Yesterday afternoon we went thru the Spit Bridge opening at 1415 planning to sail north to Broken Bay and hole up in Refuge Bay, within Broken Bay, at the mouth of the Hawkesbury River. We poked our nose outside Sydney heads, sailed for about 45 mins there and didn't think we could tolerate one more minute of it. The seas were all over the place, large and reflecting back from the heads cliffs. A very uncomfortable ride, (understatement) with sick animals and potentially sick people too. By the time everything that had not fallen to the floor during the Bass Str crossing hit the dust we turned around and beetled back through the heads and took a mooring in Rose Bay. We later went back to our favourite haunt in The Spit and slept well.

This morning we went through the Bridge opening at 1015 (the earliest) and bravely stuck our nose out through the heads again. This time we were better prepared with sails up and adjusted, and stuff stowed properly before reaching the crap seas. This time they weren't too bad but bad enough, and there was a pretty good breeze in the right direction. All good but rocky. So, off we sailed to Broken Bay and we are now in Refuge Bay. There are about 8 other boats in here enjoying the quiet which I suspect will be shattered on the weekend, there being approximately 140 moorings in here.

This little Bay is surrounded by green bush and rocky shores. The water is green and curiously full of quite large jellyfish. The sound of cicadas serenades us and there is no tel or TV reception. The neighbouring motor yacht has two Snausers (small cheeky dogs) aboard. They pop out to the transom now and again and bark, just to warn people to stay away from their place. Job done, they pop back in again. We plan to stay a couple of days until cyclone Oma makes landfall and peters out and to allow John to do a few more jobs. We will then keep heading north.

Bye. Ginni and John