Wednesday 29th

So the weather turned out to be not so good, so we stayed the extra day in Botany Bay.

We motored back across to Dolls Point as the wind was going to come back up from the South and quite strong.
While it’s not a protected bay as such, there’s not much fetch so it’s reasonably calm in a southerly there.

It’s also to shops and laundry.

We did school and some work, then headed into the beach.

Kristie jumped in an Uber to go do washing, whilst the girls and I walked 1km up the beach to get to Coles.

Uneventful shop other than a local lady loosing her 4yr old. A Police car turned up as the girls and I were heading back to the park in an Uber with our shopping.

Spent the night at Dolls Point.

Thursday 30th

Weather/wind was good for us to sail to Pittwater. We’d only stay there to fill up with water/fuel (there is nowhere in Botany Bay for us to do that!) then move on the next day.

The wind was from the S/SE, so with the anchor up at about 8:45am we could sail all the way out the heads.

This is one of the many Octopus hanging around the Bare Island dive site:

We sailed out past Bare Island, taking more notice of it after the tour we’d done.

The sail up was ok, we had to gybe a few times as the wind swung around a bit.

We eventually dropped the sails behind Barrenjoey Head as that completely blocked any wind from the south.

From there it was a quickish motor all the way to the Royal Motor Yacht Club so we could top up fuel and water.
As per last time we were there it was an easy dock. Just as we were leaving one of the local 140ft mega boats was coming in to fuel up.

With that done we were back at The Basin to jump on a public mooring for the night. Didn’t get off the boat as we’d be leaving early tomorrow.

Friday 31st

Originally we’d thought about heading to Lake Macquarie, but the bar and then channel into the lake is a little shallow and needs (for us) good alignment with tides.

High tide that day was 10ish at the bar, and we were going to struggle to get there that early, and the thought of getting stuck with low tides wasn’t appealing.

With that decision made, it was going to be a long trip up to Port Stephens / Nelson Bay.

We had good (stronger than expected) SE winds.

We were off the mooring at 7:30am, and could sail out of the heads (well we needed a quick boost of the iron headsail to get through the lull behind the heads!).

We hadn’t yet reefed, so we were sailing (and sometimes surfing down the waves) averaging 9-10knts… it was a bit much so we went with #2 reef and that calmed things down and we were still doing 7kts.

We had a few patches of wind dropping off, and what looked to be a squall but was nothing much.

The wind disappeared completely about 12nm out from Port Stephens, complete glass-out.

We got in and went straight to Shoal Bay and had the anchor down by 7:15pm.

Average speed for the whole day was 7.5kts.

Quite a bit of roll through night!

Wednesday 22nd

After a bit of rain we went into Manly Cove to meet the Ambrosia crew (and some of their friends) on the surf side.
We pulled our tender up the beach next to theirs and set off.

The surf was small, but perfect for the girls. With wetsuits on they lasted a reasonable time. A good mix of body boards and just having fun in the waves or in the sand.

Eventually we all got a bit cold, and the rain came back. The girls had a shower then we walked back to the other side.

I had originally suggested Fish ‘n Chips for lunch, but didn’t see too many good options (when it wasn’t raining). So we ended up at Fellons for a burger and drinks.

We knew there was going to be a southerly change this afternoon so we wanted to be back in Rose Bay when that hit.

No free moorings so we dropped anchor. I was looking at WillyWeather and saw it was 25knt SW at Kurnell (not too far away in Botany Bay), but it was maybe 5knts N where we were.
I had just said to Kristie “We’ll probably need to pull up the anchor when it hits and reset it” when the 25knts hit us!

Bit of a frantic moment to pull up anchor then reset it. We ended up with 60m of chain out, and didn’t drag a bit once that was set!

However, I was still up top on alert for a while, even with our anchor alarm on!

No drinks tonight with that storm going on.

Thursday 23rd

After recovering from the storm the night before, we had a bit of a late start. Ambrosia had been on a mooring around the corner the night before (lucky them), but they motored over to anchor not too far from us.

We were ready to head into the playground, so swung past to say hi and let them know.

The playground was excellent. Lots of different areas for the girls to enjoy: Emma initially refused to have fun because it “looked boring”, but 5min later she was off and about.
Rona then turned up, and they spent the next hour running around.

