For one week we traipsed around the Sydney area on foot and by bus, train and ferry with handy transit passes. We got as far inland as the Blue Mountains where we had a most marvellous hike through eucalypt woods and canyons. A trip south found us in Botany Bay to enjoy a coastal hike with our good, (Quebecois-now-Aussie) friends Guy and Helene from Carbon Neutral. Another day found us in the Maritime Museum visiting a replica of the Endeavour and the three-masted iron-hulled ship, James Craig.

Australia is beautiful, and we are blessed to be able to see even a small part of it. Australians are super friendly, happy and relaxed, their favourite expressions being, No worries or No drama. Everywhere we went we were greeted by friendly locals - so much so that it was often tricky to keep with the program. We hope that Canadians extend as warm and wonderful a welcome to Australians and other visitors to Canada as Australians extend to us!

Meanwhile our floating hotel room aka Sonsie lay at anchor safely back in Rozelle Bay, but eventually the traffic overhead on the Anzac Bridge got on our wick. Off we set to find another, quieter anchorage. We found a perfect spot off Balmain, opposite Cockatoo Island - once a great ship-building centre, now an industrial ghost site and campground. It had safe, calm waters with access to a free shore shower in the evening hours. Plus the added benefit of Wednesday and Friday night around-Cockatoo races. Two dozen boats sailed by us in silent splendour.

By January 6 we had made our way up the Middle Harbour, first anchoring just west of Manly where a tinny (open motorboat) zoomed up to sell us ice-creams - what a great money-making idea! (Even though we have a freezer we do not turn it on as it is a power-hog. As it lies alongside the fridge we use it as a cooler space for fruit, veggies and truth be told, chocolate.)

Later that day, after waiting for the prescribed hour of operation we passed by the lifting Spit Bridge and headed up to the sleepy little anchorage in Castle Cove. The Sulphur-crested Cockatoos screeched commandingly. Ear-splitting! Far more enjoyable were all the hilarious Laughing Kookaburras which kept us laughing too, until they finally settled down after dark.

On January 8 we snagged a mooring ball at the Cammeray Marina.We left Sonsie in this safe cove while we returned to Canada via Hong Kong (for a 12-hour pit stop where we were fortunate enough to be swooped up by Joanne's parents and taken sightseeing for the day).

We were off to see family and most importantly, to Seattle for the wedding of Jim's first-born daughter, Samantha, to her sailing partner and the love of her life, Jesse. Such a joyous occasion! It was also the first chance all Jim's five and Isabel's two adult children got to meet and be all together.

The wedding vows were the best we'd ever heard; Jesse telling Samantha that he had looked for her for a long time, and that they had told him she didn't exist. Tears well up in our eyes and hearts just remembering their expression of love for each other.

May all our readers experience such LOVE in their lives!

Thankfully we were able to snag two empty seats on a Qantas non-stop from YVR to SYD. By January 24 we were back in Sydney in time for Australia Day.

Again Sonsie bobbed at the hook in Farm Cove, this time in a drizzly, cool weather. It was all laid on, with swift jets flying over, helicopters hovering, massive cruise ships at anchor nearby, a parade of flag-proud dressed up watercraft and best of all - industrial ballet, with a pas-de-deux by a pair of tugboats while sailboats pirouetted around them to the strains of Ravel's Bolero. All those sails tacking and turning in unison was like watching synchronized moths on the water flitting as one in a mesmerizing way.

When the cannons boomed at noon it seemed to us to be in a surprisingly sombre way, like a watch for the fallen. Almost dirge-like, we felt, but we could have been misled by the greyness of the day... or possibly it was out of consideration for the contrasting experience of the other participants in the Australia storyline - the Aborigines...?