Well, Sydney-Great Oyster Bay (about 60nm north of Hobart), to be absolutely accurate.

Here we are leaving Middle Harbour at the start of the trip on Friday 28 November. Too much to do, too much happening, and more computer problems have prevented enough blogposts to keep up with events so I’m playing catch-up again. A couple more Sydney items will occur later, out of sequence – sorry. Anyway, this is the Spit Bridge, the only convenient way of reaching the northeastern suburbs by road. It opens a few times per day outside rush hours; last week it stuck in the closed position trapping a few yachts upstream for a few hours. If it ever got stuck in the open position I shudder to think of the congestion (it carries five lanes of traffic and is constantly busy):

 

Our final view of Sydney as we head out into the South Pacific, south head on the left:

This part of the Pacific, called the Tasman Sea, is often not at all pacific, but we had a great run down the coast under northerly winds and a significant boost from the East Australian Current at 1-3kts. In fact the wind was NE which allowed us to set both genoa and staysail, a rare combination for us (looking up into the rig, with the mainsail to the upper left, then the staysail and on the right, the genoa (jib):

 

The much smaller staysail doubles as our storm jib in which capacity it saw necessary service later in the trip – but here the weather was perfect with a cloudless blue sky.

We had planned to stop twice but didn’t, once due to good weather and once due to bad. The fearsome Bass Strait did produce high winds, big seas, fog and rain but no real problems and as the wind stayed in the N & E we were able to sail continuously. In the end our landfall in Tasmania was made at Great Oyster Bay at 0300hrs on Tuesday 2 Dec after almost exactly three and a half days at sea and 600nm/1200km. Here is the good ship Vulcan Spirit on the Tuesday morning with Mount Graham (579m) and Mount Freycinet (620m) in the background:

The other half of the crew always insists upon a ‘meal shot’ for reasons that entirely elude me. Here is yet another, with a hearty first breakfast being consumed in the morning sunshine (note the absolutely essential, and incomparable, Heinz tomato sauce without which no such meal is possible, and the foul weather gear drying over the wheel):

 

The water was so inviting that a swim was essential at the earliest opportunity, in a bracing 16 degrees:

VS at anchor on the right. We subsequently discovered that this whole enormous bay is a shark reserve.

Subsequent weather has been extremely changeable with much drizzle, showers and cloud with the occasional glorious day. It’s just like Scotland.