The Ambrosia crew then left to get a ferry into the city, while we left for the local Woolies.
Did our shop, came outside, then realised with our rewards I could get a free coffee. So back in I went.
While I was in there, Kristie realised we could also get free chocolate bars, so she and Kristina when in when I had my coffee.
Emma then needed popcorn as everyone else was getting something. So back in she and Kristie went.

We finally got back to Lazuli and stashed the groceries.

We’d seen two divers come out of the water at Camp Cove when we were last in Sydney, and after a bit of research Kristie had lined us up to dive there.

We left Rose Bay, and picked up the mooring at the end of Watsons Bay, only a short tender ride around from there to Camp Cove.

Kristie geared up and the two of us headed over, leaving the girls on Lazuli with Minecraft and my phone (and the VHF).

The dive wasn’t great, but diving is diving.

Another bucket list item (for me!) was to sail under the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The wind was there and the right direction, so after the dive gear was stowed we set sail.

Just our luck that a Cruise Ship was leaving at the same time. We probably shouldn’t have snuck behind it, but we did.

My sister Jess was online watching the live feed and sent us a few snaps of us going under and then back out.

Kristie sailed us back under the bridge, then we dropped the main and motored as the wind had dropped a bit and was now coming directly from Rose Bay.

We managed to pick up a free mooring back in Rose Bay.

Quick dinner then over to Ambrosia for our final drinks and say farewell. We’d be off to Botany Bay tomorrow, while they were hanging around for a few days before sailing south (and skipping Botany Bay).

Guy, Cassie & Rona: thanks for being such great boat friends (and our first from this trip!).

Friday 24th

5am wakeup so we could get underway and down to Botany Bay before the strong SE winds kicked in.

Took about 2hrs or so motoring before we were through the head of Botany Bay.

We picked up a mooring at Kurnell as it was close (we needed a break) and it’s good protection for the strong southerly winds.

Kristie had messaged Mark (URGQ member) who lives locally and he came around and met us on the beach.

We did a walk around the beach, checked out various plaques, sculptures, monuments and general exploring.

Mark then offered to drive us into Cronulla for a bit of sightseeing. Thankfully he has a 7-seater Pajaro, so we could all fit.

We got out at a few spots for a walk and some photo opportunities. Thanks for the tour Mark!

Back to Kurnell to get ready to head over to Dolls Point for the Parkrun tomorrow.

There’s lots of shipping going on, and just as we dropped the mooring another big container ship came in through the heads.
So back to the mooring and a bit of waiting before I ended up calling VTS on #12 to confirm we were ok to move.

Motored out and across to Dolls Point. The bay is quite shallow over that side, a few points down to 3m depth.

There is a mooring in the bay, but it was too close to the beach (i.e. too shallow for us to use), so backed out a little and anchored just out of the channel in 4m of water.

We could look out the back of the boat and see the park we’d be running in tomorrow.

Saturday 25th - Parkrun Day

One of the major reasons we came to Botany Bay was for the Parkrun at Dolls Point: Emma needed only a “D” to complete her name challenge.

A bonus for this location was an 8am start, which was much needed after a few big days and late nights.

It’s a nice run along the bay: Kristina and I did it just under 40min, with Emma and Kristie about 15min after us.

Emma has now done 17 Parkruns, and the first of us to complete her name challenge (she also has the shortest name!)

As per our “Lazuli Ice cream Agreement” (only one ice cream per area/region we visit), the run was followed by ice cream / smoothie / iced latte.

We had a lovely swim at the beach at end; a few of the signs saying do not swim… had pictures of sharks… however the water was shallow and clear and too nice not to swim.

Back to Lazuli for lunch and a bit of chill before heading over to La Perouse. No free moorings, so we dropped anchor in about 4m of water.

Sunday 26th - Australia Day

Bit of a lazy morning. Bacon and Eggs for breakfast!

We didn’t get into the beach until 11am or so, and didn’t have that long as we needed to be back on the beach by 3pm ready for the tour around Bare Island.

We had a 45min tour which was interesting (thankfully we didn’t have “Steve” as he had lots of bad reviews :)

Every cannon deserves a Photo. This one had been buried underground for 60+ years to make way for a pool table

None were ever fired in anger, only practice shots.

The fort was completed in 1885, but was only in operation for a few years as the contractors that built it cut corners and instead of solid concrete, had stuffed the walls with small rocks.
A survey concluded that officers would be safer standing on the outside of the fort during an attack than being inside given that the rocks would become shrapnel and kill everyone inside should the fort get hit :|

After the tour we walked around the base of Bare Island. More exploring.

