the all the boats coming in and jostling for the best position, trying to find space between boats and not be over the exclusion zone.

To our surprise, boats were still coming in around 8pm trying to find spots. I can’t imagine trying to do that in Lazuli.

Nelly took a screenshot of the AIS traffic and sent it to us:

The first round of fireworks kicked off at 9:30. We had fireworks going off just near us, and then closer to the bridge.

These “warm up” fireworks were probably better than any other fireworks I’d seen before (well since I was in Sydney nearly 20 years ago with Dan and Fiona).

The kids were all up on deck snuggled up in sleeping bags. Kristina and Emma went to sleep up on deck, and Alex downstairs.

Quite a few boats left after these fireworks.

We tried to tune in to the entertainment but with so many people in the harbour there wasn’t enough bandwidth (papers the next day reckoned 1 million people were gathered around the harbour).

The main fireworks were spectacular. Fireworks were everywhere, it was hard to know where to look!

As soon as the fireworks were over, the exodus began: boats leaving and going in all directions. We had no intentions of going anywhere.
We stayed up to about 1am watching the boats and then hit the sack.

With 9 onboard we had a full boat! I chose to sleep on the seat/cushions up on deck!

Wednesday 1st - New Years Day

With a 9am flight to catch, Trent was up and ready to be dropped off to the south side of the harbour at 6:30am.
We had to dodge a few party cruises that were still doing laps around the harbour with loud dance music still blasting, and many tired looking guests sitting down and waiting/wishing to get off!

We had a lazy morning then picked up the anchor go move closer into to Athol Beach. We eventually had breakfast and kept an eye on a spare mooring.

Eventually we saw one boat getting ready to leave, so Kristie zoomed over in the tender to claim it. She had to fight off several other boats who were steaming towards it to claim it for themselves.
A few were ok with it, one boat was a bit pissed off and dropped anchor quite close to the mooring. We turned up and picked up the mooring and got a few dirty looks from them.

With the boat hooked up we swam into shore for a swim.

We kids were keen to go to Luna Park, so we got ready for that and did few runs to the beach to get to the jetty so we could get to Circular Quay, and then over to Milsons Point.

It was about 3:30 by the time we got there. We got the ride passes and spent the afternoon/evening there making the most of our time there.

Jo and Kristie catching a drink while the rest of us were busy on the rides:

We left when it shut at 8pm, and got an Uber back to the steps at the top of Athol Beach.

We were all shattered after quite a few long days and went to bed early.

Sunday 29th

The trip to Sydney would be about 250nm (around 450km). Predict Wind estimated we may be in around 10pm on the 30th.

Coffs is an all weather harbour with no bar or time restrictions, however we got underway at about 7:30 after showers and getting the boat ready.

We motored out and waved our goodbyes to Ambrosia who were still anchored out in the harbour.

We didn’t have much wind to start with, so we kept motoring for an hour or so.

The wind was supposed to be SE to start with, then swinging around more to the East. We had to do a few tacks before the wind backed to the East and we could round the headlands without having to tack again.

The wind picked up to about 10-12knts, and we started making good progress. By the time we passed Fish Rock Cave the wind was closer to 15knts, and we were doing 9-10knts.

We were never really to far from shore on the way down, and had many pods of dolphins come and check us out and swim alongside for a bit.
It’s a magical experience that we hope does not get old.

The three of us took turns skippering through the day.

The wind then died off completely around dusk, so time to motor again :(

We turned on the autopilot and let it do the driving through the night.

Trent and I took shifts through the night, 2 on, 2 off, while the 2 girls and Kristie slept in the cockpit.

Monday 30th

By the time dawn was on us, we were off Seal Rocks.

The wind eventually turned up around 10am and we could finally raise the sails and turn off the engine.

We were making good progress, but it was still a LONG way to go to Sydney.

We were still 20nm out from the Heads at dusk, so we dropped the sails and motored in. We’d had dinner by then so the girls went to bed: Emma in her bed, Kristina and Kristie in the cockpit.

It was about 11pm by the time we entered the Heads and started to make our way to Athol Bay (our intended anchorage for NYE).

The top NE corner of Athol Bay was already full, however there was plenty of space down the SW corner near the exclusion zone.

When we dropped anchor, there were only two other catamarans there that night.

We finally had Lazuli and ourselves ready for sleep by 1am. A very long 40hrs since we left Coffs.

