Lon 151:13.99E

We've done it!! We sailed into Sydney harbour yesterday afternoon, crossing the imaginary line between the heads that had been our finish line, at 4.30pm. Our sail down from Port Stephens was more of a motor sail for the first 10 hours, but when the Nor'easterly wind filled in we were back to doing what we love - downwind sailing in the sunshine, watching the Sydney skyline get ever closer! 

Our friends Chris, Liz and Mike sailed their boat out of the heads to meet us and sail over the finish line with us, which was fantastic. So great to see some friendly faces with beers in hand and shouting congratulations from nearby.  Chris made sure everyone in Sydney knew we were back by shouting "WELCOME HOME" over VHF 16 just in case the officials were wondering who was entering the harbour in the sparkling white beneteau! We slowed down to sail with them for a bit, and then parted ways as they headed home to Manly and we continued down the harbour.

Chris, Liz and Mike welcoming us home out the Sydney heads

It was awesome to be seeing Sydney from our own yacht - somehow it seems a bit more crazy to own a yacht and be sailing it on Sydney harbour than it has done across the Pacific. I used to look at people sailing their boats on the harbour and now we were the ones being looked at by commuters on the Manly ferry! Sydney really is such a stunning place - I can't imagine a more incredible harbour to arrive into by boat. With the sun shining and the wind picking up we rounded Bradley's Head and the bridge came into view. We were really home now!

Sailing through the heads - across the finish line!

We docked in Rushcutters Bay at 5.30pm and we hadn't even finished tying the lines before another couple of friends were walking down the dock with bottles of champagne in hand! Some more friends joined later and we had a great celebration. Needless to say the blog isn't getting updated until this morning with a rather fuzzy head! 

The first of several bottles of bubbly

It is wonderful to be back, but we are full of mixed emotions. We are really incredibly happy to have achieved our dream of crossing the Pacific. We are grateful to Mystic for giving us the most incredible adventure of our lives. There is a huge amount of relief, that we got home safely, really without any major problems for the whole trip. There is great sadness that the trip is over and it is all behind us. There is excitement that we are back in Sydney seeing friends and celebrating tomorrow night with everyone that we have missed over the last 9 months. There is also excitement that we are one step closer to moving home and starting our new life in the UK, but also with this we are so so sad to be leaving Sydney and the friends who have become like family over the last 5 years.

I thought I would cry as we sailed through the heads, but it seems it has taken writing this final blog for all the emotion to come through and the tears to get the better of me! Thank you for following our blog. I realise that I have rambled on a lot of the time, but I hope you have enjoyed following us on our epic adventure. I have loved writing the blog and have plans to get it properly printed and bound into a book that we will keep forever.

This is JoJo signing off for the last time.

Mystic out.