Sydney - Heading back up to MacKay

We started the day going over to the IMAX Theater in Darling Harbor, Sydney. Watching "Under the Sea" in 3D, when one of the water snakes just like the ones in Niue swam within foot of me in the theater I jumped the other way. It was an incredibly real, just like snorkeling on top of the reef. The shots of the sharks were like being there. Had an extra hour after so we went over to the Australia Wildlife exhibition. The size of the sea water crocodiles was scarier than I thought possible, the glass was not thick enough for me. The cutest of course are the Koala Bears; we stayed watching them the longest. Lots of other wildlife wombats, poisonous snakes, kangaroos - great morning of entertainment.

The highlight of the day was picking up all the new gear for Wild Tigris. We drove down with nine Barient winches and had the tops cut off and self tailers put on top of the winches, they look beautiful, can’t wait to get them back on the boat. A lot of spare parts, too - pawls, springs, bearings and grease. The other new part is a roller-furler for the Genoa Staysail. We will be able to roll out the Genoa Staysail at any time. In the 60 knot blow in the Mediterranean it would have been nice to have had this to put a couple of rolls into the Genoa staysail. The double head rig also works well on a reach.

Then off to Newcastle about 150 clicks up the highway before the light went away. My son Warner arrives August 4th so we are heading back quickly so we can join him on the Wild Tigris.

- Casey