After an aborted attempt (southerly wind & swell) to bring Auriga home from Pittwater last weekend following the Top Hat Regatta finally favorable conditions prevailed
With a solid Norwester and minimum swell we set off from Palm Beach where auriga had been on a temporary mooring bound for Sydney Harbour at around 9am.
The wind was a solid 10kts with occasional gusts up-to 19-20kts, as we rounded barrenjoey we droped the headsail and replaced with the MPS (a kind of asymmetrical spinnaker). We flogged along at an average of 6kts, a big gust caught us off gaurd and we rounded up (almost loosing control but managed to regain ourselves) and continued on.
All up about 3hrs 15mins from Barrenjoey to North Head, had to drop the MPS and change to the #1 just as we came into the harbour North Head as the wind shifted more to the west.
Worked uphill to fort denison before dropping the headsail and motoring back to tarban creek as the wind was right on the nose (and we didnt fancy much more work)
A pleasant trip nonetheless
Link to a short video clip here http://www.tophatyachts.org/video/pittwater1.wmv
Dan
Auriga Mk3
Tarban Creek NSW