Oz: Unbelievable

Sydney Harbour - Opera House and Bridge.  We're anchored right here!
Who knew five years ago , dreaming in Everett Washington, this was where we'd spend our 2017 New Year's Eve?

Surely everyone has a few moments in their lives that feel more surreal than real, as though you can hear and feel an old-fashioned movie camera, noisily whirring away in the background, to record the image for eternity.  

Stepping out of the train station in Venice, Italy marked one of those larger-than-life moments for me.  Otherwise how could I possibly in one split-second transport myself from a mundane train station into a gloriously decaying and yet justly romanticized masterpiece of  European civilization -- a picture post-card, a miasma of ancient canals, bridges, and crumbling churches?

Five years ago, Wayne and I decided to go cruising.  Not just in our backyard, spectacular as the Pacific Northwest waterways are.  We weren't sure if we wanted to circumnavigate.  We were sure we wanted to cross biggest ocean of all, the Pacific.  We knew we wanted to sail to Australia.  

We were aiming for sunny skies, warm waters, exotic cultures.  We wanted to go where we could live in swimsuits (or less) --  into the tropics.  We knew we wanted to see French Polynesia, to swim with the fishies, work on our tans, eat coconuts, drink cheap rum and dance in the moonlight.  

We weren't sure if Australia would be our chosen end-of-the-line for this grand journey, though guessed it might well be.

It took us less than a year to move from dream to reality. It started off a bit rocky in St. Lucia....

And here we are - 4 1/2 years and 30 countries later, in our humble yet reliable 1977 36 1/2 foot Pearson sailboat, s/v Journey, anchored less than a mile from the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.  We've staked out our spot for Sydney's epic New Year's Eve fireworks.

Fittingly, next to us in the anchorage is Neville and Catherine of Dreamtime, whose blog inspired Wayne to quit his lucrative Boeing job for the adventure of a lifetime.  

Also here are our newfound Ozzie friends John and Andrea, on Christine, who we got to know just a few short stops ago in the little town of Laurieton.

What an epic way to end our travels on Journey!  And still, as real as it is, it's still somewhat unbelievable that we're here.  Let the fireworks begin!

Location Location

Sydney Harbour's Farm Cove (S33.51.571 E151.13.187) Australia.

Up Next
Still lots of catch-up posts to go.  We return to Pittwater January 4th to resume preparing our boat for sale.  We'll travel Australia by van (and blog about that, too!) for several months once our boat is ready to show.