December - Christmas with Palm Trees

December is our 1 year anniversary in Australia! Wow, what a great year it has been.

Our Christmas was nice and quiet. It definitely is just not the same to spend Christmas with your family and friends so far away! Not to mention how weird it is for us to be going to the beach on a sunny, 80 degree day and see Christmas decorations up! Rob & Nikky were kind enough to invite us to spend Christmas with them and their two adorable sons again. Thanks Rob & Nikky for a wonderful day.

December was packed with activities, as Doug & Cindy flew out the 4th, but not before getting Doug on a Volvo 60 for a race in Sydney Harbor, as well as doing the Sydney Harbor Bridge Climb with Doug & Cindy. It is an amazing experience and worth every penny. We also did a few Sydney things like the Ghost tour of the Rocks, and went to see Missy Higgins in concert (like an Aussie version of Norah Jones).

We were very sad to see our friends in the building move. We hope to see Camilla when she comes back after Christmas break, but Kristy has gone back to Perth. We do miss them...come see us any time!

Camilla & Kristy




We did get to celebrate Thanksgiving (in December) this year. We had met some Americans, Jason & Kylie, from LA and had dinner with them a few times. They kindly invited us over for an amazing Thanksgiving feast with some other Americans. It was great to share stories and hear how others have made the adjustment. I think we made some more new friends as well!

We do have an unfortunate story to share. Our good car got broken into in the SAS parking lot. They smashed the passenger side window and stole an old gym bag with some of my sailing gear. Looking to the bright side, I was lucky in that they didn't do any damage other than the window, and my iPod, phone, sunglasses,wallet, etc wasn't in the car.

Polly celebrated her birthday in December. I got her windsurfing lessons and a digital photo frame and went through some 20,000 pictures to pick the best 400. I think it's both good and bad as she likes seeing the pictures of friends and family yet it makes us miss them even more.

To get in the Christmas spirit, we joined a gazillion people in a park in downtown Sydney to listen to Christmas Carols. It was quite a show, and included a live performance from the Wiggles (horray) and Santa coming in on a Helicopter. Great fun.

For Boxing Day (Dec 26th), we got to be in a small motorboat to watch the start of the Sydney to Hobart race up close! It's kind of funny, as we had to get our boat licenses to operate a motor boat here in Sydney. It's a great law, but makes me laugh as I've driven and owned boats my entire life and never had a test in the US. However,I support the law 100% and wish the US would do the same.

We got some great news in December, as Polly's sister Kathy and John got engaged! Congratulations to you both! They, along with our neice Isabella (almost 6 years old), will arrive New Year's Eve and will be visitors #4. We can't wait to see them! I expect we'll be in awe as to how much Isabella will have changed since we saw her a year ago. For New Year'sEve, we plan to take them out to a friend's yacht which will be anchored in the Harbor to geta great view of the Fireworks. Should be a great time.

I got some sailing time in over the Holiday. I raced on a yacht named "Love Byte" and we won our division in the Coff's Harbour Race over the Christmas Break.

Jason on the bow during the start of an overnight leg

The Harbour was very busy with activity enjoying the great December weather:

Start of a Wednesday evening race:


Busy Harbor!


Polly works for Getaway Sailing, and December is the busiest month of the year, as they entered 2 yachts in the Sydney to Hobart race, as well coordinating crew training and logistics. I think she'll be glad when December is over. :)

Getaway Sailing's Volvo 60 in Hobart Race

Getaway Sailing's Sydney 38 in Hobart Race

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all! Do know we miss you and would love to hear from you!

November - guests and a trip to Tasmania

November was an exciting month as we had our 3rd visitors! Doug & Cindy Brann braved the long flight and arrived Nov 14th and stayed with us for 3 weeks. They were amazing troopers as they flew in around 10am and didn't go to sleep until like 11pm that night! They started out with a bang with a walk around downtown and ended up on a water taxi ride on the Harbor at night.

We took a few great side trips which gave us a chance to be tourists as well. We had a wonderful trip to the Blue Mountains, and went to see the Jenolan Caves, and then spent a day in the Hunter Valley Wine Country where we did a few tours and saw several wineries.

Wine Country:


Polly and Cindy at our first stop:


On my first winery tour:


All wined out, so on to the beer sampling at the Blue Tongue Brewery!

It was back to work for a couple of days, and then we spent 5 days in Tasmania. For those who don't know much about Tasmania, it's a small island Southeast of Australia, and is its own Australian state. Our trip included a lot of driving, but we really had some great variety and got to see a lot of the island. We flew into Hobart, and drove 2.5 hours North to Freycinet National Park and stayed at the Edge of the Bay Resort on Coles Bay. There we did some great hikes overlooking Wineglass Bay as well as a few other short hikes.

