8 January 2018

I had been so looking forward to sailing into Sydney and I wasn’t disappointed. Well, it was slightly marred by Nasdaq appearing over the horizon as we approached the heads and, as they were sailing much more off the wind than we were, therefore sailing much faster, they beat us into the harbour. What followed was an amazing battle for the line, covering each other gybe for gybe. For others in the harbour, it was a glorious Saturday afternoon, with lots of other races going on. The ones we particularly noticed were a fleet of tiny optimists, crewed by 8-year olds and around 6 feet long, and another fleet of small 2-person dinghies crewed by young teenagers. These seems to magically disappear as we approached them; not scattering, as they have exactly the same sailing rights as we do, but shepherded away. Only the ferries ignore everyone, claiming the right to go exactly where they wish with a large blast on their horn if anyone offends them by not moving. Indeed we were following a collision between a ferry and a yacht on channel 16, the emergency channel, where sailors from the yacht ended up in the water!

So close was our finish after 14 days at sea, that it was finally announced a draw; a first in Clipper’s history. That decision took a couple of days and, at the time, we were given victory so entered the marina first. This sounds exciting, and it was for us, but we were quite a long way behind the leaders. Yes, Sanya and Tamsin had won, pretty much as expected, and there was quite a party at prizegiving to celebrate that.

We were berthed at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia who also co-host the Sydney-Hobart race. Therefore we were surrounded by many other yachts congregating for the race, due to begin on Boxing Day. Naturally, the buzz grew as the day approached, and there were quite a lot of final touches to complete. Our key one was to get sail numbers stuck on all the spinnakers and Yankee 1. This would have been straightforward if our number pack had included the number ‘7’, quite important when your number is GBR 730X! In the end, we arranged to get our own printed, very kindly organised by Tessa’s cousin Chris. However, with so much going on with 100 or so boats getting ready, they arrived at the last minute, and our days were interrupted by coming in to work on the boat on a number of days on the off-chance the numbers had arrived.

We did get the chance to sail in Sydney harbour as 4 Clipper yachts took part in a corporate regatta. We had staff from Sydney Airport on board, and the others had other companies taking part. There was a good, but light wind for the 2 races, and we won! Not that I’m competitive, but it was a good feeling. Sydney Harbour is fabulous to sail in and, with the various beaches and destinations round it, is a very attractive destination.

I have to say that I couldn’t get my head around a hot and sunny Christmas. In the end, we had a Christmas Eve meal in our Greenings air bnb, initiated by Matti. On Christmas Day a few of us went to walk from Bondi beach to Coogee and then into Sydney where Claire had found a restaurant were we could barbecue our own food, buying all we needed in the restaurant.

So, in the end, we had a traditional Aussie barbee on Christmas Day.

Jx