We left Shell harbour Marina this morning and are currently motoring up to Quarantine bay near Manly in Sydney Harbour.

SHM is an amazing place.

It used to be marsh land then the Shell Cove council decided to make a marina complex.

They dug out the marina through to the bedrock to a minimum depth of 3 metres, crushing the rock and using it for the base. The amount of material removed and reused must have been huge with a wide long entrance to marina for at least 200 boats.

There is also a tavern, several eateries, a Woolworths and plenty of other facilities as that compliments the Marina.

There is an incredible variety of Artwork which is a moving exhibition. The artwork can be purchased once the exhibition has expired.

For a boater there is an easy access fuel dock, ensuite modern bathrooms, a laundry and a lounge function area where you can help yourself to drinks and chill.

A 15 minute walk takes you to Shell cove village where they have plenty of eating options including an excellent Thai Restaurant.

This is a great place for yachties to tie up their boat enroute to or from Sydney.

The trip up from Jervis bay was as usual for us bumpy with a south east swell.

We motor sailed most of the trip with about two hours of pure sailing( yahoo) on arrival to the marina the staff were waiting for us and helped up to refuel ($2.18 litre, 93.5 litres) then escorted us to our dock and helped us tie up. Thank you Ellie and Jarvis.

While in SHM we caught up with Debbie, Greg and their lovely dog Oscar from Last Wave a Buizen 40. We met them in Jervis bay and they invited us for a sail with them on Last Wave around the cans for a fun sail and a BBQ put on by the marina on Saturday.

Another lovely couple we met were Melina and Garry on Caio Bella a Beneteau Oceanis 46.

Fellow Tasmanians from DSS. Melina went to Warrane high (where I went) and we both lived in Warrane in our youth, amazingly small world sometimes 😊

Another couple we met were Craig and Anna from Kinabaloo a Elan 45 which Kaz and I looked at when we were looking for a replacement for Katmai, she was a nice yacht, but Karen had her heart set on an Amel and luckily for us we found LaGecko.

Debbie and Greg treated us with a wonderful trip up to Robertson. A gorgeous historic village in the hills.

Afternoon tea at the spectacular old Robertson Hotel was extremely relaxing and the second hand shop in the old cheese factory was mind blowing. So many treasures at very reasonable prices.

We had a great time at Shell Harbour, at $106 a night it was a little expensive to spend too much time there, it was astounding how much effort they have gone to creating the space and would recommend a stopover to any boats going past.