We woke up at 6am in Auckland and drove very fast to the Coromandel Peninsula. Poor Mum and Dad it was 4am Australian time for them! I thought I wasn’t going to make it in time for diving when we got behind a road repair truck going at 40K! We pulled up to the dive shop and I jumped out with my kit bag and threw the car keys at Mum and Dad and said - be back for 4:30pm.

My kit was already soaking as when I went through customs at Auckland airport I had to answer yes to having dive kit and it was still wet from Sydney so they had to take it through bio security and put it in bleach to remove any pathogens that could invade NZ from Australia via my dive kit. They fully soaked my dry suit etc. and handed it back to me in a plastic bag which was heavy with water still coming out of the kit. We loaded up into the dive boat and I realized in my haste that I was wearing my flip flops and had forgotten socks and also my poly pro under shirt – I was going to be cold. Oh well.

We did a deep wall dive which dropped to 95 feet. As we were entering the water there were dolphins playing around the boat and we dropped into the depths and saw schools of kingfish, leatherheads etc. We caught one legal crayfish on the first dive. After an hour or so surface interval and lunch of a cup of soup – I hadn’t had time on the manic drive from Auckland to either eat breakfast or grab something for lunch – we did a shallower dive. This was a different landscape completely it was a boulder field with lots of moguls to make your way around and lots of places for crayfish to hide – we caught another here. One of the other divers got 7 in total so between the boat there was a total of 10 caught not bad with a value of $50 each! Dad was beaming when he picked me up to find I had dinner to cook on the BBQ.

After diving I stuffed myself at the bakery and we headed to the beach where we took a walk and relaxed in the sun. It really was a beautiful landscape.

Dinner was the crayfish on the BBQ and we were treated to a beautiful sunset.

To avoid decompression sickness you can not fly within 18 hours of multiple dives so after my last dives on Sunday I drove up to Sydney and met my parents who had spent the day wondering around the Rocks, Botanical Gardens and Opera House area. We checked into a very busy hostel right next to the Domain in a great location. The only problem being that I had the car in the city and the nearest off street parking wanted $56 for the evening, night and next day. I wasn’t into paying all that so we got in the car and drove to the Cruising Yacht Club to have drinks and dinner than found some parking on the street outside the hostel that was free after 10pm.

We drove over the Sydney Harbor Bridge to the Toronga Zoo. My mother is not into Zoos as she feels sorry for the animals even though I explained my view that many were rescue animals that would have died in the wild or they were there and this meant they weren’t being hunted to extinction. I wanted to go to see the Southern Ocean Exhibit in particular they have a Leopard Sea pair – no other institute in the world has these animals in captivity. The two at Toronga were found washed up severely mal nourished on the shoreline within a week of each other and confounded the trainers/vets by surviving and flourishing in the zoo. They would like to release them back into the wild however; the countries who govern the Antarctic will not let them do this for fear of introducing non native pathogens into the Antarctic. The trainer did not believe in the logic and so she says discussion are continuing!

There were great views from the zoo across the water of the bridge and the opera house.

After the morning at the zoo it was off to the airport to fly to Auckland.

After thinking I was so organized as to stay a mile from the dive site on Thursday night it didn’t work as well as planned. I waited around for an hour past when everyone was meant to show up. It looked like heavy surf so I was not so certain it would be a good dive day.

While waiting a colorful funeral procession turned up along with a Scottish bag pipe player and champagne. Either the grandfather was not a well liked man or he asked that everyone have a party and indeed they did. They were scattering his ashes on the beach. I also met up with some spear fisherman who kindly lent me their phone I called the dive shop and it turned out they had cancelled the dive down south due to the conditions and they were diving up north of Sydney airport a good hour and half drive from where I was. So I got in the little car and sped north a lot faster than the speed limit. I got to the other dive site to see everyone disappearing below the surface for their second dive! Damn.

There was another group doing a rescue diver course so I joined in and acted as a dummy but it was a short dive. I was taking my gear off when an Italian who had been living in Australia for a while decided to befriend me and we chatted a way. He was trying to persuade me to go in on my own but I wasn’t going to do that at a site I didn’t know. A few minutes later another lot of divers piled out of a car and he asked them if I could join them. So I got in my second dive at Bare Island after all that but it was a big effort!

On Saturday I was up bright and early and picked my parents up at the airport and took them to the dive shop as I was determined to not be left behind. We dove at the Steps going against a large current towards a site called the Monument at the Botany Bay Reserve. The site gets its name from the large number of steps that you have to heave yourself and dive kit up and down to the enter the water. Next dive we all voted for walking up the shorelines upstream of the current and getting in at Monument and doing a drift dive exiting at the Steps.

Sunday we dove at two different sites. The first one that you have to do at high water as it is in a tidal part of the river. It is the oldest marine reserve in Sydney area the wall is covered in flora that makes it a sight to behold all different types and colors of seaweed. It was some what of a divers convention as it was the highest tides of the year at a reasonable time of day on a Sunday – we almost needed traffic lights under water! I would say a total of 100 divers were under water but the fish weren’t too concerned. We even saw a Wobbygong shark about 4 foot long camouflaged lying on the sandy floor at the base of the wall.