Good view of the bay. No anchoring in here, but this is where the diving happens, especially when there is any swell about.

Back towards the beach there was a “Culture of Country” festival going on. Local/indigenous bands/performers.

The girls (with our help) did some weaving.

Sips ‘n dips (to the accompaniment of some terrible cat strangling sounds coming from the music stage) followed by some lamb for dinner.

There were various locations around the bay doing fireworks, so we all stayed up until 9pm to watch them. The closest would still have been 3km away, but had to be done.

Monday 27th

Bare Island also has a bit of a reputation for being a great dive site. It’s certainly accessible in most conditions and an easy shore dive (after lugging gear a long way!).

Thankfully we could just tender from Lazuli around the headland and bypass any walking.

Kristie was underwater at 10am, and the girls and I had a 40min or so snorkle. We saw quite a few fish and a small school of squid.
I pulled the tender along with us as you’re not supposed to anchor in that bay.

The following is Emma’s account of our snorkle:

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On Monday, we went snorkling at Bare Island.  

First we needed to get ready.  We got on our warm wetsuits, snorkle, and wetsuit shoes.

Mum was preparing for a dive.

We climbed into the tender and motored off.  We anchored the tender and slid into the water.

We saw a sandy bottom below us, a couple of fish, and a still stingray. 

Then daddy got told he wasn't allowed to anchor there so he had to hold the tender when he swam!

Next we saw cutltlefish, more fish, plenty of sea urchins and weird purple coral.

We had lots of fun and saw more stuff than mummy!

I had thoughts of diving after Kristie, but she wasn’t that impressed by it, so I gave it a miss.

No beach swim, but the girls and Kristie enjoyed a swim off the back of the boat.

Lots of shipping happening all the time. The tugs were lurking in readiness just at the right time for a sunset shot.

Tuesday 28th

First day of School, so the girls were up top after their morning jobs were done.

Headed in for a swim. It’s still NSW school holidays so the beach was quite busy. Lovely conditions this morning.

I went up to the local mini mart to try and stock up on groceries, but could only got milk and eggs: they were quite limited any anything fresh as such.

More swimming, then Kristie did a quick run to local takeaway (a.k.a. “Tuckshop”) to get some hot chips for lunch. Yum.

We needed to get back to Lazuli to get across to Kurnell to grab a mooring as we were in for some southerly gales this afternoon and night.
Just like at Rose Bay, it went from North 10-15, to South 23knts in about 5min.

I had the VHF on #12 monitoring the port traffic, and they were sending out messages for all ships to ensure they were fully secure and ready for the 30-40knt winds.

We got the wind, and a little rain. Glad to be on a mooring :)

Eggs for dinner as we’ve run out of planned dinners.

Depending on the weather we might start our journey north tomorrow. We’re aiming for Pittwater, probably two nights there to get shopping/washing done, before heading further north.

Saturday 11th

Our destination for today was going to be Broken Bay, which is about 16nm north of Port Jackson (Sydney).

Early start as we needed to top up fuel and water before getting under Spit Bridge at 8:30am. The marina just to the west of the bridge had an easy fuel dock, especially as there was zero wind about.
We filled up 3 jerry cans of diesel, and another 10L of unleaded for the tender. We ended up just waiting on the fuel dock for the bridge to open.

With the light winds we motored all the way to the heads, then tried our luck at sailing. We sailed for 45min or so before the wind went more north and lighter. Iron Headsail back up/on.
Easy enough trip, we listened to a few audiobooks we’d downloaded.

We motored all the way in and around to America Bay and picked up a public mooring.

There’s no reception there, so I set up Starlink for the first time this trip.

Didn’t leave the boat otherwise.

Sunday 12th

Not too many boats about on this side.

We got in the tender to go checkout the walk at the end of America Bay. It leads up to the top of the waterfall.
However, we got there at high tide and there’s nowhere to land the tender. It’s oyster covered rocks all around.

Back to Lazuli to grab togs and get ready to head over to the beach at Refuge Bay.

This beach has a waterfall that you can stand under, and a track up to the top with some rock pools with “infinity views”.

We ended up chatting to another boating couple who had some niece/nephews with them. Their boat had been a few down from ours at CYCA!
They gave us a few more recommendations of things to do, and were going to head off to The Basin themselves later.

