While we are yearning to start sailing some long miles to places far away lately we have been rediscovering the joy of gunkholing around some of Sydney’s marvellous cruising grounds. As the temperature and winds drop, the waterways get real quiet this time of year, so last week we took the opportunity to spend some time cruising around Pittwater and Broken Bay. One special winter anchorage we have reacquainted ourselves with is the delightful Portuguese Bay. In Pittwater just south of Coaster’s retreat( The Basin) it is well protected from westerly winds and is a great spot with the added benefit that you will probably have the beach and bay to yourself as we did for two days. We anchored in about 7-8 metres of water and then Sophie and I swam in to the beach (yes even this time of year we can’t keep Sophie out of the water!)for a bit of beach soccer and sandcastles before back onboard for a warm shower,  sundowners in the cockpit and then dinner and Nim’s Island for movie night. The benefit of sailing a few miles everyday and dropping anchor as you please in the afternoon is that it makes for some fantastic family cruising at this stage of our lives. Sammy is at his happiest and most settled on the boat. Sophie loves sailing and is becoming a bonafide, contributing crew member at the age of 4. Our blog has been pretty quiet lately as life circumstances have gotten in the way, also making it hard lately to steal the time to go sailing.

Our boat is now 25 years old. In that time I don’t believe the rudder has ever been dropped.

Last time we were out of the water I thought about it, but we had the hull soda blasted, faired and a new barrier coat + antifoul applied. We also replaced the PSS Gland and at that point the chequebook really began to hurt.  In the back of my mind I was concerned about rudder, I knew it was ‘wet’ but figured it could wait. We were working long hours, going to have a baby and not intending on anything more than local cruising, another year wouldn’t hurt.

Ignorance is bliss right?

So out of the water again sure enough a cursory investigation made it pretty clear things were not all well with rudder.

Water had been intruding of course and there was some movement between the rudder blade and stock.

After removing the rudder it also became clear the quadrant was showing signs of fatigue and corrosion.

While these discoveries can be demoralising( and expensive), I figure it is wiser to lose your rudder in a perfectly equipped boatyard than in the middle of the
Tasman Sea. More lessons learn’t.

Introducing Iolanthe’s newest crew addition Sammy.

Arriving early with some drama he has been a brilliant surprise Christmas present! We are stoked and absolutely besotted.

He is also the reason why we have been a bit quiet of late, lots of boat projects waiting to start , lots of ideas and plans for this year but for the time being we are taking it all one moment at a time and enjoying the joys of a new bub.

A week of high and lows

East Coast lows that is….

A weather phenomenon – The NSW equivalent of mini cyclone, one of the most famous East Coast lows did this….

Which was enough to keep Iolanthe marina bound 😦

And the High? 

….We Baked.

Not only did we bake, but this was our first time baking onboard with our new Omnia Stovetop Oven.

We baked Chocolate Brownies using Carolyn’s recipe and indeed the inspiration for the Omnia Stovetop Oven also came from the great reviews and recommendation on her site The Boat Galley.  For our first try the results were very acceptable. We will keep practising, maybe bread next. 

(For those who noticed yes we were using a saucepan as a mixing bowl. The mixing bowl was ‘borrowed’ by the skipper to catch drips from a leak in the anchor locker 😦 )