Boxing Day - Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race

Boxing Day...

Awoke via the alarm to a cold dreary rainy day. Considered rolling over and letting Baz do his boat thing on his own, but decided that would be poor form.. Packed lots of food and a bottle of good wine for lunch and set off. Dropped Baz at the dockyards... no not your ritzy marina full of gazllions of dollars worth of billionaire yachts, but rather your old working steamboat dockyard full of rusty bits of metal, rusty hulls and rusty patrons....

Chris and I headed on to Haberfield in search of coffee.. Success!! not much in the way of coffee open early on a drizzly Boxing day morning in Sydney, but we managed to find a private gentlemen's club for Italian mafia overflowing with excitable and voluble patrons gesticulating and arguing loudly, who seemed to take a very dim view of their private arena being gatecrashed by Anglo strangers and a woman to boot - bet a woman has never dared grace the doors before. The management however were happy to take our money and I felt very safe with Chris, the protector, to look after me! The coffee was possibly the strongest on the planet and we left to return to the boat to see the start of the Race caffeined up and buzzing!:)





Got underway promptly, obviously thanks to the excellent coal shoveller, who had the boat all steamed up and ready to go.. into Darling Harbour, under the Bridge, past the Opera House and out into the Harbour, where we mixed it with the maxis circling around and jostling for position.

Although it was freezing, blowing ,raining and I have no interest in sailing whatsoever, it was impossible not to get caught up in the excitement of the occasion with the maxis circling,(whose names I am so au fait with now -- yes I can Wild Oats and Living Doll it with the best of them), the spectator craft jostling and the media buzzing around in a flock of helicopters above. The gloominess just added to the atmosphere and thrill of it all. Once the race was underway, we raced down the harbour under full steam (thanks once again to the excellent coal shoveller)to see them leave the heads..

A most enjoyable and fun day..Thank you Baz for the idea and Chris for the company:)



Five days later, Line Honours went to Alfa Romeo.