Sydney, December 2024
Euphoric to be back in Sydney after the challenges of the past few months, we were soon back to our old routine, hanging out with our favourite Sydneysiders in our favourite city in the World.
We were back training with the Running Science crew – a talented, generous, and welcoming tribe who became our Sydney family. We were also back swimming with the Balance swim squad under the fabulous and enthusiastic instruction of swimmer extraordinaire, Josie.
Twice a week, I was out with Amy’s badass Goddesses, a team of inspiring women lifting heavy shit and winning at life all before breakfast. Saturday mornings were religiously about Greenway Parkrun followed by the best post-run breakfast at Orange Grove Farmers market.
On Sunday mornings, my worship took place in Manly at the Bold and Beautiful swim – 2k open water through the Cabbage Tree Bay marine park. Meanwhile the boys had their bikes back so were happy cycling the Bay laps, and resumed swimming at Leichhardt where they were rapidly promoted to the swim squad.
Other December highlights included a tour of Sydney Observatory. We also had an awesome weekend in the Snowy Mountains where we hiked to Australia’s highest peak, Mount Kosciuszko.
December reached peak epic-ness when we were generously offered two housesits complete with hot water, washing machines, flushing toilets and best of all, pets! Over Christmas we were hosted in Rozelle by Hank and Yogi, hyperactive, affectionate, ball-obsessed Golden Retrievers.
Then over New Year we were hosted in Lilyfield by Marvin, an eccentric, comedic, sedate Labrador and his sidekick, Toffee.
On New Years Eve, we anchored Mowzer in front of the Opera House and joined the best New Year’s party in the World. It was good to be back.
January and February 2025, Sydney
January and February passed without much excitement or drama for which we were unusually grateful.
We caught up on ‘school’, recharged our mental batteries, and worked on recouping our lost fitness after 6 months at sea.
Boat jobs, a common theme in our posts, continued apace. Those of you who live ashore might suppose that surely by now we would have fixed everything as we’re forever wittering on about repairing stuff. Those who have sailed will understand – there is no end to fixing stuff. Like Russian dolls, we complete one task only to reveal another problem, which then discloses another and so on. There is no end to the dolls…
In February I swam in the Cole Classic, Australia’s most iconic ocean swim event held in Manly. Australia is a country of incredible swimmers unsurprising, if you consider the length of its coast and the number of 50m pools. From our mooring we were a 5-minute dinghy ride away from 3 x 50m pools with many others dotted nearby around Sydney.
We became Parkrun tourists, clocking up runs across Sydney, with Angus returning to his sub-18 mins form and the boys reaching 40ish runs or volunteer credits. We celebrated Chinese New Year in Sydney’s vibrant Chinatown, visited French markets, attended Robotics workshops, and explored submarines at the Maritime Museum. We had a few weekend visits to Quarantine Bay from where we explored the Northern Beaches (and where we were able to scrub Mowzer’s hull in less sharky waters).
We visited Sydney’s Olympic BMX track and also had an archery lesson at the Olympic Park.
We took Mowzer out into the Harbour to watch Sail GP – an international sailing race featuring super-speedy, hydrofoiling catamarans that reach speeds of 55 knots. For reference, Mowzer’s top speed is 7 knots!
In February, we also plotted our next overseas adventure…
Sailing Mowzer 