Sydney April – May 2024

April 2024 in Sydney

With the weather clock ticking, the time was approaching for us to wrench ourselves away from the comforts and the innumerable joys of Sydney life. Reluctantly we ran our last Greenway Parkrun, had our final Running Science session, and did a last Goddess training camp. The boys had their final swimming lessons, skate session and robotics workshop.

We squeezed in a couple more of Sydney’s cultural gems; a tour of the White Bay Power Station which was showcasing the Ten Thousand Suns art installation; and immersed ourselves in a little corner of France at the fantastique Le Marché in Surry Hills.

The boys turned 11! We celebrated with a weekend building technical Lego in our favourite anchorage at Quarantine Bay and had dinner at Pocket Pizza in Manly.

One of my oldest pals, Julie came to visit from Auckland. We had the best time catching up whilst hiking Spit to Manly and touring the Gallery of NSW.

Another old friend, Gary, visited from Tokyo. Gary joined Angus for a long run to North Head and a quick sail past the Opera House and under the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Sydney – The kindness of strangers

Cyclone season came to an end and so the time came for us to resume our travels northwards. Sydney had become to feel very much like home, and we had found a tribe where we all felt we belonged. In our little corner of Sydney we’d happened across a gang of up-for-it, inspiring, enthusiastic, kind, and funny Sydneysiders who were generous enough to take us under their collective wing. We were loaned cars by complete strangers, offered houses to sit, and gifted bikes. We were driven to far flung events, loaned camping gear, regularly offered washing machines, showers and were fed many amazing meals. We were humbled by the kindness of these strangers who very quickly became great friends. Its thanks to these gorgeous people that our time in Sydney was so memorable. Thank you Phil & Chris, Jocie and Geoff, Lily, Nigel & the RS crew, Romy and Will, Emily and family, Amy and the Goddesses, Sammy and family.

May 2024 – Sydney to Brissy

In contrast to our magical time in Sydney the following few months in Australia were beset with challenges; major gear failure, illness, delays, bad weather and bad luck.

It began just a few hours out of Sydney on a moonless night in squally weather with an especially nauseating sea state. We heard a huge bang and quickly realised that our forestay (a wire that helps hold the mast up) had failed. We made an emergency pit stop in Pittwater, where we then got stuck for a month. It transpired that our UK rigger had ‘accidentally’ undersized our forestay, installing 8mm wire (hidden by the foil) rather than the 10mm we had specified and paid for. Our Aussie rigger also identified 3 other broken strands/bulges elsewhere and so the only safe option was to replace all of the 3-year-old standing rigging. And so began the frustrating and ultimately unsuccessful negotiations with our insurer and rigger. Our insurer not willing to pay out for poor workmanship; the UK rigger refusing to accept any responsibility.

And then our outboard broke… We were anchored 1km offshore with a tender that doesn’t row well. And it rained incessantly – proper monsoon-like, fat rain for hours at a time. We knew no one and the boys had no kids to hang out with. Mowzer suddenly began to feel very small. Thankfully, the silver lining in this particular cloud came in the form of Sammy, a local who ran the cafe at the dinghy dock. He befriended us, made us amazing coffee, entertained the boys, and fed us banana cake when we needed a morale boost. Also coming to our rescue was Lily, our Sydney neighbour, who generously loaned us the ‘Trash Car’ that she’d bought for AUD$1 but which proved invaluable to us.

Meanwhile, we explored Pittwater, regularly swam in the Avalon ocean pool, ran a lot, chased a lot of Geocaches, and made it to Curl Curl for a family Parkrun.

Also in May, very excitingly, Zoe, Barnaby, and Zennor became French citizens! Angus now just needs to pass a language exam and he too will regain his status as a European!!! Fantastique!

At the end of the month, with our new rigging installed, we made it to Cleveland in Brisbane ready for a few more mishaps.