Thursday 20 December Broken Bay

At midday we pulled into Pittwater, Broken Bay at midday – an hour ahead of the latest trough moving up the coast – and only 15 miles north of the entrance to Port Jackson, Sydney's harbour. With the help of the south setting East Australia Current and when that petered out, our downwind sail config, we covered 265 miles in 30 hours. That's moving.

We anchored in Currowong bay and I pulled out the stops with a celebration egg and bacon lunch before we both fell into a much needed afternoon nap while the wind blew outside though we were so deeply asleep, neither of us noticed. Passages of one overnight are more difficult because it's too short to adjust to the alternate sleep pattern required for night watches. It's always easier to sleep the odd hours on the second night of a passage and on passages of 4 nights or more the rhythm is established.

We did wake up in time for afternoon tea but it was early to bed after dinner. Dinner was fresh tuna caught this morning cooked in thin slivers on our new table top barbecue (a recommendation and purchase by our friend Chantal on Micromegas).