Leaving the heads

And so, this is it.  On a Friday we picked up the voyage crew and had a day sailing the harbour, getting everyone aware of emergency procedures and working the sails.  For the first leg of the south pacific challenge, we would be sailing across the Tasman sea to the top of New ZeaIand's north island, and heading down through the bay of islands towards Auckland. It was estimated the sea crossing would take around 10 days, leaving days to anchor along the coast.  This journey wouldn't be for the faint hearted and if I'd had time between working the day sails and refit to think about what I'd signed up for, I may have thought twice.

However, during the initiation day I spent a lot of time rushing around doing galley 'things' and attempting to get my head around this cooking malarkey.  On this night we slept along side the timber wharf on Campbell's cove, right next to my old home, the Southern Swan.  She'd been out on the harbour that day and watching her being handled by a new crew. For a large portion of the crew, the southern swan had been not only a place to live, but the first chance to get into Sailing.  It was weird to know that I'd moved into another phrase of my life.

The next morning, waking up between the opera house and the harbour bridge, between running about lashing down all we could and checking food, there was time to say goodbye to some great people I honestly don't know when I'll see again.  

This time we motored out of Campbell's cove but did not turn around at shark island. This time we kept going, right through the heads of Sydney harbour and out to meet the Tasman Sea...