Te Moana

Blessing the Fleet

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 17:01:30 +1100

A long established custom in Ulladulla is the blessing of the fleet at Easter. This year visiting yachties enjoyed the official blessing of the local priest.

Festive Ulladulla

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 11:00:23 +1100

We're still in Ulladulla and the weather has looked up for the festivities. Glorious sunshine after a few pretty dreary days.

The flags on our boats looked particularly colourful at dawn. Craig is coming down by car and will help me take the boat back non-stop to Pittwater. We'll take around 22 hours and expect to depart mid to late afternoon.. If you're interested, you can follow us on "Where is Te Moana".

Sucker for sunrises

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 11:55:54 +1100

We left Greenwell point early yesterday in order to catch up with our Alfreds Cruising friends and to try and arrive together at our Easter destination, Ulladulla.

We weighed anchor at sunrise and were rewarded with a magnificent sight. Our arrival in Ulladulla was a little challenging, but we eventually settled in OK.

Getting ready to leave again

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 08:22:11 +1100

We arrived in Crookhaven / Greenwell Point yesterday and caught up with the 5 boats ahead of us. We're having a lay day to mope around, do the laundry and catch up with some sleep. The lack of sleep was courtesy of a Sudden Southerly, as I wrote about elsewhere.

A bit of a Southerly didn't stop the other boats from moving on at daybreak, and we might follow later today.

Caught with their undies down

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:33:10 +1100

We set off for Ulludulla on Sunday afternoon and got as far as Towlers Bay. Heh! at least we could say we left on Sunday... Anyway, sometime during the evening, Joy discovered that she had left her handbag and phone in the car. So we resolved to return to the club early monday morning to retrieve said bag.

We dropped our mooring at 6.00 am to return to the club, but as our berth came into view, it was clear someone had been reading the blog entries, realised there was a vacant spot on F arm and was enjoying a berth at Pittwater's best marina! Joy and I have been known to lose our temper at such unauthorised use. However, as we neared the boats, it turned out to be "Red Undies", Ken's pride and joy. Ken is one of the world's true gentlemen and is solely responsible for quite a number of New Year's bashes at his Lake Macquarie home. So we refrained from waking him and used the fuel wharf instead. Be our guest, Ken

Heading for Ulladulla

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 06:23:36 +1100

We're heading for Ulludulla as part of the RPAYC "End of Summer" cruise. I'll blog here about our progress and happenings. There are bound to be some surprises once we reach Ulladulla. You can follow along here and sees where we are on the map below.

Dramatic Re-entry

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 04:32:01 +1100

Early on Sunday, we went into Broken Bay to witness the official return of Blackwattle. It was one of those time when you feel lucky to be out on the water. It had everything: rainbows, dramatic light and fellow sailors celebrating a couple's great achievement.

Early in the New Year

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 08:27:25 +1100

Happy New Year to Everyone! We like to get up early on New Year's day and the see the sunrise on the new year (which for our Northern Hemisphere friends is well before 6.00 am).

Again, this year, we're privileged to be able to celebrate the future with a little champagne and breakfast while we watch the world wake up around us.

The last of 2007

Mon, 31 Dec 2007 20:22:21 +1100

It's been quite a year. We're in Hardys Bay, seeing the year out. Goodbye 2007.

The sun will come up again as normal tomorrow, reminding us to take life one day at the time.

Styles Point

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 19:16:26 +1100

After a brief shopping stop-over at Toronto, we anchored at Styles Point this afternoon. For the benefit of visitors: please check "Where is Te Moana".

We're looking forward to tomorrow's Barbie with Lawrie and Louise (and PC and Queisha) and on Saturday taking the Coomans clan for a sail.

Getting up at Dawn

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 05:50:48 +1100

We've had several attempts to get Jake to do "his business" on the boat. No, real dogs do it on land and he refuses point blank, so my job when cruising is to take him ashore mornings and nights. I won't recount here our attempts to get him to see the error of his ways, but I've secretly been very happy to have the excuse to step into the dinghy in the evening and early morning.

Apart from sailing itself, one of the real pleasures is waking early and watching the slow transformation from night to day. Hearing the birds wake up, watching the silver reflections on the water. Anyway, Jake woke me extra early this morning (ahem... 4.30 am). On returning to the boat, I got a chair out and just sat on the stern of the boat until sunrise. An genuine pleasure.

Catching the Dolphins

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 08:57:14 +1100

This morning on our way to Lake Macquarie we were followed (ahem... led) by a nice pod of dolphins for over half an hour. A few Mums with calves and a bunch of playful teenagers. Lying on the trampoline you can just about touch them and there is no doubt that they enjoy spectators. Catching the action with a camera is quite a challenge, though. So for the first fifteen minutes, I didn't even bother getting the camera. Too many times I've wasted valuable dolphin play time by staring through a lens and wishing they were more predictable. In stead I just enjoyed the action. But then, I couldn't help myself and got the camera out anyway.

This is the usual shot you get, showing where they had been:

Getting a shot of a dolphin out of the water is the aim of the game:

But I think this is the "keeper" for today, a bit "arty", but capturing some of the action:

We're off

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 05:14:25 +1100

We're just passing Barrenjoey as I write this. The forecast is for light southerly wind, so it will be motoring all the way. We're updating "Where is Te Moana" along the way.

Leaving Monday

Sun, 23 Dec 2007 06:05:04 +1100

We have decided to let the sea settle down a bit after yesterday's weather and have postponed our departure until tomorrow morning.

Christmas Cruise

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 12:47:48 +1100

This weekend, we're off to Lake Macquarie. If you're interested in finding out where we are, check out the "Where is Te Moana" page.