Cindy handfeeding a wild kangaroo outside of our cabin

Polly and Jason at Wineglass Bay

Doug at Wineglass Bay

Wineglass Bay without us in the way

Sunset on Coles Bay


Polly reflecting


View of Coles Bay from our cabin



From Coles Bay, we drove 2 hours to Launceston where we had lunch and did a 1 hour boat cruise of the Cataract Gorge. That was nice, but probably our least favorite activity of the trip.

Cataract Gorge:


After lunch, we drove another 2 hours of very windy roads to Cradle Mountain National Park and stayed 2 nights at the incredible Voyages Cradle Mountain Lodge. We had side by side spa cabins in the hill. We spent 3 hours the next day hiking around Dove Lake and got some great pictures as well as a short hike to the water falls (my favorite). The resort was amazing, and lots of wildlife everywhere. We had very nice cabins, and Polly took advantage of the spa tub after our hikes, and Cindy enjoyed a spa day. The weather was perfect with crystal clear sky and warm days and cool and clear nights.


Waterfall near the lodge


Wild wombat at night



Amazing Dove Lake:




Polly soaking her feet in very cold water after a long hike



We left Cradle Mountain for a 4 hour drive back to Hobart, where we explored a litte and had dinner at the Drunken Admiral. The following morning we enjoyed a really nice tour of the Cadbury Chocolate Factory, complete with free samples.



Hobart from our Hotel


We finished our day with a tour and walk around Port Arthur. Port Arthur has a great Australian history. Sydney and Australia was founded from the English as a penal colony. Port Arthur was where they took the repeat offenders & really bad convicts. It was a penal colony in the middle of a thriving port and town.

Port Arthur




We really liked Tasmania. The wildlife is amazing. There are kangaroos, wallabies (small roos), paddemelons (really small roos), possums, and wombats. They are not shy at all, and will come eat out of your hand. It is such a beautiful and I guess I would use the word "natural" to best describe it. We would be driving for miles on the "main highway"and not see any signs of civilization, and amazing views around every corner.



Just what does this sign mean? I think it means: "Watch out - the kangaroos here can lift your car."


Standard foot shot for Steph


Funny, this guy in Tasmania has a Charlotte Hornets bag! No, he wasn't from North Carolina, and nope, he had no clue who the Hornets were. He just liked the bag. :)

October - more toys!

I'm a bit late on October blog entry, so this will be brief. It was a bit of a hectic month, as we had a lot of little chores to do including taxes (Aussie tax year is July -> June and due at end of October). On the fun side, the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia Monday & Wednesday night sailboat races started their Summer Series, so we were excited about that. Nothing like getting out on the Harbor straight after work for some racing. We also bought a Laser 2 sailboat! Ya had to know we couldn't be boatless for a whole year. :) It's a one or two man sailboat with a spinnaker. It's a good boat for us because it fits in the garage, and I can rig and sail it myself, although it's a lot more fun with two people. We also bought a second kayak, so we now have a fun set of toys. I've always said having more toys & interests than time is a good problem to have. We've made a few more friends too which is nice.

Jason launching the boat from the ramp at our apartment complex.

Jason & Kristy sailing away - Polly took this pic from our balcony.

Of course,at the end of October is Halloween, and I must say that as much as Aussies like their Holidays and never need an excuse to celebrate life, they really don't seem to get into Halloween. We sure missed the kids coming around the neighborhood and of course Franklin Street!

September - Less sailing, more sight seeing

We took a break from sailing in September and did some traveling. Since President Bush and friends came in for the APEC forum, the folks in Sydney were so scared about traffic issues, they gave everyone in Sydney a free day off on Friday and even encouraged people to get out of town. Security was amazing, and many say overblown. I challenge to say if you have the leaders of the US, China, Russia, Australia, etc all in the same building, how can you have too much security?

Here's a patrol boat scoping things out while we ate breakfast on our balcony

Some 9 feet high fences stretched > 3 miles



We took advantage of the 3 day weekend and went to Canberra, the capital of Australia. In doing so, we met someone from Davenport, Iowa where Polly used to live, as well as a couple from Stowe, Ohio where Polly went to high school. How bizarre!

Canberra has an interesting history. In the old days, Sydney and Melbourne used to fight over which should be the capital. So, instead, they picked a spot in between, designed a beautiful little story-book city (with a ridiculous number of roundabouts), built a lake, made it it's own state (ACT - Australian Capital Territory), and made it the capital. It's very quaint and reminds us a bit of Cary. It is very planned out, there are no obnoxious signs, and it has lots of green. It was a great weekend, and visited some of the many museums and exhibits. The war memorial & museum was my highlight.

View over the lake towards Parliament House


View from War Memorial to Parliament House


And from Parliament House to the War Memorial


Polly reliving her past?


