I know this blog is LONG overdue but here you go!
This year the Aussies had an extended Easter Holiday with Good Friday, Easter on Sunday, ANZAC Day on Monday, and then Easter Tuesday all occurring over the same time frame. (More on ANZAC Day in a moment.) We (I) were thrilled that Luke had an extended work holiday! The schools were also on “holiday” between their Term One and Term Two break. Think of this as spring break so everyone uses this long holiday break as a good vacation time. We definitely searched for ideas of places to go but decided to just stay around Sydney to do some touristy things we wanted to check off our long list.
About a week before the holidays we were invited to go on a sailing trip with one of Luke’s work friends. Of course we both loved the idea! Two former Australian Cerner employees own a 55ft. sailboat and go on sailing trips often. We were very excited to be included on their next one and ready to add this to our list of adventures.
Early Friday morning we took the train to the Stanmore Station to meet up with everyone. Brigid and John picked us up. When we were loading up the car, Brigid said she was expecting us to show up with suitcases and way more stuff than we needed so she was relieved when we came with the appropriate items. Luke and I were thankful we already knew boating protocol! ;) We drove down to their dinghy and they made the first trip out with the food and a few people. Luke and I waited on shore for them to come back to get us. We finally rowed up to The Liberty and carefully climbed up with all of our things.
Once everyone was in and settled we got a safety debriefing and went over the rules of the boat. We took a little tour of the boat once we got started. You’ll see in the pictures that there are three bedrooms. Two of the bedrooms have two beds in each so there is a lot of available sleeping options…not a lot of space…but options! The bathroom was very tiny and had its own set of rules that I will not get into! There was a spacious pantry area next to the kitchen. (or galley as I will refer to it in boating terms.) We spent much of our time in the living room area where there was plenty of room to sit, a tellie for watching movies, and also the dinner table. On the deck they had a hammock and a large area that had covered seating. We were ready to start this adventure!
We sailed out through Sydney Harbour. It was such beautiful weather and we had very calm waters so we just sailed with the wind for the next 4 or 5 hours. On the way, we had our “Morning Tea” of hot cross buns- the traditional sweet treat for Easter over here. We finally anchored in a bay and relaxed with some beverages and shared many getting-to-know-you stories. After a late and delicious dinner of spaghetti bolognaise and a few bottles of wine, everyone was ready for bed by 10:00pm.
Day 2:
We woke up Saturday morning to a very rainy, cold, and dreary day. It rained ALL DAY! We had our hot cross buns for brekky and then the rest of the day consisted of a lot of eating, drinking, napping, reading, fishing, and relaxing. It was actually a really great day despite the crummy weather! We left our area for a bit to pick up Ben’s wife, Michelle, at a dock about 20 or 30 minutes away. With the weather the way it turned out, we decided to go back to the same quiet cove and anchor there for the night again. This night we had a meatball casserole. We were very impressed with the food options throughout the whole trip. We had salads, bread, and sides with every meal. I guess I was expecting we might be roughing it a little more. We all took turns doing dishes each night. This was an interesting process because we had limited water to work with once we boiled a bit in the kettle. There also wasn’t a garbage disposal in fact, NO particles of food were allowed down the drain. Even a tiny, tiny, bit would cause a big issue and we didn’t want to be responsible for that! After dinner we played a big card game of Hearts. We had a great time and played until after midnight with the rain still coming down outside!
Day 3:
We woke up to a beautiful and sunny Easter Sunday. The guys started fishing first thing in the morning to try to catch us our lunch. I was in charge of hiding Easter eggs for a little Easter egg hunt. You all know that I loved that!!! You would have loved to see six adults running around the top deck of a sailboat looking for large chocolate Easter eggs, too!
We spent the rest of the day enjoying the warm weather with more eating, drinking, napping, reading, fishing, and relaxing! Ben finally caught a flathead so they cleaned it and got it ready to cook up later. No one had much luck with fishing the rest of the trip. Luke kept catching some type of small fish though. He would take it off the hook to let it go free but most of the time they ended up not making it. Because of this we were visited by a massive eagle/hawk/some large hunting bird! It actually would fly over and then do a nose dive straight towards the water and snatch up the struggling fish every time. It was quite a sight! We had the flathead as an entrée (entrée is an appetizer over here) to share before our yummy chicken curry for dinner. We had another late night of wine and playing Hearts before bedtime.
Day 4:
On Monday morning we woke up to more rain. It was ANZAC Day so we had ANZAC biscuits for our Morning Tea and yummy pancakes with honey for brekky. In case I haven’t mentioned it in previous blogs, biscuits in Australia are actually cookies. We spent the next few hours deciding our plan for the rest of the day. We took Ben and Michelle back to where we picked Michelle up on Saturday so they could drive home. Jason, Luke, and I stayed on board to sail back to Sydney with John and Brigid.