Next dive was at Oak Park – the usual entry was not possible due to the amount of swell so we entered off a section of the beach that was rocky with a large gradient. As we were entering one of the girls decided she wasn’t confident about the dive and excused herself so we were down to two buddy pairs and a third buddy group (three divers) - my buddy was the divemaster. Off we went dropping down to a boulder strewn area with some kelp – not the type you get in California. We were all inspecting the flora and fauna with one guy taking lots of pictures.

We continue on and then the divemaster turns around to find we are down to only 5 divers and the divemaster from a total of 7 divers and the divemaster. Two people were missing.. not a good sign… in the briefing we were to stop search for one minute and then surface and look for the lost divers who are also meant to surface and wait. So we surfaced and there was no one to be seen on the surface. We talked and found out that the guy with the camera was missing and that the other diver had been low on air so had not told the rest of us and had just turned around and gone back towards the beach. We had to all get back to shore so we went under the surface again and headed on a bearing back to the shoreline. I was following the divemaster as I had no compass and had never dived there before. The terrain was like the description he had given in the briefing of where you did not want to end up. Shallow and full of urchins and lots of surge - the strong surface current had swept us and we weren’t able to swim against it. So there was nothing to do except exit on a small area of beach that had large waves breaking along it. I remembered my instructor at Monterey talking about a dive side called Monastary and how they do the Monastary crawl – all fours with reg in – to exit. I put my reg in and let the waves take me into the shallows trying to get out of the zone where the waves broke over me as quickly as possible and keeping my reg in so as not to inhale water. It was easier for the guys with the wet suits on who were only wearing 12 pounds of weight compared to my 26 pounds. The missing divers were safely sunbathing on the shore and I took a bit of breather after a tiring dive.

Next stop Sydney and the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia where I took my parents for a drink before spending the night at the youth hostel. I would swear the place was full of guys like my little brother they were up partying till early in the morning in the hallway outside my room. I felt like a grouchy old lady ?

My flight out of LAX was very delayed so we ended up taking off at 1am. I had a good nights sleep in business class and 13 hours later we landed in Sydney. I remind myself how much I love my mother! When I am in economy on the way home I will appreciate her even more. With an express card I was through passport control, baggage claim, customs and sitting in my tiny rental car in less than an hour.

I stopped off at Abyss dive shop on my way south to pick up my tanks and weights. I went through the Royal National Park towards Stanwell Park stopping at beautiful looking places. An hour after landing at Sydney I was kayaking up Kangaroo Creek in the bush – modern travel is truly amazing. All sorts of animals were along the river - very noisy and numerous white cockatoos, a turtle sitting on a branch sunning itself, common ducks and many birds that I couldn’t name. I found a mud nest just above the water on an undercut rock face and had a quick face wash in the stream as far as I got up river. The vegetation was thick on all sides with a quite a few eucalyptus trees, lots of different shrubs some with blooms.

After a quick hot chocolate, chips and sausage sandwich for lunch it was off down the road south. I turned off at the Wolla exit and took a walk down to a beautiful lagoon where people were swimming in the warm shallow water. The water was a stunning blue and the beach was beautiful yellow sand a stunning view and nicely sheltered. Back in the car I stopped at Garie beach which was windswept and populated with people learning to surf. The sand was beautifully rippled by the wind and the grass was blowing at an angle – a different beach from a few miles north. There is a view point above the beach looking north and south very similar to the California coastline.

I had by now started to succumb to jetlag and thought it wise to continue onto my bed and breakfast after checking out my dive site for the next day. I stayed at Tudor Lodge a very friendly comfortable black a block back from the beach with a dog which of course I loved. I struggled to stay awake and managed till 7pm before it was bedtime!

The build of the cruising boat in LA is coming along fast and the owner will have it just in time for Christmas. It has been a long haul for him. We have a few nice customisations that mean the boat doesn’t quite know whether it is meant to be raced or cruised! It is fun learning every day and getting to make small design choices. Off to Sydney tonight.

I went out with Chance the J120 for Regatta Pro’s November One Design Midwinters yesterday. We had a nice amount of wind considering it was winter. The fog never cleared and it started to drizzle half way through the second race. It was great fun as usual sailing with the Chance crew. They are all great sailors and can do most positions which means their crew work is always top notch. In the winter they take different positions the bow helmed the first race and the mid bow the second race. We ended up in third it was a tight finish with first being only two boat lengths ahead. In the second race we were second with the first place boat doing a horizon job on the fleet.

There is a good story to go with my black eye! It will make you laugh I am sure.

So I was putting up a shed over at my old place with my worker Francisco. The base was propped against the fence as he levelled the ground for the shed. Well it ended up on his head and caused a very large laceration that was deep. If you are squimmish stop reading here!!