We were about to walk up when a group from another boat set off. We waited for them to come back down and set off ourselves.

It was a bit of bush bash, with the track not that clear in parts. We ended up at the “cascades” section, before heading back down to the cliff top.

We had the place to ourselves and enjoyed the pools and great views.

More swimming when we got back down, then back to Lazuli for lunch.

Tried more fishing, but only 3 small silver fish. Still fun.

We pumped up the SUP for the first time this trip, and Kristie set off for a late afternoon paddle around America Bay.

Our friends on Ambrosia had been up in Nelson Bay / Port Stephens since we left then in Coffs.
Kristie got a message that they were on the way into Broken Bay and had they seen us on AIS and were going to come to America Bay.
The girls were super excited to see Rona again, and ate dinner on the boat ready to spot them when they came around the headland.

They picked up a mooring near us, and we didn’t even give them time to settle before the girls wanted to head over to say hi.
We ended up on their boat for a few drinks. Finally back to our boat for dinner at 9:30pm.

Monday 13th

Another lovely morning with zero wind. Kristie set off to go SUP’ing around Refuge Bay. She was away for about an hour.

I sorted breakfast for the girls then took off when she got back. I did both bays, about 6.4km and 1:24hr in total.

Any opportunity to jump off the back is taken.

I had a work call at 11am, so the girls and Kristie had arranged to meet the others over at Refuge Beach for a swim; I’d SUP over after the meeting.

Kristina had been wanting to have a go starting the tender for a while, so she jumped in a had a few goes before she cracked it! Now she can do it every time! Very proud.

Starlink worked well for the call, despite the boat swinging about a bit.

By the time I’d SUP’d over to meet the others I was done paddling for the day :)

We had a swim, then climbed up the top to the pools with the other 3.

Back to Lazuli for a late lunch, and then a spot of cleaning/organising as the others would join us on board for drinks/dinner tonight.

Kristie baked some biscuits as we were out of all other snacks to share. The first lot in the oven were a bit brown on the bottom, but the rest were great if not a little salty.

The girls had dinner before our guests turned up, then spent the next 3hours playing lego/loom bands with Rona.

We enjoyed dinner/drinks up top until 9pm or so.

Tuesday 14th

I’d seen a few stingrays right up the end of Refuge Bay, so Kristie jumped on the SUP to head over to check them out.

We’d agreed to cast off at about 8am and head around the corner to The Basin while the winds were light (it’s no good there on a strong NE through SE).

We both picked up public moorings, and got in tenders to head in for a swim. It’s a national park/camping area, so a beach landing fee applies: $3/adult, $2/child.

We spent quite a bit of time there before heading back to our boats for lunch. We’d planned on doing a 5km walk up to see some Aboriginal rock carvings later this arvo.

We met on the beach around 2pm, and made good use of the grounds facilities (including rubbish disposal!).

The walk had indicated the start was steep. It was more or less constant up to the top of the hill, about 150m above sea level (which is where we started!).
The first section was nice, good tree coverage and caves/rocks for the girls to play on.

The rest was open fire trails, exposed, no wind, and hot :(

We had numerous stops before we finally got to the site. Spent a bit of time reading the signs and checking out the carvings.

The only upside to the walk was that it was more or less downhill all the way back down.

Was relieved to get to the bottom of the track with no injuries for the girls.

The girls walked around the beach/rocks to the beach opposite our boats. I’d gone back to Lazuli to grab their togs. The wind was up, the sun was behind the hill: we didn’t last long.

Early/normal dinner by ourselves after the last few late nights.

Wednesday 15th

Kristie took the SUP for a paddle around The Basin first thing while the wind wasn’t too much.

I went up top a bit later to see if I could see Kristie, only to discover the tender was floating about 20m away from Lazuli, not attached as it’s supposed to be.
Nothing for it other than a quick swim to retrieve it. Refreshing way to start the day. Hoping not to make this mistake again!

We needed to do a grocery trip today. The plan was to head down to anchor off the SE corner of Scotland Island, then jump in the tender and head in.

Ambrosia had left earlier than us to go fuel up and top up water. We were anchored up when they came over and dropped their anchor not too far from us.
Turns out they dropped a little too much anchor… all of it in fact. They ended up calling a diver to come and get their chain back for them.
As they were going to be doing circles for a while, we took Rona into shore with us.

