GHOST

A blog account of the activities of yacht GHOST.

Vessel Name: GHOST
Vessel Make/Model: Hanse 470e
Hailing Port: Southampton
Crew: Brad and Kat McMaster
06 May 2011 | Melbourne
01 February 2011 | Melbourne
05 December 2010 | Sydney Harbour, Australia
28 November 2010 | Pittwater, NSW, Australia
28 November 2010 | Sydney Harbour, Australia
28 November 2010 | Pittwater, NSW, Australia
23 November 2010 | Pittwater, NSW, Australia
17 November 2010 | Coffs Harbour
12 November 2010 | 100nm NE of Coffs Harbour
10 November 2010 | closing on Australian coast east of Brisbane
08 November 2010 | On route to Oz
07 November 2010 | Baie de Prony, New Caledonia
06 November 2010 | Vanuatu & New Caledonia
03 November 2010 | Noumea, New Caledonia
25 October 2010 | Santo, Vanuatu
14 October 2010 | Aore Island, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu
13 October 2010 | Aore Island, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu
12 October 2010 | Aore Island, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu
05 October 2010 | Aore Island, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu
16 September 2010 | On route to Vanuatu
Recent Blog Posts
06 May 2011 | Melbourne

It's Official

It's a sad but good thing, we no longer own GHOST. She is now owned by an architect in Sydney who has plans of sailing the South Pacific once again.

01 February 2011 | Melbourne

Reality bites!!

It's been a while since we updated the blog. Apologies for that but we've been busy fighting off the onslaught of reality, not really wanting to admit it's over! After arriving it was the welcome party in Sydney, followed by a hectic week of moving ALL our personal stuff off GHOST. On a side note, it [...]

05 December 2010 | Sydney Harbour, Australia

Pictures from the party & sailing around Sydney harbour

See pics:

28 November 2010 | Pittwater, NSW, Australia

GHOST for sale!

Well it's sad news but GHOST is now officially up for sale!

28 November 2010 | Sydney Harbour, Australia

Welcome to Sydney GHOST

Well it was a brilliantly sunny day as we set off from Pittwater in GHOST, entering the Sydney heads about lunchtime. It was a pretty emotional sail through this iconic harbour which Brad has envisaged sailing into as long as he's dreamt of sailing home to Australia. Soon we were pulling up to the [...]

Dave & Balbina in the Sardinian islands

14 August 2009 | Cala di Volpe
Dave
Since finding out Brad had such a large appendage, we have scoured the Sardinian coast and National Marine Parks looking for places big enough to accommodate it. A quick sail north to Isola Razzoli, we found the appropriately named Cala Lunga. Packed with yachts all on buoys in the inner bay we dropped the hook outside and prepared for a lazy afternoon. In deciding where to spend the night Babi & I took the dinghy and a handheld VHF to recce the inner bay for a free mooring. There seems to be a stigma attached to bays on the mainland (well, I say mainland - Sardinia is of course an island itself) as we have found these, whilst not deserted but much less crowed and the chances of finding an elusive buoy were slim to none. We had two hopes - Bob Hope and no hope, and the latter won. We didn't fancy the swell coming in from the west, uninterrupted from the Spanish coast to we had a brisk sail down to the "mainland" to find a beautiful, almost deserted anchorage, Porto Liscia where despite the still powerful winds we ate well and slept soundly.

Leaving the next morning under sail and 18 knots of breeze we were in the groove on a starboard tack when we came across a chap with crew hanging off the rail determined to pass ahead of us. Unfortunately it was a direct collision course, so Brad got on the fog horn and a couple of blasts and some ferocious shouting of "starboard" soon made him see the error of his ways and he passed safely behind us. Of course, this did open him up to a bit of friendly completion as we tightened the sheets and dug in to 8 knots to catch him. Too many tacks later the race finally ended when we had to head to our lunchtime destination of Maddalena. Free water and power for two hours and a bit of shopping meant we were fully refreshed for the final leg of the day to Liscia di Vacca. A glorious bay with clear water and a Wally (google it). Such was the atmosphere that the Cachaça came out and Cipirinia became the order of the day.

Friday was a late hangover induced start - Quick motor around to Porto Cervo and pick up a buoy with the intention of a quick look around town and some more provisioning. The ever present marina gestapo rudely declared it would be EUR175.00 to stay there!!! Hold on, that's more than a hotel and we've brought our own accommodation and breakfast! No wonder there was a free mooring. Undeterred we head to Cala di Volpe, where we come across and equally beautiful bay - rammed with mega-mega yachts and a little bay at the top just deep enough to anchor. Along with 10 other boats we were minding our own business all afternoon until the Coast guard came along in a little rib and told everyone to move. Being British (well, almost in Brads case) we moved 100 meters further in to the bay, as did most people. A couple of yachts stayed and were joined by some new ones, so having now waited a suitable amount of time, we are heading back into the more sheltered waters. Tomorrow we may have to post bail.....

For more photos see: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/bradmcmaster1/Sardinia2009WithDaveBalbina#
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