Pittwater, Broken Bay & Cowan Creek (and a bad back)

[Kyle]Sometime in the previous few days, I had done something bad to my back. As usually happens when I do this, I remained completely asymptomatic through all sorts of activities that were only making it worse. I rowed the dinghy ashore, hoisted it up onto the beach through deep sand, climbed a hill, walked for miles and then rowed back. Then I slept and woke up a little stiff. No big deal. That happens every now and then. Undeterred, I got up and went through my normal morning routine.

I know I have a bad back, so I always start my day with two hundred pushups (that’s the real number), a hundred sit-ups and a whole bunch of other stretches and strengthening exercises. I make myself do all of this before coffee. That way, if I want coffee, which I always do, I have to do the exercises first to get it. I never skip the exercises. I think in the last year, I may have missed doing them maybe three times because some crisis was more pressing at the time and I couldn’t make it up later.

Everything was going fine. I was enjoying my above average fitness when I bent down to get a spoon out of the drawer with which to stir my coffee. It wasn’t an oversized salad spoon made out of solid plutonium (which is much heavier than gold). It was just a regular old teaspoon. My back then decided that was just one thing too many. I felt a terrible stabbing pain that shot down my leg, which crumpled and left me whimpering on the floor. It took me five minutes just to pull myself up from there into a seated position at the settee behind me. Damn! Now what are we going to do?

The hint is in the “we”. Maryanne decided she would take up all of the slack that I usually try to leave for her. She did EVERYTHING, including stuff that we both generally agree that only I can do, like unzip the aft end of the mainsail bag (because it’s too high), release the spinnaker halyard clutch (way too high) or dig the big spinnaker out of storage and carry through the boat to the deck (too heavy and cumbersome). All I had to do all day was sit in the most comfortable position I could manage and try to get some rest.

I was trying really hard to see myself as being pampered but instead, I mostly just felt useless when all I really wanted to do was take some of her load for her. By the end of the sail, I was even able to turn my head both directions without screaming, so it seemed like she was being a little over protective by not letting me even take the engine covers off and check the oil afterwards.

Sailing down to America Bay
smoke eventually gave way to clear skies & Dolphins

After a whole day of sailing that required repeated hoisting, dousing, bagging and unbagging each sail. Maryanne finally pulled us into Broken Bay. She doused the spinnaker one last time and then took us into America Bay, off of the Cowan Creek arm. There, she finally handed the helm over to me so she could go forward and do all of the usual bending and reaching to get us tied to one of the many mooring balls that fill the bay.

America bay greeted us with great views and Jellyfish!

America Bay lies within Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park, so the entire shoreline is undeveloped wilderness. I was on strict orders to rest, which Maryanne helped by making so much food for me that I didn’t even want to do anything except clutch my stomach and groan all day. I had to content myself with views of the gum trees and their eucalyptus smell and the songs of the birds. The park has a large population of kookaburras and they all seem to think everything is hilarious.

Things were much improved when I got up the next morning. I managed to get through an easy 80% set of exercises with no problem at all. We were planning on moving Begonia over to the next inlet at Pittwater for a much anticipated reunion with Phil from Muse. We decided to add in another stop at a different spot in the park at Jerusalem Creek along the way.

We found an empty public mooring ball for Begonia and then continued in the dinghy to a trailhead. There, we were able to get the blood flowing and a good dose of fresh air while climbing to the highest point around. Afterward, we even cooled off with a refreshing swim in water that is finally getting warm enough to not need wetsuits.

A 'drive by' of Refuge Bay, anchoring in Pinta Bay
and exploring Jerusalem Bay ashore

Then we unhooked from the mooring and headed into Pittwater to get into position to meet Phil the next day.

Things start to get busier as we enter Pittwater

Pittwater is much nicer than the name implies, but that niceness also means that it is completely jam-packed full of marinas and their associated mooring fields. On Phil’s advice, we headed for the only spot where it may be possible to find a place to anchor. We ended up squeezed into a tiny spot between moored boats and a drying sandbank. We could only stay in a very narrow range of wind direction, so we stayed aboard nervously watching all of the boats around us as they approached and retreated with every puff.

