New Years Eve 2011.

Friday dawned calm and cool, light breeze forecast and although on the nose, it was only four hours after all, so it was go, destination Snails Bay, just upstream from the 'coathanger' where the traffic is light and the view excellent. Lisajane was aboard, first time at sea, so we dosed her up and she enjoyed the ride, particularly the second half when we were able to hoist the Genoa mainly to keep her steady against the SE swells.
Coming through Sydney Heads, with high and rugged cliffs on both sides, we could almost have been Arthur Philip, entering for the first time. Cook had sailed past unaware of the labyrinth of bays where, as Philip remarked 'could anchor three hundred ships of the line' or the river beyond that could have taken them upstream to where Parramatta now stands and relatively fertile land was available.
Since then I have felt too tired to blog, BUT we had aboard designer, photographer and blogger Cate Holst who's photos came out well, so we could do worse than refer you to her blog for some good shots.
Be strong and scroll down past her mango tart recipe, the last of which we gobbled down last night with the (almost) last of IXL's wine trifle.
We have a day of recovery today before we are overwhelmed by my youngest and her energetic brood tomorrow.