Noon Position: 35 01.9 S 138 21.5 E
Course: South East(ish); Speed: 3 knots
Wind: South, F2 (slight breeze)
Sea: slight
Swell: negligible
Weather: warm and sunny
Day’s run: 28 nm

I have enjoyed a great time in Adelaide catching up with family and friends over Christmas and New Years. All my brothers and my sister were here and Kate also managed to fly in for our celebration. Come the new year, it was time to give Sylph some overdue TLC with a haul-out, a bottom scrub and new anti-fouling paint, though with a 58 year old steel boat the bottom invariably needs a little more than just a scrub. We did reasonably well this time with only one rust patch requiring welding up – a small nook behind the galley that had been holding seawater that occasionally gains access through the cockpit hatch in heavy weather. After eight days we were back in the water and I was keen to be sailing again. Now we are heading back to Wollongong to share some more quality time with my best girlfriend, Kate, and, with a little luck, to make plans for some future adventurous sailing.

It is good to be sailing with a clean bottom again – Sylph is gliding along nicely despite the light winds.

All is well.