There is a great playground at Winnererremy Bay. There was a handy ramp to pull the tender up, and a big playground with a cafe attached.
Kristie set off to Woolies, while I stayed with the kids.

They had a good play, then quick break for ice cream/coffee, then more playing while waiting for Kristie to Uber back.

Guy and Cassie were not far away having a look at the berth they’d booked when they first lost the anchor. We dropped Rona off with them and got back to Lazuli to stow all the groceries and a late lunch.

We wanted to see Jerusalem Bay as everyone we’d met raved about it. Took us a few hours to motor around. It’s a lovely spot, but only 3 public moorings that were all taken.
We dropped anchor down the end, only one other boat out there.

We had dinner over sounds of thunder.

The storm then really turned up a few notches, lots of wind and lightning. The wind had swung 180degrees from when we’d originally anchored, and it wasn’t long before we started dragging.
With so much rain and wind, we needed to get the anchor up quick. The thought of trying to set it again during the middle of a lighting storm wasn’t that appealing: I could barely see Kristie at the front of the boat, let alone hear/talk to her.
Kristie got the anchor up, then we motored in the rain back to Refuge Bay. Autopilot is the easiest way to navigate in these conditions.

Spotlight out, we found a mooring (by pure chance more or less next to Ambrosia!) in amongst all the other boats. There seemed to be so many moorings during the day, but it was much harder to find one in the middle of a storm at night!
Once we were hooked up, it was time to dry off and have some Talisker and chocolate to recover.

Saw this article in the news the following morning. This is what hit us.

Thursday 16th

Rain.

Rain.

A bit more rain.

Guy and Cassie came by to see if anyone wanted to get off the boat and onto the beach (Refuge Beach). Only Kristina was up for that!
They’d been at the beach a while when the rain stopped and Kristie got on the SUP to go join them.
By this time Kristina was mostly blue and ready to come back to the boat!

More rain.

The Ambrosia crew came over for sip’s ‘n dips.

The girls had fun with games, lego, and Uno.

Friday 17th

After two (more) nights at Refuge Bay it was time to go somewhere else. There was some walking tracks and a playground at Bobbin Head, so we aimed for that.

We got down there by about 9am, but no moorings were free. Lots of space to anchor, but with rain, more strong winds predicted, and the memory of the recent storm still quite fresh, a mooring for the night was the preferred option.

We both turned around and went back up to Waratah Bay, which has four moorings (three of which were free!).

Raining again.

Rona invited the girls over to watch a movie and hang out on their boat. Kristie and I got some jobs done. I went for a SUP, and got punished by the strong winds getting back to the boat.

Cassie suggest getting off the boat and going for a walk up the creek. We put our wet weather gear (back) on and headed into shore.
The walk up wasn’t too long, but we still found a few leeches!

We dropped the girls back onto their boat and went to ours to get some afternoon supplies, and spent the afternoon/evening in their nice protected centre cockpit!
(we are envious of the protection and clears that you can see through!)

Quite a lot of wind tonight. Sydney was recording 4m waves!

Saturday 18th

The wind eventually died down, but still a bit more rain.

We thought we’d be well protected from the SE winds in this bay. However the wind goes straight up Cowan Creek, then hits the headland and is funnelled and accelerated directly onto us as though coming from the North!

We wanted to get to Bobbin Head, and got ready to leave. We waited for a gap between guests, but the bullets were coming in thick and fast, so we stayed the night there again!

The only excitement for the day was a house boat coming and and missing their mooring, and then by the grace of some deity managed to not end up on the rocks (it must have been close!).

We found another paddle that had washed up on the rocks behind us.

Sunday 19th

Almost glass like conditions, so after a quick breakfast left for Bobbin Head. Luckily one mooring was free so we grabbed that.
Ambrosia took one in the last bay before Bobbin Head, about 0.5nm out from us (according to AIS).

We got geared up for a play in the playground and a short walk to the rainforest. All three girls had fun with their various games.

Eventually we managed to coax them out of the playground and off for the walk.

Boardwalk through the mangroves, before up and over a small hill and into a really nice rainforest like creek.

Kristina set off exploring up the creek; everyone else tried to keep up.

All up I think it was a 6-skittle-walk.

The public park there is well set up, with lots of free BBQ’s. I suggested we make use of these facilities, and cook up some saussages we had in the fridge.
I went back to Lazuli, and Guy to Ambrosia to get supplies.

