1982: Transatlantic Race Start, from Cape Town to Uruguay on a Farr 38, “34 Degrees South”. Annie and Dirk on the right.

Annie and I decided we should do something about all the hundreds of old photos in boxes and albums cluttering up our cupboards. We bit the bullet and ordered a Plustek photo scanner that scans a 6 x 4 photo in 2 seconds. After two weeks of work in the July winter evenings, the digitised photos are now on a solid state drive – hopefully for posterity. The exercise brought back long forgotten memories with some sailing pics – above and below. Now, what about the hundreds of 35mm slides still to do?

1987: Beachcomber Race crew, from Mauritius to South Africa on a Farr 40, “Andromeda”

1975: Launching our first “Esprit” a Henderson design, Theta 26 ft. two tonner

So, here we are at last – the beginning of September – the start of spring, or so they say. Many lifelong Sydneysiders have told us that the past winter was the coldest and wettest, they can remember. I must admit the cold and wet kept us off the water, added to the fact that we were without a boat for a month due to the repairs to the heat exchanger of Esprit.

Annie and her new, old bike.

When the sun did come out, we made up for it by walking and cycling, Annie bought an old bike from friends for $50. After a morning’s work on it, inflating the tyres, lubricating the gears, treating the rusty chrome bits and repainting it, it goes like a bomb. We have been around Narrabeen Lakes and down to Bayview. Annie finds cycling less painful on her hamstrings, than walking.

We attended the SCD Hot soup and Gluhwein long lunch at the Basin mid August, but as expected, it was a chilly event. Frustrating too, as news reached us of the fun and parties at the SICYC Rendezvous up at Shag Island in QLD, which we planned to attend. We were also planning to sail up to Newcastle and Port Stephens with the RMYC Sail Cruising Division from the 12 – 17 September. We had to cancel our participation due to Annie getting another pair of PRP injections into her damaged hamstrings earlier in the week with instructions to take it easy for six weeks. We therefore spent a quiet weekend on Esprit, enjoying a BBQ, wine and stunning sunsets.

Sunset from Esprit’s mooring, looking west across Scotland Island.

Around this time, Michelle our daughter working in Fiji, managed to tick off another item on her bucket list. She went diving with the whales in Tonga! How she fits this into her busy work schedule, I don’t know – the previous month, she attended Burning Man in the USA, again.

Michelle above a male Humpback whale.

The following weekend things picked up for us with a Beach Boys tribute show at RMYC and a SCD cruise to Hallet’s Beach for a BBQ.

Beach Boys tribute show at RMYC 20th September – these guys are good.

We were fortunate with the weather and wind cooperating, to sail down to Hallet’s beach on Saturday the 21st September. We joined our friends from the Sail Cruising Division for a Viking BBQ and some beach activities after lunch. Lots of fun with food, drinks and laughter.

Viking invasion of Hallet’s beach.

Vikings and non Vikings.

Finals of the Tug of War

David and Marcia, the winners of the wine.

Sue, John and Annie.

The last event: Rape and Pillage.

Sunday was a day of recovery with tea, coffee and pastries on Esprit. We then had an even better sail back to our mooring off Taylor’s Point. Annie and I decided the weather was so good, we may as well relax, read and suntan on board for the next two days, as we had enough food and wine. So we returned home on Tuesday, feeling totally refreshed and invigorated.

On Saturday the 28th September, the PBS 2024 Jeanneau Rendezvous event for Jeanneau owners took place. The 23 yachts raced in three divisions from RMYC to Akuna Bay, where we attended a long lunch at San Martin from 1:30 to 4:30pm. A great time was had by all participants. This annual event is a great way to meet old and new Jeanneau friends, catch up with news, sharing boating tips and have a fun sailing competition.

Sailing to Akuna Bay, “Joss” a Jeanneau SO41DS to port.

The very sheltered Akuna Bay marina.

Some of the friendly Jeanneau sailors at our table.

We look forward to Spring arriving and will report again on our sailing and social activities, as more news come to hand.

Cheers for now

Annie and Dirk