Pittwater - The Basin
Quartermoon
Mike Share & Sammy Byron
Fri 29 Jul 2011 22:56
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Woke up before dawn due to
excitement, hard to believe how close we are now.... We got up in the dark,
washed the boat down and had some breakfast. We were off the dock before 7am and
both very excited by the prospect of a fantastic forecast - Northerlies for the
first time on the coast, calm seas and sunshine.... Plus the prospect of
being in very familiar cruising grounds by the evening - Pittwater.
We motored out of Newcastle
with the rising sun and it really did look so much better than I remember
it; sun glinting off the buildings and an amazing light across the headland and
out to sea with a nice breeze from aft of the beam - which we hadn't seen
since before Vanuatu!
  We had a good hour or two of idyllic
sailing before the wind died and back on with the engine. Luckily we seemed to
have some current with us so we charged on at 6 knots+ making our ETA of 6pm
look very late. We waved to our friend E as we passed Avoca and before we knew
it we could see the Baha'i temple (nr. Mona Vale) in the distance. I
thought we saw a tanker on the horizon but through the binoculars it turned out
to be centre point in Sydney about 35nm away rising straight out of the
sea! - very surreal as you could see no low lying ground due to the
curvature of the earth then Sydney slowly emerged from the water!
Soon we could see Barrenjoey
lighthouse and it was time to turn into Pittwater, about 4 hours ahead of
schedule! It was awesome to be back in our old boating grounds and I think we
had forgotten just how the late afternoon light reflects of the sandstone and
water creating such amazing light. We headed straight for the basin where
we borrowed a mooring for the sunset views and then the night. Cold is an
understatement!! Tomorrow is the big day.......
 
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