Time to get back on the water

We had a fabulous time back in Australia and spent time in Sydney, Fremantle and unexpectedly, Darwin. It was wonderful to be home for nearly a month a catch up with friends and our Sydney family. As always you can’t do everything but it was nice to have familiar sights around us for a change – although Sydney was completely under renovation everywhere you went it was a little odd.

Back in Sydney

Paul and Lizzie hosted us for the first few days we got back – with an action packed city adventure from their home in the Rocks. We went on long city walks, bought delicious fish from the fish markets and ate and drank everything Australian. Then it was off to Fremantle where we had rented an apartment near our old neighbourhood – first stop was a Little Creatures at the Local brewery, then we were off Sailing to Rotto with Clive and Roz – an amazing winters day for a sail, complete with whales alongside their boat on the way back. We saw as many friends as we could and gave a short presentation on our sailing trip at our Sailing Club – most people stayed awake!

Paul and Andrew catch up with the amazing skyline view

Girls ready for urban crawl!

My fab nephews enjoy Canadian choccie

Wine on the water with Roz at Rotto

Arriving at Rotto

Back at Fremantle Sailing Club - perfect

Getting ready for the presentation - our poster on the board quite entertaining for us!

We diverted from Perth to Darwin for a quick warm up with Lee and Andrew, which included an amazing sunset at the Darwin sailing club and a swim at Litchfield National Park complete with waterfall. Finally we had a lovely few days back in Sydney with Sarah and had a final catch up with My Brother, Suz and their boys.

Darwin sunset with Lee

Swimming without Crocs -we hope

Amazing magnetic termite mound faces north / south so part is always in the shade to control the temperature

Of course they put on fireworks for us in Sydney 

I've never actually been to Bondi before - great walk with Sar on a windy day 

Chilly back in Mosman but worth it for yummy food with Sarah

I had this idea we should look at houses while we were in Australia and Andrew even went to discuss a job – both of those ideas were short lived. Whilst it was great to be home we quickly decided that we have a lot more to see and do with Askari and that our time is now. Sometimes you have to take a step back and reflect to realise what you have and then leap back in with both feet. We had felt a little homesick, a little tired and just needed some time away from the boat after two and a half years living aboard full time. Whilst we live the dream much of the time, we also worry about the boat and rarely sleep through the night. Being at the constant mercy of the weather can be full on. This time off ended up being just what we needed.

Arriving back in Vancouver, we looked at the weather and thought we could squeeze in another couple of weeks hiking in the American Rockies. We crossed the border within an hour on landing and set a course for Yellowstone National Park – this has long been on by list of destinations.    

Old Faitfull - at Yellowstone

Yellowstone Buffalo

Rocky Mountain National Park

The geyshers and geography at Yellowstone were amazing, however it is so busy and board walked out that it felt more like Disneyland than a National Park so after a one day visit we carried onto the Grand Tetons NP – this was more like it. We were lucky to meet a fantastic park officer who recommended a plan for us and set us up with a free bear resistant food canister for wilderness backpacking. The route had us spend a perfect night with a camp fire right on the shore of a low altitude lake, then we took on the Tetons next morning on a picture perfect cool autumn day. We hiked the Paint Brush Canyon to Holly Lake and spent the night being blasted by really strong katabatic winds that left us with a tent full of sand, at around 10,000 ft it was the highest camp we had stayed at and even though we didn’t sleep much it was so beautiful. Next morning we hiked over the divide and into Cascade Canyon – wow this was one of the best hikes we have ever done. We had one more night out in the Valley alongside a river where we had to hide the bear canister a fair way from camp. In the Teton’s the camping was far more wild and random than in Canadian NP’s and we wished we had longer to explore this beautiful park but the weather was changing fast and we opted to drop off our bear canister and switch to a cabin in the Rocky Mountain National Park for a few more days and to desperately try to find a Moose – the only animal that had evaded us on the whole trip.

Paint Brush Canyon

Holly Lake - Campsite

Cascade Canyon

Amazing Grand Tetons

We did an end of season deal for cabin in the cute village of Grand Lake, CO and set about trying to find a Moose. We took advice from the rangers and hiked all the recommended Moose spotting routes, we drove the roads at dawn and dusk but alas no Moose. On our final evening we had given up, found the brew pub open and were just chatting with the owner about the lack on Moose, when a guy walked into the pub and announced there was a Moose and calf in the high street!! Did I squeal – oh yes and just abandoned my phone, credit card and bag. Yay finally a Moose.

Perfect end to our time in the Rocky Mountains  - thanks Mrs Moose

We had another few weeks before we were due back and had planned to take in a few more stops, however snow was forecast later that week and temperatures were plummeting. We decided we were keen to get back to our own bed and the boat and get her ship shape for the next adventure. We arrived back on the East Coast after a really boring few days of driving , made the last day of the Annpolis boat show. John and Gayle, we met in the Bahamas had spotted Askari in Oxford while we were away, we didn’t know they lived in the next village. They so generously invited us to stay until Askari was launched. As it happended the guys at the Oxford Boat Yard had her all perfectly ready, spotless and shiny and launched her for us within a couple of hours of getting back    

Annapolis Boat Show with Will and John from Oyster - John was our UK project manager who helped us through all steps of our build - just fabulous to catch up after two years.

We couldn’t believe how great she looked – it was definitely a good call to leave her in such a clean area with a lot of summer rainfall as the stainless looked like it had just been polished. I left a Kanberra Gel tub inside to manage mould and we didn’t have a single spot. It was only the teak deck that needed some work – that could wait and we moved back on board that night – then the real work started!

She looks like new!

Splash