Our favourite place

How was your weekend? We had such a cruisy one, in both senses of the word.

My friends at Sydney Harbour Tall Ships had a last-minute cancellation on Friday night for their Wine & Canapes cruise and asked us to join them.

Yes, please!

DD and I love any opportunity to be sailing, especially with a glass of bubbles in hand.

The weather was magical, warm with gentle breezes, as we joined the Coral Trekker at Campbell’s Cove in Circular Quay.

Coral Trekker is a square-rigged, wooden tall ship with distinctive red sails and an equally colourful history. Her keel was laid in 1939, then the Second World War began and curtailed her travels. Finally, she sailed to New Zealand, where she was sold into the fishing industry.

As a strong sea vessel, she was one of the only vessels that could reach the Whahini passenger ferry which sunk in heavy weather in 1968, saving many lives. To acknowledge her heroism a Bay in the Snares group of Islands, off New Zealand’s coast is named after her original name “Ho Ho 2”.

Coral Trekker was later refitted by Australian Himalayan Expeditions as a square-rigged ketch and spent 25 years in the Whitsundays before moving to Sydney.

We sailed with her under the Sydney Harbour Bridge and up the Parramatta River as the sun gloriously set. Our host Howard served us delicious, substantial nibbles while sharing his remarkable depth of knowledge about everything on and around the harbour.

It was very entertaining to watch our food magically appear out of the galley via a porthole in the deck!

After sunset, the Coral Trekker meandered back under the Sydney Harbour Bridge and took us for a birds-eye – literally – trip past Sydney Opera House.

In the photo it looks like there are stars above the sails, but there were literally hundreds of seagulls circling Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was fascinating to watch.

It was such a nice evening, we loved it.

The next Wine & Canapes cruise with Sydney Harbour Tall Ships is on October 4. Learn more about it here: https://sydneytallships.com.au/…/wine-canapes-evening…/

Saturday was cruisy in the laidback sense of the word. After walking with friends I made a pot of the eldest’s favourite roasted tomato soup then headed up to DD’s place for the night to give the doggos some outdoor time.

We decided to catch a bus up to Palm Beach Golf Club for dinner and tucked into the $3 oysters and steak special then bussed it back home again. Very economical compared to the previous night when DD decided to catch a cab for the short ride from the city to my place and tapped to pay without checking the fare or getting a receipt.

He later discovered the dodgy driver had charged him $50!

Sunday morning was spent reading the papers, sipping coffee and heading to one of our favourite cafes, Relish in Avalon, for brekkie. I had my heart set on the baked bean and sausage hot pot, but they’d run out of snags. Dammit.

I settled for smashed avo on toast instead.

Then it was time to head home to knock over some book editing and other fiddly tasks before another big week begins.

Song of the day: Enya “Orinoco flow”