Whoops! Not only do I mispell "Manly" but I forgot the negative above for "I'm amazed that someone has blown up that 'ripper rock' in the middle of the channel." That should have read "I'm amazed that someone HASN'T blown up that 'ripper rock' in the middle of the channel." The underwater rock is now plainly marked by surrounding bueys, not to mention white water at the right tide, but I bet it still nails a boat or two cruising along at night.

The Sydney ferry to Manly has to be my favorite ferry ride. Sorry, San Francisco and New York, there's just no comparison. Brett was wondering why we were so lucky to find that empty bench up on the weather side of the bow. She does ship a just a little water as she rolls past the channel of the harbor mouth.

This evening we try out the acoustics aboard the steel bark the James Craig. I was aboard her last week for a tour and they've done a lovely job putting her back together. She's a 1870's vintage cargo carrier, semi-clipper in design, sailed around Cape Horn more than a dozen times, manned by less than 20 crew members. Massive steel spars and lower yards. Now she sails out past Sydney's heads every other weekend and her schedule just doesn't work for me...

But we're looking forward to singing with Gavin Phillips and the rest of his crew. What joy!

Now it's off to brekky and then over to Kings Cross to meet with Sandra.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble