Sydney, November and December 2023.
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October drew to a close, sailing with Ron and Michelle Watson on the Pittwater, followed by sundowners at 153 Garden Street, our community of 19 townhouses in Warriewood.
The first weekend in November saw us in Orange, central west NSW, for a visit to Karen and Evan, who we hadn’t seen for three months. It gave us the opportunity to visit the annual Garden Ramble in Millthorpe, 24 km from Orange. This quaint village has some spectacular gardens and ten properties were open to visitors.
We also had dinner with Gideon Sauer, an old friend, who sailed with us in Greece and Turkey, 37 years ago. He and his partner Francois Bothma, who was in London, recently moved into a new house in Orange with beautiful views across an adjoining farm.
The sailing scene also got busy, with the Sail Cruise Division organising a sail to Patonga Beach for a pub lunch, followed by sundowners at Refuge Bay and a sleepover.
A free weekend in middle November allowed us to tick off the last items on our maintenance list. We replaced two cams on the Spinlock Power clutches as well as the Spinlock winch feeder on the coachroof. Having replaced two cams in Antigua, we knew this was a big job and had been putting it off, cursing, when the clutches didn’t work.
This work involved stripping the ceiling panels, disconnecting the lights and switches, before removing a plethora of screws and bolts necessary for the clutches to cope with substantial halyard forces. This was followed by disassembling the clutches to replace the cams and then reversing the process. We also replaced the damaged skirts of the Harken coachroof winches and serviced the winches. This took a full day and a bit of shouty-shouty with Annie, my reluctant offsider.
The next day, I went up to the top of the mast to replace the two sheaves for the main halyard and the topping lift, which were totally shot, making it difficult to hoist the mainsail. We spent the rest of the day polishing the dull and marked gelcoat on the stern of Esprit.
By the third week of November, it seemed like La Nina was back, with a lot of rain over most of NSW for more than a week. This rain was welcome, as the summer fires had already started in north western NSW and was now mostly brought under control – for the time being. Some of our RMYC Cruising Division sailing was cancelled as a result.
After six years of daily analysis of weather forecasts, to plan our safest route around the world, we find it’s now part of our daily existence and difficult for us to ignore.
However, the rain wasn’t to last long. By the 7th December El Nino was back with a vengeance. The NSW forecast for the 8th December indicated a heat island over our area with temperatures over 40 deg C. To add to the excitement, Cyclone Jasper, the earliest cyclone in 18 years in our part of the world’s cyclone seasons, incubated south of the Solomon Islands.
The forecast as of the 9th December was for Jasper to make its landfall near Cairns in Northern Queensland. You may recall, we were hit by Cyclone Debbie in the same area back in April 2017. It wasn’t pleasant. We’ll keep an eye on Jasper and report on its progress.
In the meantime, the Christmas parties around this time of the year, built up, resulting in our bathroom scales malfunctioning with erroneous readings and us feeling somewhat ordinary on some mornings. For example, the Sail Cruising Division’s Xmas BBQ at the Basin on the 14th, which carried on until late at night on Esprit – hardly afloat with 14 people in the cockpit.
The next day was spent recovering with reading and swimming, before I donned my diving gear on the Saturday, to scrape the barnacles of the hull. Once again, I was attacked by the water lice living in the growth on the hull – lice getting under my rashie and covering my legs – mongrels! The lice bites subsided in time for our Garden St. Xmas party on the 17th Dec.
Cyclone Japer made its landfall between Cairns and Port Douglas in Northern Queensland on the 13th December causing wind damage an widespread flooding, despite decreasing in strength to a category 2 cyclone. The Captain Cook highway between Cairns and Port Douglas is still closed due to landslides and the flooding in this area is quite severe.
Christmas day was celebrated with friends at Mona Vale beach. This is the annual Orphan’s Christmas lunch for those friends without family in Sydney on the day. There were about 20 of us without kids, parents or other rellies around. A great time was had by all.
This year, we watched the Boxing day start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race on TV, rather than on the water, as in the past – a much better view and less tension with the hundreds of yachts jostling for a good view.
It was only on the 28th December that a suitable north-easterly came through, for us to have a good sail to Port Jackson – also known as Sydney harbour. First on board the next day, was Michelle who arrived from Fiji. She was joined by four of her friends to watch the New Years eve fireworks on the harbour – spectacular as usual.
Karen and Evan then joined us on New Years day – she had to be back at Accidents and Emergencies in Orange again two days later. She drew the short straw this year, also worked on Christmas day. I take my hat off and salute all the people of our emergency and essential services and the hospitality industry who are on duty while the rest of us gather with family.
Finally, all the best for 2024 to our friends and family. May it be a happy and healthy year for all of you. Cheers,
Annie and Dirk