As we began sailing home, our quiet and relaxing trip up until now drastically changed! The weather was getting worse and worse. It was cold, rainy, and very windy. Brigid and I went into the galley to make everyone a snack and she put the kettle on so we could make soup. The next 20 minutes felt like forever as the rain came down harder and the boat rocked up and down and side to side more than I knew it could! We couldn’t go very fast because of the water conditions but at times it felt like we weren’t moving forward at all but definitely every other direction with the massive waves crashing every which way! Luke attempted taking pictures of what this looked like while holding on tight but I’m not sure that you will get the full effect. Brigid and I put on bright yellow rain overalls. See pictures below! It definitely was drier and warmer than the running pants I had on. J
John started having a difficult time seeing as our visibility got less and less. They pulled up the weather on their I Pad and we decided that if things didn’t start looking better we may not be able to keep sailing any further. At this point, everyone is on deck, holding on as tight as they can, and helping in whatever way is needed with the sails. Then Jason decided to go down to the galley and see if the kettle was ready so we could make our soup. Then next thing we heard was yelling and shouting up to us that there was a FIRE in the galley! I looked down into the galley and saw flames and lots of smoke. So John and Brigid ran in to help Jason put it out and left Luke and me up on deck. Then they yelled up to Luke to steer the boat! Ok, I know there is no way I am doing justice to this story but if you could have seen the look that Luke and I exchanged at that moment, it was classic! He attempted steering this massive sailboat that is rocking every which way, with no visibility, all while holding on for dear life. It was scary, exciting, and unreal all at the same time. Everyone finally came back up and said they had put the fire out and things would be ok. Apparently a package of the ANZAC cookies slid off of a shelf and caught the flame on the stove whilst we were rocking all over. Phew!
We continued to sail out. I was about to experience my first time of seasickness when John decided we needed to go back. After looking at the weather, it was only going to be worse on the water for the next few days so we decided to pull off into a safe bay and finally have our soup while we made a plan. They told us they would just have to take the dinghy to shore and drop us off to catch a bus back into Sydney and that they would wait a few days and then sail back when it was safer. So we started packing up our things while Jason and John were putting the outboard motor on the dinghy to make it a faster trip to shore. They keep the outboard motor secured to the side of the boat and the dinghy is hoisted up at the back of the boat. While we were packing we started hearing yells of panic for Luke to come help. We ran up to see that John and Jason were holding onto the outboard motor by a cord and that it was quickly sinking into the water. Luckily, they were able to get it out of the water and back in the sailboat. After several attempts at getting it to start John finally told us we would need to spend the night on the boat again. After the scary weather, the fire, and the dinghy motor excitement, we were fine with that idea! Luke and I both wondered if our weird black cloud of luck followed us on this trip!
Here’s one of the many reasons John and Brigid are so great- they had one heck of an afternoon but still showed us an incredible rest of the day and evening! We had “bangers and mash” for dinner with REAL mashed potatoes! Even after a crazy fire they still made us a fabulous dinner and they even let us finish off their last bottles of wine. They went out of their way for the whole trip to make us feel welcome and just like we had been visitors with them many times before.
Day 5:
The weather was still pretty crummy when we got up on Tuesday. The guys spent the morning trying to get the outboard motor to start but still had no luck. John said we’d just have to row to shore which was not close at all as you will see in the pictures. We left things on the boat that we wouldn’t need for the next few days so we wouldn’t have so much to lug all the way home. So Luke was in charge of rowing us to shore and then John rowed himself back to the boat. We were dropped off on a private beach behind all of these beautiful homes. We finally found a safe staircase to climb without a locked gate. This path led us up to the road where we waited at a bus stop for the next 30-45 minutes. We finally caught our 2 hour bus ride back home! We had such a good time but it was so nice to finally get home, shower, and unpack! We can’t wait for our next adventure on “The Liberty” with our new friends!
ANZAC Day
I got all of my information from the Australian War Memorial website so check it out if you want more detailed info: www.awm.gov.au
April 25th is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand to honour members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli and Turkey during World War I. Today, ANZAC Day also honours those who died and served in military operations for their countries. There is a Dawn service that is held nationwide although I don’t know the specifics because we were still sailing at that time. It is great to see that they also have a great sense of pride in their military!
"Row, Row, Row Your Boat!"
Taking the dinghy to the boat.
The Liberty
We were next to this plane taking off in the water.
Sydney 
On our way out through the Sydney Harbour we sailed under the Harbour Bridge
Beautiful Day using our favorite koozies!
Passing by the Opera House
Notice the dinghy outboard motor on the railing to the right and then dinghy hoisted up behind me at the back of the boat
Looking down into the living room/kitchen table area 
Brigid and John
Jason
We had smooth waters on the way out with just the right amount of wind!
Our ocean voyage!
We spent a lot of time out here
Brigid steering for awhile
Relaxing in the hammock reading
Fishing
Check out the waterfall. 
Getting ready for the BIG storm
Luke, Jason, Michelle, and Ben after pancake brekky. We spent the majority of time in this area!
The Galley (The stuff in the corner is what slid over and caught on fire!)
One bedroom
Our bedroom
The Master Bedroom
Oh, YES!
Massive waves
Tipping back and forth and up and down
Our walk through the water to the private beach to figure out how to get home
The Liberty is the blue boat FAR away. A long way to row to shore!
John rowing back.
A long way away now!
Our view of The Liberty from the road while we are waiting for the bus
