Friday 19 December 2003
Arrived through Sydney Heads this morning at 7:40 a.m. local time. The weather was great, 9 day passage almost to the minute, so we just decided to continue on to Sydney instead of stopping at Coff's Harbour and then having to look for a weather window for the rest of the way down the coast. Very dramatic entrance, great cliffs on either side as you come in. Customs came along side almost immediately and escorted us to the Quaratine Bouy to do all our paper work and have them look through tthe boat. I, Suzette, was just wearing a t-shirt, fleece pullover and bikini bathing suit bottom, so as we motored to the bouy I quickly ditched the fleece (it was getting warm), added a bra and pareo to try to look a bit more presentable. We were thinking perhaps we would have a few minutes to clean up the boat a bit, but oh well.
We soon had four people on board with 2 more standing off in their tender. All very nice, but a couple big guys so the space seemed very small. Paul and I answered questions and showed them what they wanted. Was glad that they did not take some of the things we thougth they might, always a nice surprise. Stayed on their bouy for a couple of hours as no more boats were expected today and we got the anchor chain back up and a few other things sorted. Then motored an hour or so into the main part of Sydney Harbour looking for friends who are here. Found them with the help of a local and we are now anchored next to each other in the prettiest spot. We are in Farm Bay which is a small bay indented in the Royal Botanic Gardens so we are surronded by a very pretty park. We are also a stone's throw from the famous Sydney Opera House with the dramatic harbour bridge behind it. We are so close seems like you can reach out and touch it. Only down side is that there is no good dinghy dock, just a place where we can drop off and pick up, so Paul dropped me off to make a quick trip ashore and check email. We got all of your messages, printed them out and will respond back tomorrow as necessary. We will probably move on Sunday to another anchorage with better place to leave the dinghy.
Sydney is a BIG CITY with 4 million in the greater metro area. New Zealand by comparison has only 3 million in the whole country. So I have been walking around downtown in a bit of a daze. At least we came from Noumea which has 100,000 people. Think if we had made the trip direct from Vanuatu after a full 6 month cruising season it would ahve been quite a shock to the system.
LOTS of boats and lots out today for Christmas parties as it the last weekend before Christmas. The Customs people were glad we came in so early as they have their party today in fact. our little cove where we are anchored seems to be part of the charter boat circut and we think we saw almost all of the Sydney charter fleet within a couple of hours of anchoring, it was a constant parade. Fortunatley it seemed to stop just as I wasa getting ready to take my shower before coming ashore so I did not have to do the bathing suit shower after all. The number of boats was almost overwhelming in the harbour as a whole -- everything from large freighters to small skiffs, square rigged sailing ships, trendy charter cats, etc. so wonderful to see a city that really uses their water and there are bays every where!!! Think you could spend months exploring all the options.
Anyway, wanted to write this quick note, we both are tired and probably will not last too long tonight before heading to bed. it's been a "bit spirited" as the kiwis would say so we are looking forward to a nice sleep without having to get up every 3-4 hours and with the boat nice and flat.
love to you all, missed being able to write on passage, hope you are all well
--- suz and paul