Sydney pulls out all the stops for Dianne's birthday fireworks

It was great to sail into Sydney Harbour, where only a few days earlier we had watched the Sydney Hobart racers depart to re-visit some old haunts and to catch up with friends we haven't seen in a while. The bustle on the water, with yachts, motorboats, ferries and cruise liners comes as quite a shock so whoever is on the helm needs to keep their wits about them but we enjoyed the iconic sights.

One of the big Manly ferries - they have right of way over everyone else even sailing boats, so don't mess with them!

Approaching the Harbour Bridge

Maunie at anchor in Blackwattle Bay - all the sunshades and the windscoop set to keep us cool

The Anzac Bridge behind us

Of course, the highlight of the past few days was Di's birthday (31st December) and once again the fireworks laid on for her were superb. We anchored in Farm Cove, right next to the Opera House, again and Bravo dropped their hook only 100m away. However this year it was pretty breezy (up to 20 knots) during the day (we'd arrived at 07.30 to bag our prime viewing spots) so we had a huge amount of entertainment watching boats dragging their anchors all around us. We were glad that no one collided with us but Graham did have to stand on the bow and tell a clueless motorboat,  who was dragging his anchor back and forth over our chain (threatening to lift our anchor out of the mud in the process) to "F**k all the way off!", much to the delighted amusement of crews on neighbouring Aussie boats.

It was all worth it, of course, when the two sets of fireworks (8 minutes at 9.00pm and 12 minutes at midnight) were set off. The wind had calmed down enough for Adam and Cindi to dinghy across to join us and Kerry aboard Maunie and here are a few photos of the display.

Here's the professional video of the whole show:

After a week of great company and excellent eating and drinking, we are back just the two of us. Kerry left today to see friends and family but we have Bravo anchored nearby and friends joining us from England for a few days on Sunday. So, the social life will continue but we did get back to boat jobs today.....