Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Quite a change of pace this week! After living the high but freezing life in London for 4 weeks I'm now back down under in Sydney on the boat. I left last Sunday morning from Heathrow, where they have the world's rudest ground staff and arrived finally on Monday night. One of my 400 planemates must have breathed on me as I came down with a cold and cough almost immediately. Fortunately the weather was balmy, quite a change from snowy London.
I spent the next few days cleaning Callisto up and getting her ready for her trip North and 2012 cruising season.
My batteries were not charging well and I decided to replace them on Friday and this was bigger job than anticipated considering I was alone. The 13 batteries were delivered to the Marina but yanking the old ones and fitting the new ones was heavy work. They were also slightly smaller than the originals and terminals were on the opposite side, so some modifications were in order to get then to fit tightly in their battery compartment and not allow them to move about. One of the local shipwrights kindly lent me his pick-up truck and told me where I could buy some stainless, Metric fasteners and a new piece of heavy copper bar to cut and drill to tie the new batteries together.
Needless to say, this took twice as long as anticipated and I was late for my Friday night dinner appointment with our friends Carole and Neville on Darling Point. Friday night is crazy busy in downtown Sydney and the trains were very crowded. I got lost in a station in the Sydney CBD called Town Hall which is on about 7 levels, none of which seemed to be connected to one another in any kind of logical way.
I finally emerged from the labyrinth, 45 minutes late and a bit frazzled.
Despite my tardiness, Carole and Neville were the most gracious of hosts and I very much enjoyed an evening of Carole's home cooking and Neville's excellent red wine and their company after a very long and difficult day.
Yesterday was spend on some provisioning, final cleaning and digging all the barnacles off the dinghy and stowing it.
Roger arrived last evening. We had some dinner in the local pub and an early night for me.
It's almost 0600H and just starting to get light. I need to check the weather one last time and then it's on to Manly or Broken Bay tonight and once the predicted southerly winds come in, we sail north 550 NM to Brisbane, Queensland.
I'm looking forward to going back to sea again after 3 months, photos to follow

Hampstead, London

Proud Grandparents!

Rochester Castle on a raw, snowy day.

Rochester Cathedral

Rochester, Kent

We are back in Rochester with Jessica, Ben and Sydney after a week in London visiting with old friends and hanging around Hampstead. There was some drama over the weekend as the weather turned quite cold and we had 4 inches of snow on Saturday night. Needless to say, the trip to Rochester on Sunday was a little difficult as all the trains to the southeast were not running well. Instead of fighting with the buses and trains we went to the National Theatre on the Embankment and saw the matinee of a modern dress production of " A Comedy of Errors". Very excellent it was too and we were then able to get a lift back to Rochester with Ben after the show.
Sydney ( baby not the city) has grown even more and it will be sad for me to say goodbye on Sunday and go back to Oz.

Rochester, Kent

We have had a busy two weeks since we arrived. After spending the first weekend with baby and new Mommy we went back to London to visit with my brother and sister. I did the tourist thing with Josette, who is also in London on her way to Rome to do her semester abroad. We walked for miles along the Thames Embankment and saw the museums and galleries of central London. Also found some interesting restaurants to replace the calories spent walking.
On Saturday, we met with Steve and Helen from Dignity who are also in London also awaiting the arrival of their first grandchild. We had an enormous English breakfast and then took a walk around Primrose Hill and Regents Park. It was quite surreal to see them out of the cruising context in in the pub in London enjoying a pint or two.
My niece, Kate, announced her engagement to Paul and we went to their engagement party on Sunday.
The Admiral and I went to the boat show in Dusseldorf the following day. And what a show it was, you have to hand credit to the Germans for an outstanding show and facility. It was superbly organized and is huge. Allegedly, the largest out of water show in the world, they managed to get hundred footers in there.
We went to see the new Amel 55 and she was, in my view, the queen of the show and represents a huge step forward in design and quality. I am having a serious case of boat lust but I'm not sure if a trade up is feasible.
We went to Amersham to visit the great grand parents and we are now back in Kent with Jessica and Ben and little Sydney for the weekend.

New baby update

Four generations of ladies





The new baby is now three weeks old and is now much more alert. She has increased her body weight by 20% and is now over ten pounds

Blighty

The Admiral and I are at our daughter Jessica's house visiting with the new bundle of joy. The flight from Oz was pretty awful and i'm just over the jet lag after three days. The effort was worth it, however, as Sydney Isabelle is a most excellent baby. Even though there may be some significant bias in these statements.
We were joined yesterday by the other set of proud grandparents, Sandra and Phil. I have no doubt they agree with me.
More photos to follow once the Admiral and Jessica decide on which ones to post.

Congratulations to Jessica and Ben

Sydney Isabelle Donoghue entered the world at 0400H on January 6th, 2012. (local time) She is 19 inches long and weighed in at 7 pounds and thirteen ounces, so definitely a keeper. Mother and baby are doing well. Yet another milestone!