Pittwater New Year's Eve

The New Year for the sailor and I is always a little sailing adventure, this year with Rowan's Birthday just around the corner we decided we would head to Broken Bay.  Only a 35 minute drive north of Sydney's famous Sydney Harbour Bridge,  and with a good breeze, it's a picturesque four hour sail up the coast and with a good breeze and you will find  yourself are right in the middle of some pretty amazing waterways and cruising grounds.  If you love plonking around in the water, a spot of fishing or kayaking you 'll love it up here.  So please be patient with all my images in this blog I just love sailing and I love Broken Bay.

So here we are with our large carbon sail up the wind coming over the boat from the side, (reaching).  The weather was a little overcast, we are sailing up towards Barenjoey Heads.

earching for

The first headland you can see is Barenjoey Heads which is at the end of the exclusive Palm Beach, the beach where 'Home and Away' was filmed, we will pop around in between the Barenjoey and the next headland and head straight down the waterway.....

So here we are in Smith's Creek.  Expertly anchored and tucked up for a day or two.  What next?  We will be popping open a a few chilled New Zealand Savy's and jumping into the water.

And then there's dinner...I love cooking on the boat, planning it, preparing it and serving it, except this time I left behind the tablecloths and place mats.  We had provisioned the boat with all sorts of gourmet meats, vegetables, cheeses and of course bought delicious fresh seafood from the Sydney Fish Market  on the way.  This was our first night so we enjoyed a seafood feast.

Snapper and mussels.  I like buying the mussels in the pack pre washed and cleaned, much easier on the boat....I love this little bar b que it is so functional, heats up very quickly, cooks the food fast to lock in all those beautiful flavours.

And then some more wine, we ended up doing a dance and playing music rather loudly

so when I woke up in the morning I had a peek out through the window to see how many boats we had embarrassed ourselves in front of......The water is so calm and glassy.

After an early morning swim, I made these delicious buttermilk pancakes with bananas, blueberries, yoghurt and maple syrup.  I have been making these pancakes for the sailor for years and mostly once a week, and each time he always asks me as I mouth the words are these made from scratch honey..funny these kiwi guys.  See no table cloth...

Today it's New Year's Eve and the sailor has a surprise, he has made reservations for lunch at the very famous Cottage Point Inn, perched on the waters edge of Cowan Creek  it's a hot sport for wedding proposals.

You can either make your entrance by seaplane......

or by boat, our preferred option.

Raspberry caprioska, and a pea and white asparagus soup...hmmm, well that's a delicious start to one of the most memorable restaurant meals of 2012.

And what about these two little man fashionistas, collared shirts and cargos, I could not resist taking this shot.  How adorable is the little man with his arms so nonchalantly crossed whilst watching the seaplane take off.  It's moments like this.....

Sadly I can't show you any pics of the afternoon.  Serious eating and drinking was enjoyed and the camera was sadly forgotten under the table.  

The family arrives at Akuna Bay for a day out on the boat

Poppa is keen to get Rowan on the crew.........Rowan is wearing the very cute Rowantree Design, boat shirt doesn't he look ready for some nautical action

Sadly the last few days flew by and here we are heading home just off the coast of Palm Beach....

with a large school of dolphins frolicking along beside us for most of the way home, I could not feel any more refreshed for the year ahead.

I can't wait to get stuck in this year.  Rowan's birthday party is this weekend, I have a project ahead that's really putting a smile on my face.  I am already putting samples together for the autumn collection, the fabrics you will love, and my knitwear collection for the cooler months is expanding and is just beautiful so here we go 2012