Sydney Shake Down

This is the first live blog from X-Pat. Currently sitting in Sydney harbour having sailed down from Pittwater today. Everything good although we have some problems with the VHF radio. Weather not looking to good tomorrow so we may have to chill out here and head back early on Monday.

This guy is spoiling our view!

The Boss on the helm

Slipped, Anti-fouled and Ready to Roll

In the interests of not transporting NSW marine life down to Tasmania, we did the responsible thing and slipped and anti-fouled yesterday. Interestingly there was no sign of the remains of the mooring around the prop! She wasn't looking too bad but it's nice to have a clean slippery boat to set off in! Thanks to the guys at Q-Service!

                       

 

Oops Another Mishap!

Well we were all ready for a practice sail down to Sydney harbour this weekend. The forecast was 15-20 knots on the nose so it would have been a good shake down. However, misfortune got in our way once again. As we left the mooring we had a bit of a breakdown in communications between bow and helm and managed drive over the top of our mooring and get it wrapped around the prop. We managed to get free with the help of our friends at the Quays Marina, who secured the boat, whilst Pat got the snorkel gear on and with knife in hand cut the mooring. Fortunately X-Pat is coming out of the water on Tuesday for a pre-trip antifoul so we will be able to deal with the rope around the prop then. 

On the plus side we stayed onboard on Saturday night and had a pleasant evening and also managed to get a few more jobs done. Lots more lessons learnt! 

Provisioning Phase 1

The weather has been rubbish for sailing this weekend so we took the opportunity to get started on the provisioning. 

Finally back on the water

Well we finally got back on the water on 4th October and have had a few nice trips since then. It's been frustrating that the weather has been wet and miserable for the last month and so we haven't had much enthusiasm to go for very far afield. 

The upgrade has continued and the second water tank is now connected. We have a new outboard and and new sheets. The rig has all been inspected and we are due for an anti-foul next week. We have installed an Iridium Go! Satellite wireless system and all of our friends will now be able to track our progress. Not many weeks to go before we depart for Hobart. Time to start thinking about provisioning!

            New Crew! Florence on the helm

                 Debi giving Florence a Safety Briefing.

                                      First sail for a while across Broken Bay