During the middle of the night, the wind strengthened and blew us away from all of our moored neighbors (whew!) in the direction of the sandbank (doh!). On the morning low tide, which was the higher of the two for the day, I went out with a boat hook and measured two centimeters between the bottom of our shallowest rudder and the sand. The tide was going back up again, so we were okay for a while, but the evening’s low was supposed to be three centimeters lower than the one in the morning, with the wind blowing us in the same direction. We needed to move.

In the meantime, I noticed that all of that bending and reaching with the boathook had been completely pain free. In fact, I had felt 100% since our hike the day before. Oh, it’s good to be back!

I decided to keep taking it easy and do one more reduced set of back exercises before declaring myself All Better. I kneeled down to start with some pushups.

Just as my palms were about to hit the floor, I felt two familiar stabs, which were bad enough to keep me from breaking my fall with my arms. Ow!

Well, so much for being cured. Maryanne was able to prop me in the helm seat long enough for us to complete the hunt for another spot for Begonia. We found one that would have room enough for us, but only until the wind shifted the next day. In the meantime, we had enough time to go ashore to meet everyone for a meal out.

The rest of the Muse family had gone ahead to visit relatives in the UK while he stayed behind to work. The same was true of Tom, from Bonaire, so Phil brought him, too. Bonaire is another of the boats we have been leapfrogging for months. To the rest of us, we added Guy and his girlfriend Kay. We had met Guy back in New Caledonia when he had come to spend a week on Muse and our two boats sailed together to Ua Island. This made the evening feel like quite the reunion.

What a great evening it was! The food was delicious. Our table had a great view of the harbor and everybody got along splendidly. Every time somebody spoke, I got to learn something fascinating. It really was a marvelous time. I can’t wait to see all of them again.

The next morning, we woke to a new world. The wind shift that was going to eventually drive us away from our spot had already begun. Clean onshore winds had stopped in a lull before gradually changing offshore. The clear blue skies of the last couple of days had been replaced by thick smoke and falling ash from the surrounding bush fires. Every breath was like being in the wrong side of a campfire and we could only see the shore nearest to us.

Added to that was that it was the hottest day Australia has seen since records have been kept. The day before, individual weather stations everywhere were toppling their old records, which was enough to bring the continental average of 700 stations above its previous all-time high of 40.3C (104.54F), set in 2013. The new record of 40.9C (105.62F) stood for just one day. Today, the new record would reach 41.9C (107.42F) The airport nearest us topped out at 42C (107.6F) for the day. Some stations further inland hit 49.9C (121.82F). So this is what it feels like to be meat in a smoker.

During my usual morning weather analysis, I went down a rabbit hole I found on the Bureau of Meteorology’s website. I ended up at the section summarizing Australia’s fresh water storage. The nation’s average is currently at 45% of capacity. Okay, that’s interesting. What is alarming is that last year, the number was 61%. Australia’s fresh water has depleted by 1/6th in only one year! That is bad, really bad. Most urban areas are holding in the 50-60% range. The Macquarie rural catchment area is down to 7%. That is super bad. I haven’t been able to tell how much of that is from firefighting efforts and how much is from the current drought, but neither are predicted to let up anytime soon. It isn’t even Summer yet.

We moved up Pittwater to a spot closer to the Broken Bay entrance. It was much cooler there. We only saw 32C (90F) on board in the anchorage, which was still a real killer in the still air.

Finally, in late afternoon, the new wind arrived. The heat was replaced by cool breezes, which dropped the temperature 10C in under an hour. Ahhh.

It also started blowing the smoke away, which would take several hours to complete. By sunset, though, we could already see the shores all around us, even on the very far side of the bay.

The gusty winds were great for us where we were, but bad for the firefighting effort further south on the edges of Sydney. Overnight, several fires previously classified as ‘under control’ were now considered ‘out of control’. Some townships had even been declared ‘too late to evacuate’. I don’t know what you’re supposed to do then, just climb into your kiddie pool and hope, I guess. It's been quite alarming, seeing the news a lot closer to first hand that we would normally expect to - and of course devastating for so many.

The visibility picked up again and by morning, we were back to clear blue skies. I decided my back wasn’t up for much, so Maryanne lowered the dinghy and did a lap without me.

The Basin, Coasters Retreat; Maryanne left Kyle aboard as she explored ashore