Australia Day 2008
Saturday, 26 January 2008.
I get onto the boat during the ante-meridian and load her up with ice, lots of booze and food. Today is Australia Day, or as many Australians say “Stry-ya Day”. Food and booze on ice and packed away it is time to do something serious which has not been done on Vogelsang before. Hoist the red ensign off the stern rail. I discover that I have purchased a 1 inch rail holder for the flag pole but have a 3/4 inch rail. Nothing that a bit of gaffer tape can’t fix. Well almost. I manage to rig up the red ensign anyway. But not before getting it covered in grease from the outboard!
Next task is bunting up the forestay. With these tasks complete I am off the mooring and heading up to the harbour bridge without a moment to spare. The Australia Day parade of boats starts at 12 noon. I make it to the start right bang on time and fall into the fleet behind the tall ships.
Fire tug Shirly Smith carries out her traditional duties during festive occasions – crowd control.
As we proceed down the harbour, Andrew gives me a call. He and the family are out on Lara Belle. As we get toward Clarke Island, Lara Belle catches up with me and we exchange pleasantries. I head over to the Darling Point wharf to pick up Kajo. Kajo is onboard and immediately starts snapping away with his camera. We join back into the flotilla along with Lara Belle. They peal off near Bradley’s Head and head over to Taylor’s Bay for lunch.
The parade rounds Pacific Dawn and heads westward back up the harbour.
We proceed to Mosman to pick up Steve and Twinkle from Mosman South Wharf.
RAAF Roulettes aerobatics.
Steve and Twinkle are on-board. We motor just around the corner into Little Sirius Cove and manage to pick up a vacant mooring. The boat belonging to the mooring is obviously out for the day as a dinghy is tied up to it. I move it and tie it the stern of Vogelsang.
It is a fantastic day. Warm and sunny. All the boys jump in for a swim. Kajo and Steve swim towards the shore just below Taronga Zoo. I am back on deck chatting with Twinkle. As I watch Kajo clamour onto the rocks I say to Twinkle “They are going to come back with oyster shell cuts”. Surely enough Steve comes back with blood oozing out of his finger. Nothing a band-aid can’t fix.
Swimming in Little Sirius Cove
Bunting!
We eat the delicious chicken and aioli sandwiches I made back at home this morning. Then it is time to get serious. Down with the bunting and up with the sails. We sail past the tall ships race.
Endeavour (replica), Tall ships race.
Young Endeavour, Tall ships race.
Young and “old”. Endeavour Replica & Young Endeavour, Tall Ships Race
Kajo and Tara. Sailing away from Mosman towards Bradley’s Head.
We sailed all the way up to Kay-Ye-My point (Manly). I have not sailed so far up into North Harbour before. A great sailing wind is blowing and it seems to have taken us no time to get up here. All the way on a close-haul tack.
We gybe to turn around and head back up the harbour on a square-ish reach. I hand over the helm to Kajo. This is great beer drinking weather and I take up the boatswain’s position on the foredeck with a beer in hand. As we sail up the harbour we find ourselves in one of those annoying situations. A much larger yacht is just windward of us and fouling our air but not going any faster than us. She is a large slick modern cutter sailing just under head-sails. I exchange some pleasantries with the skipper and threaten to come aboard and pillage his ship.
Kajo with our nemisis (hereby dubbed “The Pesky Cutter“) in background.
South Head in far background.
Instead we headed downwind a little. Soon enough we had made enough of a lead on the offending sloop to bear-up and cross her bow; much to the excitement of all aboard both ships.
It is about 6pm as we sail under the Sydney Harbour Bridge and turn south between Goat Island and Miller’s Point towards Pyrmont. We drop the sails, pack up and motor over to Pyrmont for the Jazz concert.
Sailing under the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
My old school, St. Aloysius College, Milson’s Point on the right.
The Jazz concert is under-way when we approach Pyrmont Park. A lot of boats are anchored just off the shore. Judging by the general level of Bacchanalian spirit effervescing over the decks of many of the anchored boats it seems that we are late to the party! We find a slot to slip into and drop the anchor. Back up with the bunting. It’s party time!
Wenches
Wenches – close up.
I get the griddle fired up in the galley. Lamb chops marinated in my secret marinate. (Hint: garlic – lots and lots of garlic).
The best dressed boat awards were announced. There were around half a dozen winners and runners up in various categories. Each got to parade past the flotilla and show off their winners ribbons.
A couple of boats decided to continue the parade through the flotilla. One at quite a decent speed. At one point this particular yacht appeared to be heading right up our stern. We yelled out in a somewhat excited manner to the skipper. He altered course and as he slipped past yelled out the sage advice “Alright, alrigh. We’ve all had a few drinks”.
The most novel dressed boat was another yacht absolutely festooned with green and gold. Inflatable kangaroos sat on the spreaders. On the sugar-scoop stern two crocodiles perched. One dragging its tail through the water.
Best Dressed Boat prize winner.
Note the kangaroos on the spreaders and the crocodiles on the stern!
Amidst the aquatic mayhem, back on stage, Psycho Zydeco played. The first time I’ve heard them. They got some funk.
Steve, Mark and a glass of white wine.
Tara
Red ensign at dusk
Fireworks went off. A modest but worthwhile display of pyrotechny.
Eventually it was time to pull up anchor and head off. There was no two ways about this fact. Towards the end of the concert an announcement was made that at the conclusion of said concert all anchored boats were to vamoosh toot-sweet because there was a car carrier waiting to undock from the wharf near Glebe Island Bridge. When the concert did finish a swarm of maritime craft swooped onto the scene and moved on any recalcitrants.
After leaving the concert, we motored around to Cockle Bay. We putted past the Endeavour replica, and the old Russian submarine. We got very close to the submarine. Bloody close. Oops. We dropped Kajo off at Darling Island and headed back out into the harbour proper gliding past the P & O ship Pacific Dawn.
The lights and movement at Luna Park called to us like sirens. So we headed over to Lavender Bay and cruised past Luna Park. We nipped under the bridge, past Kirribilli and into Farm Cove. I dropped Steve and Twinkle off at the Man of War steps next to the Opera House.
I then slowly made my way over to Athol Bay near Taronga Zoo. There were quite a few boats achored for the night. I found a possie to slip into and dropped anchor and called it a day. Australia Day.
Special thanks to Kajo, Steve and Tara for the excellent photos in this post.
