Sorry for any confusion over lightning speed passages between Devon and Sydney - the YIT app appears to keep randomly inputting an old Australian entry from about 2 years ago! Anyway, Maunie is definitely staying in the Northern hemisphere this year and is back on her Dartmouth mooring after a good four-day mini-cruise down to Falmouth and back

It's good to be back aboard and doing a proper mini-cruise after a summer of weekend sailing - this working 5 days a week is very overrated!

We left Dartmouth this morning and had a cracking 40nm sail to Plymouth - wind right on the nose, of course, but flat seas and 15-18 knots of wind made it easy. We had forgotten how pretty the coastline is here and the challenges of tidal flows around the headlands makes for interesting navigation.

We have anchored off the pretty village of Cawsand, at the entrance to Plymouth Sound, and tomorrow head for Falmouth, another 40 miles to windward. Hopefully our reward will be a spinnaker run back on Saturday & Sunday.

Maunie is back home! We arrived to tie up to our mooring in Dartmouth at 1440 after an eight hour passage from Weymouth. We started the day flying the Irish Flag spinnaker and wonderful beam reach sailing. Sadly the wind only lasted for a few hours before we resorted to motor sailing. We were entertained by the navy chatting to various boats as they passed within their firing practice range, a tiny bird joining us as additional crew mid passage and finally Laura's excitement at spotting two dolphins as we approached the entrance to Dartmouth. Perhaps it was a welcome home! Ok so we'd have preferred to sail Maunie all the way around the World but it's still nice to be back here! All very well aboard.

Maunie is back in British waters! After 6 weeks on the deck of the mv Dmagracht she looked remarkably clean and untroubled by all those sea miles. The unloading process was way more entertaining (if equally nerve-wracking) than the loading because we were allowed onto the deck of the ship to get Maunie ready for the lift (backstays removed, fenders and lines set). A worrying few minutes trying to free a seized padlock on the main hatch was the only glitch in an otherwise very smooth process.

We are now in Hythe Marina, across the water from Southampton docks, for a few days to refit halyards, sails and canvas. All is very well aboard, though it's only about 10 degrees C!

Well, this is sad - our last YIT report from the southern hemisphere! We're in Newcastle Marina (and have been for a couple of weeks) waiting for the ship mv Damgracht to arrive. We're loading Maunie aboard in the next day or so and she'll retrace her wake across the Pacific and through the Panama Canal, arriving in Southampton sometime in May. The voyage from the UK has been amazing and we've been away for nearly six years so we can't complain about having to return to work. Of course, we'll miss the live-aboard cruising and the sunshine hugely but at least we'll have Maunie back on her mooring in Dartmouth for weekends and occasional longer trips.

Our final couple of days aboard are in driving rain and near gale-force winds, designed, perhaps, to make us feel better about stepping off the boat that's been our wonderful home for so long. So long to all our cruising mates, it's been great knowing you - we suspect we'll be back!

Anchored in Hen & Chicken Bay for the strong southerly to roll in at around midnight. Only 2.5m depth of water but said to be very good holding in mud, according to the pilot book. Well, we dragged, very slowly, about 1000ft until the anchor finally settled into something firmer. Thankfully we had plenty of space around us

Anchored in Hen & Chicken Bay for the strong southerly to roll in at around midnight. Only 2.5m depth of water but said to be very good holding in mud, according to the pilot book. Well, we dragged, very slowly, about 1000ft until the anchor finally settled into something firmer. Thankfully we had plenty of space around us

Our final sail under the Harbour Bridge as we beat out to Rose Bay this afternoon. Anchored in 6.5m in calm water. Heading north to Pittwater tomorrow, but we will be sorry to leave Sydney.

On the only NSW Govt visitor's mooring in Watson's Bay - a tad rolly since it's pretty close to the route used by the high-speed ferries coming into the wharf but easy access to the beach. A great walk up to The Gap, overlooking the ocean, and then to the end of South Head

In beautiful Bantry Bay on visitors' mooring. We moved here at 07.00 after an event-filled night. We were on a visitors' mooring just upstream of the Spit Bridge and a 50ft light-displacement motorboat came and took the neighbouring one. At 04.00 the wind picked up, with some heavy gusts, and the motorboat was shearing around the mooring like a crazy thing – we woke up as we collided. He swung against our stern, damaging the Windpilot (a broken aluminium casting) but no one aboard their boat woke up! When we told them this morning they seemed very unconcerned, in spite of the scratches down their side – “It’s not our boat” said the woman in the cockpit.

In Blackwattle Bay. Shocked to find the rigging-wire, used to lock the dinghy to the public pontoon, had been severed somewhere between 11.00 and 14.00. The thief abandoned the boat when he / she couldn't start the engine; luckily the wind just blew it against the seawall. A river police boat came by so we registered the event with them so they said they'd step up patrols in the area.

We are very relieved not to have lost the dinghy; thank goodness we always take the kill-cord off the motor.

After a few days anchored in Blackwattle Bay (handy for the fantastic fish market), we opted for a complete change of scene. With winds averaging 15 kts, we had perfect sailing conditions for a beat into Middle Harbour. Arriving early for the 14.15 opening of the Spit Bridge, we took one of the visitor buoys. Once through the bridge, we motored up to the beautiful Castle Cove and anchored in 9 metres. The scenery is stunning so all is very well on board.