Our Family Trip to Paynesville

I skipped out of work early last Friday so we could get under way on our weekend away to Paynesville, down on the Gippsland Lakes. We weren't taking our boat so a heap of stress was not going to be involved!! We were going to stay with Claire's auntie and her husband at their waterfront property - which we hadn't been to before. Last time we went down they lived a couple of hundred meters up the road, still waterfront but just a change of scenery. We arrived after dark, in a bit of a fog, so we had no idea what the view from the house was like...

... next morning we awoke to this...a very excited Emily!

...and once I got out on the verandah I could see why she was so excited...

 After breakfast we went for a little walk and met some of the locals...

 

...much to the excitement of the kids!

It was then time to go on a cruise and find a nice relaxing spot for some lunch...so we piled aboard the boat and we were off!

Here is the gang preparing to come up to the fly bridge...

James looking a bit nervous about the whole situation...

Emily looking very pleased with her lifejacket and generally happy with everything... 

Emily looking like an old salt...

On the fly bridge, James looking slightly less nervous...

Emily has found her sea legs...

Just a random bit of idealic loveliness...

Said boat moored up Duck Arm for lunch...

The crew assembled for lunch...

Some more locals...

James wandering back from visiting the locals...

Some of the other locals coming to sample our lunch, it appears they approved...

A little more relaxed, James steering from the fly bridge...

An old salt having a good time in a nice looking little yacht...

A little random cheekiness from Emily...

Going over to Raymond Island on the ferry...

Emily walking along the board walk, stopping to say hello to some birds...

Look Emily, can you see the Koala in the tree...

And of course no trip to the seaside (well close enough) is complete without fish and chips for lunch!!

Sailing Sydney Harbour - Jan 2006

OK, I have to do this quietly so Maggie doesn't get too upset. The following shots are from a weekend we spent on Sydney Harbour in January 2006. It started out with a group sail on a 42ft Hunter and then we spent the night anchored in Balls Head Bay in a Hunter 38, while Sarah looked after James (as it turns out we anchored less than 1km from Sarah's place in Greenwich).

The conditions were a solid 10knots (gusting to above 15??) - roughly out of the E to NE if I've got my bearings correct. The seas were generally slight as you would expect - the harbour traffic probably to blame for most of it. A nice swell was however coming in the through the heads, which meant for some great sailing from Watsons Bay across to Manly hard into the wind.

So here we are prior to boarding in Darling Harbour - lovely day in Sydney.

Claire relaxing whilst under way with North Head in the background..

Me at the helm going under the Harbour Bridge - did I mention it was Saturday afternoon, which is a particularly busy time in Sydney Harbour with racing fleets and ferries absolutely everywhere!
The amount of data from the instrument panel was amazing, too much to look at - so I didn't bother. I did note however that we were comfortably cruising at 10 knots!

Heading for the Harbour Bridge - we are probably somewhere between Bradley's Head and Fort Denison.

Claire enjoying being anchored - with Champagne!

The sun setting through the rigging over Berry Island Reserve (i think).

Claire enjoying our seafood feast.

A very pleased Claire then next morning, as the yacht hadn't sunk and the anchor hadn't dragged!

Meeting up with James the next morning, so he could inspect the yacht.

All in all a great experience, helming through the racing fleets was interesting - you know (or is that hope) that they going to miss you, but sometimes they cut it awfully fine.Anyway, that's enough dreaming of bigger boats - I have enough trouble keeping my small one clean!