Almost two months in Australia or Australian waters and it was a fabulous experience. Perth/Fremantle was my first taste, though the best part for me was meeting up with my old university friend Douggy Hodson and his wife, Helen. The years just seemed to roll back and Tamsin and I had a great evening with them after Douggy and I had a long walk the day before.
Fremantle was also where I rejoined the race with Great Britain. They gave me, JP and Paul a very warm welcome and it was a frantically busy period as we had little time to prepare the boat, and we were dealing with the aftermath of Simon’s death.
The race to Sydney stands out in my mind because of the weather and natural geography. We had some winds, but also a lot of wind holes. However the sight of Tasmania and its rugged coastline was fabulous the all the times we passed it (we did pass two more times) and I had to pinch myself that were were looking at Tasmania, and had sailed there!!!
Loved Sydney and Susan’s surprise visit, and would love to sail in Sydney harbour more. Parts of Sydney reminded me of San Francisco, and the atmosphere there, for me, was enhanced by the preparations for the Sydney Hobart race.
The Sydney Hobart Race was a bucket list event! A race I had wanted to take part in for many years. There is the expectation of difficult conditions and strong winds in the race which adds to its allure. The start was quite a sight with three start lines set.  We had the middle line, with the maxis ahead and the smaller yachts behind. The result was quite a calm start, though the beat up and out of the harbour was a challenge. The other Rolex race I’ve competed in was the Giraglia which starts in St Tropez, down to Hier, across to the Giraglia rock on the northern tip of Corsica and up to finish in Genoa. There the boats start in order of the slowest first so you have the pleasure () of the bigger and faster yachts sailing through.  I guess here isn’t room in Sydney to do this. The race was relatively uneventful, had a number of wind holes and our first taste of a southerly buster, though we would later realise this one was pretty benign.
The final stretch up the Darling river into Hobart was great fun, and I thought the whole area was just beautiful. Indeed, I loved Tasmania. Someone likened it to a warm Scotland, which I agreed with, so that will give you a flavour. We fought and held off Dare to Lead and Liverpool to cross the line just ahead of them. Actually the whole fleet arrived within 90 minutes – first to last! Quite astounding really.
Due to the race, Hobart was buzzing and great fun.  Lots of food and drinks to sample in the Taste of Tasmania exhibition and much beer to sample in the Customs House. Also, I had my first taste of a ‘dark and stormy’; the obligatory drink in the Customs House required to complete the race. Tamsin, Jp, Seumas and I had a great day out, including visiting an animal sanctuary where we saw Tasmanian Devils, wombats and fed kangaroos amongst other animals.
Then to Airlie Beach. I’ve already mentioned our knockdown, and we also experienced a number of windholes – these will be my abiding memory of sailing up past the east coast of Australia. Airlie Beach is sub-tropical and so began the hot and soggy part of this trip. You’d think being on the water would be cooler, but no, not really. On the last day of the race to Airlie we managed to completely trash our code one.  You can see this if you look at Clipper’s YouTube video of the Leg from Hobart to Airlie. First priority was to get this fixed.  I had to visit A&E to get my shoulder looked at, so Tessa, Jonathan and Dr Nick made a fantastic job of the initial sticking together of the pieces. On day 2, Jonathan, Katherine (Pip’s mum) and I added additional strengthening and tape to side two, and on day three, I sewed this up with help from Hannah and Emma. Poor Emma had just arrived, so had quite an induction in a hot sail loft with jet lag! One more half day of adding to patches and sewing them up helped by Krishna and Faith saw our code 1 back ready for use. I’m happy to say she flies really well, even if she looks a little frankenstinian.  I’ll post a piccy when I can.
It might sound strange, but the most enjoyable part of Airlie Beach as spending a couple of days sailing with Seumas and JP. Seumas was hoping to be examined on his yachmaster, and I had offered to take him through sailing on and off buoys and anchorages.  We did this through the whitsunday islands and had a fabulous few days that felt like a week. So relaxing and different to the race! The Clipper yachts don’t have a BBQ on board, nor do we have alcohol, though we do have music. Back to a final few days of mainsail repair, and off we go again to Sanya.
Funnily enough, I’m writing this use after we’ve left another windhole . . .