Spectacular Sydney

Returning to Mary Doll after our trips to Tasmania and Adelaide and all is good. Her home at Newport on the northern beaches is very tranquil and even though there are an obscene number of boats around it is never busy. Mary Doll is well looked after by the team at Rowell and her batteries remained fully topped up thanks to the solar panels we put on when we were last in St Lucia.

Even though we have several weeks to get into the Christmas spirit it’s still strange for the weather to be warm and have dinner cooked on the bbq. We spent Christmas with Joe, Deb and family. There youngest Darcy is 5 and a believer which brought back great memories of enjoying Christmas with young children. We had a lovely time and even wore the obligatory Xmas pjs. Xmas jumpers not such a big deal here . Highlight of the day was the musical entertainment from Joe, Jarryd and Liam not to mention the copious amounts of food and fine wine.
We spent a few days luxuriating in the benefits of land living, no constant checking on power, no motion sickness even with the wine and lastly fully functioning bathroom facilities with limitless hot water. Oh how the small things please us.

But back aboard Mary Doll it was decided that it would be nothing short of criminal if we didn’t move the boat to Sydney Harbour for the Hogmanay celebrations. We were accompanied by Joe and Gareth and Thomas who had flown over from Fremantle. It’s an easy 30 mile sail from Newport to our destination of the Sydney Cruising Yacht Club and everyone had a go at the helm. The obligatory views of the harbour bridge secured we spent a few days in the marina just a 30 min walk from the centre of town.

On Hogmanay we were joined by Anthony, Liam and our good friends John and Susie from Casamara. We had a blast and laughed until it was almost dawn. The fireworks at both 9pm and midnight were an experience we will treasure and one made all the better by spending it in fabulous company. We sailed back to Newport in early January accompanied by Anthony and his friend Stu but only after the statutory sail under the bridge and the photo op with the opera house in the background.

Then off we went to pink day at the Sydney Cricket Ground to watch Australia v’s Pakistan. Cricket is dull but we were enjoying corporate hospitality so that improved the experience exponentially. Derek loved all of it.

Whilst in Sydney a night at the opera is required, we acquired tickets for La Traviata and spent the evening awestruck at the architecture and the production. It’s a definite must for me on any trip to Sydney to include an Opera House production.

But we had more places to visit so we secured Mary Doll and headed off to Melbourne and the great ocean road.