On the 5th of December last year we moved permanently on LaGecko, since then we have had a year of, for us, many new adventures.
Now we are at Christmas 2024 in the Pittwater – Cowan creek area roughly 30km north of Sydney finally living the Cruising lifestyle as started by a simple idea five years ago.
It has been a busy year for us, this time last year we were in the process of replacing our standing rigging, firstly removing the masts in early December
Then after removing all the rigging wires from the masts the standing rigging were sent off to Brisbane to be duplicated.
While the wire was away I stripped the masts of all hardware to ready them for painting, the Hurricane marine boys then sanded the masts, primer coated and repainted them in a purpose built tent in their workshop.
Karen serviced all the mast winches and cleaned all the fixed hardware ready for reassembly once the masts were repainted
After the repainting I replaced all the electrical wiring inside the masts, new lights and antennas on the masts were fitted and we reinstalled everything that we previously removed, the Hurricane boys then reinstalled the standing rigging on the masts and lifted them back into place.
In mid February we hauled out LaGecko overnight to allow us to clean the hull, swap over the folding prop back to a fixed prop, repaint the scum line and do a general check of the hull and hardware.
But in early April another little problem popped up, I found that the diesel injection pump was leaking fuel from one of the seals, this required the removal of the injection pump and take it to a servicing firm, it took a month before we saw it again 😔
On the 23rd of May we got a chance to see Andy’s Mitsubishi Evo running as it should on the Baskerville race track.
Andy and Dan worked hard in the last months of Andy’s life to get the car finished, but unfortunately they didn’t get it finished, after Andy passed he gifted the car to Dan and Dan got the car finished and out on the racetrack to celebrate their amazing achievement.
In mid May we got sad news that my uncle Michael was unwell and sadly he passed away, mum and I were with him and family when he passed, it’s a very sad time when a life is lost, a reminder about of our short time on this earth.
Finally heading off
On August 5th we finally gave up our dock space at Kettering, G34 the three year home of LaGecko is now subleased to Lynn and Andrew on Mischief
From then on we were really cruising although not yet true cruisers 😊 we spent the next month wandering around the channel and up into the Derwent river.
We went into Prince of Wales marina for a few days and finished off the installation of the dual diesel filters and replaced the membranes in the water maker the last few jobs required to allow us to escape.
We now had LaGecko in a state ready to stay off grid and cruise for longer periods.
I had one last thing that I wanted to achieve before we left and that was to sell dad’s pride and joy
We had the car on the market for more than six months and I was thinking that I was going to have to take it off the market and leave selling it to another time as I wouldn’t be around to show the car, but a few weeks before we left, we had an offer from Michael who had been looking at the car from WA for many months.
Michael seemed like the sort of person that would enjoy the car as dad did, mum accepted the offer. The car is still in the shed but Michael is hoping to pick it up next month and take it to its new home in Perth WA.
Waiting to go
The 22nd of August finds us in Port Arthur awaiting a weather window, and didn’t that drag on, just one cold front followed by another for over two weeks, we really got to know the area well, but as all things do, there eventually was a break in the weather and we got around the corner into Fortescue bay on the 5th of September from then on it was an overnight or wait a day, then jump to the next anchorage, Orford, Mayfield then finally our Bass strait kick off point, Wineglass bay 5 days later.
11th of September, 8am sees us leaving Wineglass bay and heading up the east coast and into Bass Strait, we finally anchored in Eden exhausted on the afternoon of the 13th, it was a 52 hour crossing travelling 332Nm, our longest trip to date with just the two of us, it was a pretty rough ride, 2m SE seas with the boat rolling from side to side, we learnt a lot of what the boat can do.
Eden turned out to be another session on cold fronts, with the winds holding us on the boat unable to make the run across the bay to the main town for several days, we did though get into the town for a look around, it was a standard looking town with one main street, but had a great museum dedicated to whaling in the area, we also got ashore at Boyd town to have dinner one night.