Lunch was going well until I sat/leaned on the end of our table: it wasn’t up for that kind of punishment. Guy lost his lunch, and the chairs got Emma and Kristie on the way down.

We moved tables and eventually recovered from the shock. Kristie walked off to let the Parks team know, and wasn’t long before they showed up to tape it off and take details.

The girls spent more time in the playground, while the four of us enjoyed some beverages Guy had brought back from his boat.

It started to rain a few times, but every time we stood up and grabbed our gear it stopped. Until one time it didn’t stop :(

We made the most of a dry spell to get back to the boats. The others were going to come back to our boat: Guy had a laptop with a dead screen, so our TV with HDMI would work as an external screen so he could back it up and get everything he needed off it.

Once that was done it was time for more cheese and some Laphroaig. I would have shared, but sadly Guy isn’t into smokey peat, so I had it all to myself.

Monday 20th

We left Bobbin Head after breakfast with the intention to spend a bit of time at Cottage Rock, and then finally back around to The Basin for the night.

After all the wet days, it was a relief to finally see blue skies!

It was about an hour motor up Cowan Creek to get to Cottage Rock. The three moorings there were all taken, but there were four free at the next bay Hallets Beach.
We took the tender and paddle board into the beach.

It wasn’t long before Emma wanted back on the boat to be warm. Kristie paddled over to find the waterfall at Cottage Beach; Kristina and I hung out on the beach and made/moved some forts.

I then had a paddle over to the waterfall, and a refreshing dunk under it. Kristina wanted to see it, so we took the SUP back to Lazuli and picked up Emma for the ride.
The water was quite cold and coming down with some force. At high tide there wouldn’t be any beach there.

Back to Lazuli for a nice hot shower and scrub. Late lunch and then got the tender back up on the davits for the trip around to The Basin.

We dropped the mooring just as Ambrosia was coming around the corner to moor at Cottage Rock for the night.

We picked up the last public mooring. Too much swell/waves for a SUP.

I had some more boat jobs to do, the nav devices were playing up a bit (voltage related).

Tuesday 21st

We are off back to Sydney today, with the intention of then getting to Botany Bay on Friday.

We needed groceries, and wanted to top up fuel and water. The fuel dock at the Royal Motor Yacht Club opens at 8am.
We were there about 8:30, and no other boats on the fuel dock so easy to come in and tie up. We only had two jerry cans to do, and about 250L of water.

Wasn’t long before we were on the way to anchor off Scotland Island again to tender into Mona Vale for shopping.

I had organised to catch up for a coffee with Mal, whom I worked with for many a year, many many years ago and lives just down the road from where we were stopping.

Kristie headed into Woolies and the bottle shop: we’ve been drinking more than intended thanks to hanging out with Guy and Cassie, and cider supplies were dwindling rapidly.

Was great to catch up with Mal over coffee, while the girls entertained themselves in the “all kids require supervision” playground (they had made friends and were having a great time).
Mal drove us to the shops to pick up Kristie and the shopping and ran us back to the tender (thanks Mal!).

We loaded up and made the slow (it doesnt get up and plane with the four of us unless there is flat water, down hill, and a tail wind) ride back to Lazuli.

Sushi for lunch, then up with the anchor and motored up to the heads: Kristie at the helm while I got the boat ready for sailing.

We poked our head out a bit past North Head then set sail. There was another similar-sized boat doing the same, only about 300m in front of us: race on!

The wind was maybe 10-12knts ENE, and a 1.5-2m gentle swell. We probably averaged 7nts the whole way down to Sydney.
We had overtaken the other boat, then they headed out to sea a little and appeared to catch up.

I finally got the chance to sail into Sydney Heads (on the way down last time it was night, and we were motoring).

At the end, we furled the jib and had main only and then gybed once we could reach back north through the heads to Manly.
The other boat was cutting a tighter angle through the heads (and much closer to the cliffs than I’d be comfortable with), so jib back out.

We dropped sails early and motored up to Manly Harbour to drop anchor not to far away from Ambrosia, who’d probably gotten here an hour before us.

We enjoyed the sun for a bit then time for dinner.

A short burst of rain came a bit after dinner.

Lovely spot, apart from all the ferry wash: more than any other spot we’ve stayed in yet.

The hustle and bustle of Manly is a bit of shock after the solitude of cruising Cowan Creek.

We’ll have a few days here before heading south (hopefully) early Friday.