Eden to Sydney

Saturday, 23 March to Sunday, 31 March 2019

We spent 4 nights in Twofold Bay, the first 3 in Snug Cove, Eden which is well protected from the northerlies that blew. 

Eden Whale Museum

We walked to the shops and around the headland and enjoyed the antics of the local dolphins.

Mussel farm in the background

Good view of Saturday racing in Eden

On Monday, we motored over to East Boyd Bay when the wind finally switched to the south east. This is a very pretty anchorage and we would have liked to stay longer but we wanted to make progress north while the winds were favourable.

Misty morning to leave Twofold Bay

At 0700 on Tuesday we left, intending to sail the 120nm to Jervis Bay. The winds were light and we alternated between sailing under main and genoa and motorsailing. We got the spinnaker up for an hour and a half in the afternoon which helped our progress. When we received the updated weather, we realised that after tomorrow the winds would stall our progress for a while and we decided to push on another 70nm to Sydney. We dropped the sails at 2200 in light winds and were abeam Jervis Bay at 0300 on Wednesday.  We had passed a few fishing boats during the night but the fleets are much smaller than on previous trips up and down the NSW coast. The sails went up again at first light and we enjoyed a good sail until after lunch when the wind died and we were back motoring. 

About 3nm south of Botany Bay we clicked over 30,000nm on our log.

South Head Light

We entered Sydney Harbour at 1710 and picked up a public mooring in Hermit Bay. 

This was a great place to unwind after 34 hours and 207nm sailing, watching the twilight fleet sail by, and taking in the view of the bridge and Opera House.

Great view day or night

On Thursday morning, we enjoyed a walk around the foreshore track to Shark Beach and the historic Greycliffe House in Vaucluse.

Dressing Pavillion built in 1932

Tunnel to the beach to guard the privacy of  swimmers

Greycliffe House, Vaucluse

We then sailed under the Harbour Bridge to Rozelle Bay to where Multihull Central have their office and marina. They run a Thursday night twilight race and asked us to join them.

This swinging bridge was replaced by the ANZAC bridge

Multihull Central marina

About 9 Seawinds and 1 racing cat sailed (and won with daylight second). Racing on Sydney Harbour is chaotic! We did have a close encounter with a Manly ferry when we tacked towards them before quickly tacking back. Locals said if he didn’t blast his horn at us then it can’t have been too close but we kept a much better watch after that. 

Manly ferries are BIG up close

We were second Seawind just a boatlength behind the Seawind 1160 Lite Pegasus. A BBQ afterwards ended a great day in Sydney.

On Friday morning we sailed back up the harbour and into Middle Harbour, where we went under the lifting Spit Bridge. It opens 5 times a day and was easy to negotiate. 

We spent 2 nights in Bantry Bay and then another night in Sugarloaf Bay. This area is a mix of expensive houses built on steep blocks of land and native bushland.

Bantry Bay is the site of munitions magazines built during the first world war. They replaced old hulks that had been storing explosives on Sydney Harbour. The facility was closed in 1973 so boats are now welcome in this protected bay.

Munitions magazine built into the hillside

On Saturday we had some rain in the morning and very strong northerly winds. In the afternoon, we planned to do the walk up to the Bluff Lookout and were all ready to go when we heard an enormous crack. I turned in time to see a huge gum come down in the area we were going to walk. Needless to say, we decided to wait until the next day when the winds had eased a little for our hike.

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