From Australia 2015

From Australia 2015

From Australia 2015

From Australia 2015

From Australia 2015

From Australia

We're now veterans of Sydney Harbor's NYE fireworks and ol' Evergreen is no worse for being there- but barely! Amid all the commentary on how nutty the harbor can get with boats everywhere, we and Fruit de Mer decided to get situated at anchor in Athol Bay the day before. We wanted a primo spot. Well about 100 other boats had the same idea and it was mayhem all day. We took a nice walk in Sydney Harbor Nat'l Park which surrounds much of the harbor but made sure we weren't gone for too long. Throughout the day, more boats kept rolling in, plunking their anchors down and opening a cold one in practically one motion. Who needs to back down, who needs more anchor rode than just enough to touch the bottom? And size actually DOESN'T matter! It was a nice evening and seeing the sun set over Sydney skyline & bridge from our vantage point was beautiful. Then at about 11pm, the predicted southerly wind switch happened in one sudden gust and boats started dragging through the anchorage as if they weren't even anchored- oh right, they actually weren't! We saw & heard boats bumping and Fruit de Mer got a little ding for a souvenir but we somehow stayed out of the path. What a circus. After a couple of hours, the wind settled down, the boats that held in place had more room and we all went to bed. We were dreading the next day.

But NYE felt really festive on the water- it was all one huge party and the weather was gorgeous with NO WIND so it was much less stressful. We always joke that we sail around a piece of furniture because of all the varnish, not to mention the precision windvane on the stern and the big bowsprit with the furler- it seems like any tap would cost us many pennies. We rang in the new year with Gerrit & Anne-Mieke spending time on both boats. The entertainment line-up included stunt planes who dive bombed the harbor, then went skyward till they stalled, then plunged straight down again. It seemed truly impossible to pull out of some of those stunts- those guys are nuts! There were 3 sets of fireworks over the course of the evening from 4 barges right in front of us and of course the Sydney bridge does it's thing too spewing out fireworks- a great show. Never seen so many colors in the sky and from so many places. We slept like rocks in a flat calm anchorage and were so glad we'd come on out to be there to see all of it.

We think summer has hit Sydney because it's been boiling hot for several days in a row. We schlepped ourselves in to town new year's day with a groupon for a burger & shake "American Style". We do crave these American foods and figured this was a sure thing. Well, it was a pretty heavy meal! We staggered back to the boat bloated, parched and soaked in sweat but it was fun! We've taken other expeditions in the Sydney area including the Justice & Police Museum. It was an interesting angle on the police history of 1800's Sydney. The most thought provoking part was a gallery of mug shots taken back in the 1800's of some of Sydney's worst criminals of the time period and then a write-up of all that was known about the crook in the photograph. At times the weapons had been recovered for display. Sydney also has a great convict museum that is a good window on how Australia was built- often on the backs of convicts, interesting & disturbing.

And now it's time to head to Tasmania, where the real convict history lies. We're both really looking forward to it and to getting back into the mountains. I don't think we'll be sweating either.