We've been "boatless" for 9 months now, and I just couldn't stand it any longer. Despite sailing about as much as we have wanted, we bought a kayak and a Laser 2 - a little 14' sailboat with a spinnaker. We plan to get another kayak, and now that daylight saving time is just around the corner, we hope to do some sailing and kayaking around the harbor on our own.

The last weekend of September was another 3 day weekend (Australian Labor Day), and we took advantage of it and rented a house with 6 other people in Jervis Bay a little over 3 hours South. It was a beautiful place, with a huge protected bay that had some of the prettiest beaches I've ever seen. It's soft white sand, and shallow bay areas give it that beautiful blue hue. Most of the area is National & Marine Park and many areas and beaches are only accessible via walking paths. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, but lucky enought to have Roger along who is an amazing photographer and he kindly shared these pics:

Beautiful beach near Vincentia

The water really looked this blue! This one was at Cave Beach

And near Huskisson:




Gotta tell you a funny story. One sunny and breezy Wednesday afternoon, Polly emails me to let me know she her boss is making her do the Wednesday afternoon sailboat race. Just to rub it in, she also called me to make sure I knew. :) To top it off, she just today told me she has to be on the Volvo 60 this Thursday for an all day race. Not a bad perk at all - good for her!

Miss you all! Please leave comments so I know someone is reading this. :)

August - a tropical sailing vacation

August was a great month for us. We started the month by working for a local Boat Sales company at the Sydney International Boat Show in Darling Harbour. It was fun being on the other side and trying to sell boats instead of buy them.

Jason had an "oops" this month. I was caught doing 63km/h in a 40km/h zone (like 40mph in a 25) via a speed camera at freaking 4am while taking Polly and her folks to the airport. Oops. It's a huge, empty road that has a variable speed limit and got me on camera. There went my extra money I earned from the boat show.

The highlight of the month and one of the highlights of the year was participating in Hamilton Island Race Week. Hamilton Island is situated in the Whitsunday Islands, a group of 74 islaned in the Great Barrier Reef. Hamo Race Week featured 217 boats in 8 divisions and is the largest regatta in Australia. We raced on a 60 foot racing yacht called "You're Hired" in IRC (the top division) and placed a very respectable 7th of 27 boats. I'm very pleased with our result, especially considering the boats that placed ahead of us were much newer, multi-million dollar yacths staffed with professional sailors.

Our boat "You're Hired" (I'm 3rd from front, Polly is at the back):

Crew - we also won "Best Dressed" - thanks to Ros for our stand-out uniforms:



While at Hamo, we celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary! I surprised Polly with a well earned 2 hour treatment at the spa to help relieve the aches and pains of the week. It was a great place to celebrate an anniversary. We had great views from our Hotel:

View from hotel balcony

The Cockatiels here are not exactly shy or sparse:


We had some great experiences at Hamo, and made some great friends. We were fortunate to share a room with John & Catherine Crawford, who took me on a nice 10k hike with great views of the Islands. Polly and I also snorkeled and saw a huge turtle that hung out with us only a few feet away. We were blessed with great weather, and due to the more than 3000 people on the island there for race week, were treated to bands, lots of beer, and great entertainment. One of the days was a short race day and we all went to the famous Whitehaven Beach Party. Whitehaven beach is claimed as one of the to worlds 10 most beautiful beaches, and I would have to agree.

John & Catherine

View of Whitsunday Islands from Passage Peak on Hamilton Island

View of our hotel and beach from Passage Peak:

Whitehaven Beach Party


We had a little gift in August. A gentleman named Andy from Switzerland who was in Australia for a few months had a little beat up Toyota. He was just going to leave it on the curb when he flew home, so we told him we would take care of it for him. So, we've been driving around this car, affectionately named "The Beast", and probably will until it's registration expires. Andy had taken it to the Outback (it has 275,000 kms/172,000 miles on it), so it was caked in dirt and mud which Polly made short work of.
The Beast:


Turns out, it has come very much at a great time, as Polly was hit in a gas station lot by a "ute" (like a flat bed pickup truck with no tailgate). She was fine, but it made a nasty dent in our good car and the passenger door wouldn't open easily. Timing wise it worked out as we were able to leave it while we were at Hamo and their insurance covered it. Polly tried to play the Good Samaritan, as the guy who backed into us admitted fault, and gave her all of his details, and asked for 2 quotes and would pay of pocket. Seemed reasonable, and Polly proceeded as promised. After receiving the quotes (~$2,500), he suddenly stopped answering the phone. Our insurance is following up with his, and we have the car fixed. However, the guy is now claiming somehow we hit him! Considering the dent was in the front quarter panel from behind the front tire backwards to the passenger side door - it is physically impossible to hit another car so I'm sure logic will prevail. Still, I've lost a bit of faith in the good will of the common person.

Please keep in touch - we love hearing from our friends and family back home. Do know we miss you all!