We eventually had enough of the winds and decided to move north to Bermagui, leaving Eden at midnight to allow us to arrive at 8am onwith a lull in the weather both which helped us to dock safely.
Bermagui was recommended by a cruiser we met in Kettering and was a great place, we moored LaGecko in a marina for the 12 days allowing us to wander around the town without worrying about the winds.
Our next aim point was Jervis bay, we moved off our dock across to the fuel wharf and topped off our fuel and then left Bermagui on a beautiful morning and had a lovely motor sail up to Broulee island where we planned to overnight away from the southerly that was coming overnight, we had a shocking night on anchor with the rolling making sleep very difficult, so an early start heading east into 3-4m seas to get out of the shallows was pretty daunting, but thankfully the seas dropped down to a 2m South Easterly swell and we motored most of the way and onto a mooring at Hole in the wall in Jervis bay on the 2nd of October.
Jervis bay is a massive bay with many great safe spots to go depending on the expected wind conditions. We also met a lovely couple there Debbie and Greg on Last Wave who were from Shell harbour.
Karen went for a look around Huskisson and Vincentia and we took a walk to check out an historic lighthouse.
Our next destination was Shell harbour about 90km south of Sydney where we intended staying for a couple of days, but it was so lovely we stayed a week, we met quite a few new people here, other cruisers travelling south and some nice locals who spent some time showing us around and we got to take part in a sailing race on Last Wave.
After Shell harbour we headed up to Sydney, entering Sydney Harbour was like going into a different world, there were boats everywhere, ferry’s zooming around at 20kts, huge power boats creating rolly wakes, cruise ships and Navy ships just to make it more difficult.
We spent the first night on a very rolly mooring at Quarantine bay the following day we headed down to Blackwattle bay right in the centre of Sydney and anchored there for a week.
From Blackwattle bay we could walk around to any of the inner city places, we had some lovely meals here and Karen caught up with an old friend and LaGecko caught a catamaran that was dragging her anchor.
We next headed up to Middle harbour and our first time going through a bridge opening, once through the bridge we topped off with fuel and water and worked our way to Echo point to pick up our friends Lucie and Paul who stayed with us for six days exploring middle harbour and teaching us a few tricks about running LaGecko, picking up moorings etc, we also managed to catch-up with Karen’s cousins Craig and Tracey as well as Tiffiny who brought a fantastic lunch spread with them.
After leaving Middle harbour we spent another six days around Sydney Harbour before picking up Lucie and Paul who assisted us on our trip up to Pittwater.
Our last major hop for the year was Sydney to Pittwater on the 5th of November, since then we have been cruising around the area, visiting Cowan creek, Akuna bay, Bobbin head, Little Wobby with highlight areas like Cottage rock and Refuge beach for swimming, Barrenjoey lighthouse for views.
Whilst here we spent a lot of time with the lovely Lucie and Paul who live here at Pittwater, as well as a visit from Karen’s aunt Alison
Plans for 2025.
We don’t have a fixed plan for where we are going to be in 2025 except for putting LaGecko into Newcastle marina for a month from the 8th of January and heading back to Hobart to spend time with family and friends.
When we get back to LaGecko we will continue to head north as the mood and destinations grab us, we would like to do the inside route from the gold coast to Morten bay, we want to visit th many lovely places along the coast of Australia and once we get into the far north we will have to make the decision on whether we carry on north to some of the islands or if we will turn around and come back down the coast.
So lastly, we’d like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope you all have a wonderful year to come.
Until we see you again from us on LaGecko, au revoir!
Regardless of how long you have here on the earth, it isn’t about creating an everlasting legacy, because it’s not going to last. When you’re dead it doesn’t matter who remembers you. In as little as 100 years you will be completely forgotten.
Our time on this planet should be occupied by one thing, and one thing alone: to be the best version of ourselves. To work on living a good life.
LaGecko Sailing 