Friday 27th

With a full day ahead of us, and an early morning high tide we planned to be crossing the bar at 6:30am.

We woke the girls up, quick breakfast and then jackets on for the bar crossing.
I’d watched Ambrosia take off and head out the bar about an hour before us and it looked fine.
The winds had died down the day before, and there was zero wind when we set off: the bar was pretty calm and safe.

The wind was expected to pick up in the afternoon, but there was nothing to start with so we motored the entire morning.

When the wind did come up, it was straight behind us and with a reasonable following swell we just decided to keep the stress down and engine on.

We got into Coffs Harbour just after 2pm after tha 60nm trip from Yamba.

We did a few circles of the harbour while we got fenders and mooring lines ready, then went into the Marina.

The marina there does “stern in”, and with a 20knt Northerly wind coming over the breakwall our berth was on the “blow off” side.
Lazuli loves to catch the wind and moves out of place quite easily.

I had a few goes of reversing in from various directions but had no luck. A few of the crew Jetty Dive saw our predicament and came to help.
I had another go and almost drifted onto the boat next to us: we would have if it wasn’t for Kristie’s foot and the strength of the other guys helping!

With the boat tide up, we sat down and let the heart rate come back down to near normal. I checked in, paid and grabbed a marina key.

I had a bit of a chat with Steve one of the Jetty Dive crew about berthing and boats in general (he has a boat down the end of the row from Lazuli).

We’ll be back to dive with them on the way back up.

We all then trooped up to the facilities and made the most of unlimited hot water.

There was a fun fair running just a few minutes walk from the Marina. We headed over at 6pm, grabbed some fair food (Dagwood Dogs for the girls!).

We bought a bunch of tickets and the girls had plenty of fun.

I got a message from Justin asking if we had had dinner yet as they by chance were going to stop into Coffs on the way to Sydney.
I suggested they come to the fun fair when they arrived, and stay on Lazuli for the night instead searching for non-existent accommodation.
They turned up just after we had finished our tickets.
Justin generously purchased another round of tickets and the 4 kids spent the next hour running around and having a great time together.

With a storm approaching, we rushed back to Lazuli and close up all the hatches. We setup the side and rear walls for a bit more protection just before the storm hit.
(We found out the next day that wind gusts or near 50knts hit the boats out in the harbour)

Other than the wind generator going a bit nuts, there wasn’t too much from the storm. The kids played for a bit before heading to bed.
We sat up chatting and drinking until about 11:30pm (Justin and I had to make use of the Whisky he’d brought along for the original trip down).

Saturday 28th

Coffs Harbour has a Parkrun, so even with guests onboard we laced up and set out to the start. Emma only got a little way before calling in sick and she and Kristie headed back to the boat.
Kristina gave advance notice that her feet/ankles were sore from last night at the fair, so she would not be running (but would walk).

The course starts and ends 1.5km from our marina, but then comes right back past the marina and along the brake wall.
Kristina and I walked the entire way, so 5km for the Parkrun and 3km to get there and back.

With that effort (and Emma’s current state) meant any other physical activities were for another day!

The Meade Clan was still onboard when we got back, but they left shortly after to get to Sydney.

Kristie headed out to do a load of washing (the marina facilities were currently closed) and groceries. I got some more boat jobs/cleaning/fueling up done.

Despite motoring all the way from Yamba, we only used just over 20L of diesel.

With those jos done, it was time for an ice cream.

On the way back we saw the Ambrosia crew coming into the marina on their tender.
Guy was checking out other boats; we flagged them down and invited them onboard.
Rona and the girls had fun mucking around downstairs, whilst we sat up in the cockpit and got on with some afternoon drinks.

My Brother-in-law Trent had volunteered to help sail down from Coffs to Sydney. He’d drive to Coffs, and grab a flight back from Sydney on the 1st and then drive back home.

Trent turned up about 5pm. We unloaded his gear onto the boat, then jumped back in his car to do a quick Bunnings trip:

• I had to seal up the skylight that was leaking
• Guy also came along as he needed some parts as well.

Whilst we were at Bunnings, the girls, Cassie and Rona walked up to the lookout on Muttonbird Island.

Back to the boat and said goodbye to the Ambrosia crew and got on with dinner.

Another early bed as we were going to have two long days on the water to get to Sydney.