Sail to Pittwater
10 February 2019 | Little Pittwater Bay
Helen
Watched the movie, I Am Legend. Mark insisted he didn't see it but I remembered parts of it. There were some noisy boats in our anchorage, but the noise died down by the time we headed to bed around 10:30. I woke up several times thru the night and was awake for a while. Maybe it was from missing our cruise ship time!! Mark was awake around 7, but we both fell back asleep till 7:30. We both enjoyed our breakfast. Mark checked the weekend times of the Spit Bridge openings. We didn't have to rush as the next opening wasn't until 10. Mark did engine checks and we prepped the boat for heading out on the ocean. I cleaned up the kitchen and put things away. Then Mark hauled anchor, while I was at the helm. Thankfully, we were not too close to anyone else. Several boats had already left. We motored to the bridge. Lots of sailboats were already there or passed us as we motored slowly. They were all vying for first place thru the bridge and it doesn't matter their size. We were just heading for the opening when one of my sisters called. Chris was on her way to volunteer at the Florida Theater. I missed being there with her and the rest of the volunteers!! As we headed out the channel we passed a lot of small racing sailboats. Thankfully, they mostly stayed clear of us as Mark was trying to hoist the main. Mark pointed out a sailboat, on a mooring, with their mast down and sails out in the water. Looks like the big blowy winds from yesterday were to blame. No one was around. The wind was in our face, until we got close to the Heads, on the Sydney Harbour entrance. There are some good sized swells coming off the ocean. They were at least 6 feet and they were headed for downtown Sydney. We got to the ocean around 11. It would be several more hours before we got to Pittwater. Mark suggested going back to American Bay. At least it's an area with lots of free pink mooring balls. Mark added a reefed jib and our speed increased to 6 knots! Yeah! He shut off one engine as we rounded the corner out on the ocean. We headed around 17 miles north. Kept the one engine on as there must have been current against us and we were only making 3 knots of speed. It was very sunny with some clouds. The strong breeze was cold. Wind was around 13-14 knots. I had to add a jacket when we hauled anchor. The air was too cold for me. The hot sun helps if you have some protection from the wind. The swells increased to 6-10 feet. The wind decreased to 8-9 knots and we thought about flying the spinnaker, but the seas were too big to be out on the deck putting up the sail. Saw lots of boats on the water. Maybe that was because it's Sunday! Had lunch along the way. Mark had a sandwich, while I had cereal. I didn't want to cook anything with the movement from the swells. We also snacked along the way. After lunch, Mark had a short nap while I took over helm duties. The big swells were crashing into the rocks on the coast line. When Mark got up, he also felt cold. To the point that he wore his heavy rain jacket and needed a sweatshirt as well to keep him warm. I put on my shoes and socks as well as a jacket and I was still cold. The sunshine felt great but the breeze kept the heat away. The high was just around 75 degrees. Headed into the Pittwater entrance just after 3 pm. We could see those big jelly fish floating just under the surface of the water in this area. Selected Little Pittwater Bay as it had protection from the wind and cell coverage. Anchored by 3:30. With the jelly fish in the water, there is no way I would be going in the water. A couple of small boats came into our bay to fish. They won't be staying overnight. However, every time a boat goes past this bay, we receive their wake. I would say that we are also getting the ocean swells thru here and that is waking us too. We had a nice relaxing afternoon. Caught up on emails and posted pictures to Facebook. Thanks to everyone that posted comments or sent us emails. Love to hear your news. Happy birthday to sister-in-law, Deb! We my move to another bay tomorrow if the wind changes results in rocking us too much. Will also decide which broker to work with after we get the boat evaluation form that we paid for.