So as with all head injuries there was a lot of blood. I got some rags and had him hold it on his head and sit down until the bleeding had stopped. Then I called my friend the paramedic who wasn’t answering. There was no way Francisco was going to the hospital… being without paperwork. If it was me I would have been there in a NY minute. So as I waited for my friend to call back I finished the shed and kept an eye on Francisco checking for concussion etc. I took him to my house and pulled out the medical kit for on the boat which includes a suture kit which I am not qualified to use but it also has all the materials to clean the wound.

I was doing a good job washed his head under the shower, hair by hair had to be remove from the wound and then used an iodine swab to clean it really well. At this point there was no blood I was just trying really hard not to hurt him. Francisco was being very brave. I am poking at his head with surgical gloves and a pair of tweezers. All of a sudden I didn’t feel good so I stopped poking his head and lent against the sink for a few seconds. Well after that it is a blank!!

I woke up to Francisco yelling my name and shaking me and pain on the right side of my face. Well I was out apparently for only 30 seconds or so. I had passed out and hit my head on the wall on the way down. Poor Francisco was beside himself and very scared. So I got up and took a breather on the couch and went back to working on his head as I had to close the wound.

I ended up using dermabond it seems to have worked really well. After 30 seconds of holding the edges of the 3 inch laceration together it seemed to have kicked off. Poor Francisco is definantly going to have a big scar as I didn’t do that great of a job of knitting the two sides together. I took him home with some Advil and have been checking it out for the last few days. Speaking no spanish and him very limited English meant I had to resort to an online translation tool to ask him about pain etc. There were many moments where he stared blankly at me not understanding what I was trying to say it probably didn’t help with him huge headache!You can only imagine the story he had to tell about the crazy gringo women he works for when he got home! At least my black eye will heal and there won’t be a scar. So now I am on a mission to get over my new weakness and learn how to use sutures as that is really what needed to happen. I think this however, will take a lifetime as I can’t even recieve injections never mind give them.

So like I mentioned in my Scotland? post the Bay Area is an area of micro climates. Today we went off to the south of france/italy which is 45 minutes from my door north and inland a little - Napa or the wine country. Seeing as I don’t drink you would think it would be a boring trip for me but the scenery is so beautiful and I enjoyed taking the break which is rare for me. While Tom tried the wines Draeger and I hung out in the sun. The leaves are changing color with it being Autumn - I didn’t realise that the vine leaves changed as well - obvious I guess but I hadn’t thought about it. It made the landscape look like a watercolor painting with splashes of red, orange, yellow, green etc. We went to four wineries and had a picnic lunch at one of cheese and bread. We also stopped at a Olive oil company and tasted lots of great oils and vinegars. A very relaxing day all and all

Leaves above the picnic table

Vines at the Domaine Chandon winery

Andretti Winery

Olive orchard

I didn’t really fly to Scotland but I drove up to Point Reyes with Tom who is visiting from the UK. With the micro climates in the Bay Area one day you could be in the South of France or Italy and then drive 20 miles and be in a landscape reminiscent of Scotland. We went up Highway 1 stopping at Muir Woods, Muir Beach, Stinson Beach, Tomales Bay, Drakes Bay Oyster company where I bought some fresh oysters for my dad and then up to North Beach on the road to the lighthouse. I have never got to the lighthouse alway ending up getting bored of the drive and instead taking a long walk on the beach.

Today there were four other people on the beach they had a fire going and a picnic. Draeger had a great time with her tail wagging running in an out of the surf. The California coast line really is very beautiful it is something we don’t necessarily appreciate.

The overlook at Muir Beach

Pelicans at Bolinas

Surf at North Beach

There was a beautiful low level fog rolling in from the sea

My guys as I call them Rene and Gus sailed with me on the Moore - Flashman on Saturday it was light air and we had a fun day despite doing very poorly. The first start I believe took 4 general recalls to get us off the line - there was a ebb pushing everyone over and I guess people weren’t paying enough attention to it. I made many changes to the boat after the Nationals and they didn’t seem to help so back to the drawing board. The problem is that one of the changes might have helped but seeing as I did so many at once I don’t know which ones to fix! Silly me.

On Sunday we went out with Mary on Astra and I went from steering to Saturday to bow on Sunday. It was odd weather for October - we got the usual June weather instead it was blowing 35knots in the slot between angel and alcatraz. The great pumpkin is a fun race as it is a reverse pursuit race you can go either way round and the smallest boats start first. Not many boats started behind us and as it looked glassy calm in Racoon so after much conversation we went to Alcatraz first and then went through Racoon last. The winning boat went the other way but they were small and started a good hour and half before us. My friend Tom from the UK came out with us and the Astra trimmers got taken to boot camp as he is a really great trimmer I hope they enjoyed the coaching. We ended up 25th out of the 164 boats that started.

After racing I had a casual meal at my house and made spagetti carbonara which went down well I think I will do it again sometime as it really is a simple meal to make after a day on the boat.

On our way home after racing.