well it was a day of elation for me. Me and my best mate on the little bluebird. My first ocean sail at the helm. were blessed with a massive whale doing full breaches right near us...boat performed really well. In fact she was more in tune out there than in the pittwater/harbours. Barely had to mess with the sails. Used bungy chords to keep on course and really didn't touch the tiller for a few hours. There was a fair bit of wind early. Kinda been like that all week. Then dies off later in the day. I'd say it was about 20-25kn near barrenjoey ahead til about Newport. We had a good 5 knots. The coast trip took 4 hours. There were times doing just 1.5 knots but on average we got 4.
Parked the boat right in front of my place in mcmahons point at sail corps marina on their bouys.
bit of a rude awakening coming into the harbour after 8 months of sailing pittwater and hawkesbury. Traffic, lotsa cops, tugs, ferries, wake, wake and more wake...hmmmmm.
already planning some trips down the coast. Really hooked now on the coastal cruising....bloody beautiful!
thanks everyone here for tips and advice and encouragement. It's a big deal for me having only just started sailing a few years back at 39.

Good one steve, I always enjoy the sailing around Sydney, Pitwater to the Gong. A good weekend out from the harbour is down to the Hacking, overnight and then back the next day. Port hacking is a nice location, you have botany bay if the weather turns and the day is not too long.
Cheers. Robert.

Hi
Its great you got a buzz out of it, well done

yeah Dr Rog, it's pretty sweet Aye?
hey Michael rear are you the fella that came along side?
the port hacking thing sounds great too. Will def give that a go - even the gong.
New boat next year so more practise the better.
The ultimate goal is cruising. Way up the coast, South Pacific eventually....and beyond. But I gotta work up to that.
when I was doing the anti fouling on my boat, the marina guy said "you can sail it to Sydney on a good day." I kinda interpreted this as, " sailing to Sydney is possible"
with my lack of experience and tiny vessel, I think choosing the weather is the most critical, for the coastal stuff. but what really is the difference if you're in enclosed waters or open in weather?
im still yet to reef a sail. Something to work on soon. Need to figure it how to do it and an efficient system. The boom has pullies and cleats, for this I think. Yesterday out in about 40km winds. 5.5 kn. a record for us under sail. Boat handling well.
still a lot to learn and some work to do on boat, but sailing nonetheless.