Eat, Pray, Sail: January 2016

We arrived into Sydney in the late afternoon greeted by applause from the other boats and by Leo and Lucy!!! Since both were either living or traveling in Australia, they came to greet us upon arrival. We finally got some real feedback on how bad we/the boat smells after the end of a race thanks to Leo, which isn't that great despite what we had heard otherwise at times. Since we arrived later in the day, we did a quick tidy up of the boat, then it was off to the Yacht Club for some refreshments and dinner. Good thing there were lots of people there for the Sydney to Hobart race and used to dirty boat people otherwise we may have offended a few people with our stench. After a few drinks and some food it was finally back to our fancy flat near Kings Cross station for the long awaited showers after each race.

Hugs from Reero!

The next day was a full day of sail repair working on the main sail. This involves taking the entire main down, untying all the lines attached to it and requiring a team effort to hull it off to the park next to the harbor for us to work on it. Luckily there wasn't too much damage to it and it was mainly maintenance work we had to do so we were able to finish it at a decent hour and had time to clean up before the prize giving ceremony that night.

The prize giving ceremony was in some fancy yacht club that we had to take a ferry to get to. I was exhausted after a day working in the sun so was thrilled to learn that the yacht club had espresso martinis!!! My crew mates knowing the effects of espresso and alcohol on me told the lovely bartender, Kim, that I was only allowed two espresso martinis. However, Kim was an expert at making these drinks and they tasted exceptional, so I couldn't stop at just two. As such, I made friends with the ladies working behind the food stations and had them order me more as needed. I am pretty sure Kim knew these were for me anyway since I was the only person in the place drinking them, but she made them anyway as I am pretty sure she was on my side! We had a fun evening and I may have had a few words with the race director about his technology shortcomings, but otherwise a great evening!

Tuesday was rainy and stormy all day. Not your typical Sydney weather during summer. And not even a lite rain, it was pouring down and hailing at times. Since we couldn't work on the sails as planned as there is no coverage in the park, I had the day to myself and decided to make almond rocha, which is a tradition I do every year with my sister. The difficult part was trying to find the ingredients in another country and a candy thermometer! I had to find some substitutes in the ingredient department, but found what I needed for the most part but tracking down a thermometer was the hardest part. I ended up having to go to the large shopping center in town to track this down and even then only found a digitized meat thermometer but it was the best I could do. I did however, find an excellent spatula that I know my sister would appreciate! After getting all the goods, it was back to the flat to make candy the rest of the afternoon.

Candy in the making...

My genius thermometer holder, it may have not actually worked though...

Ta-da!

Wednesday, we were back at the park working on the yankee sails and checking them for any damage along with the staysail. Thursday, was much of the same working on the kites to get them numbered for the Sydney to Hobart race. I think one of these nights we went out for a nice steak dinner as well. I have to mention that I had the prime rib as I know that will be the first question my mom will be asking...don't be too jealous mom!

Finally some rest after finishing and bagging Yankee 1

Jan, James, and Mike helping with the sails

The whole fleet were working on adding the numbers to their sails...

Sticking on numbers

Karri and Jesse trying to figure out what the heck the instructions mean...

Prime rib...yes please!

The place also had really awesome door handles!

Friday, we had a corporate sail day. Our guests for the day were winners of a Henry Lloyd competition. We ended up having an all girl crew for the day with Patsy, Karri, Ana, and myself with the exception of Huw. We rocked it of course and decided we will have to enter some kind of sailing race with an all girl crew one day.

Huw giving instruction

Had to sneak a tourist shot in while we were out!

Saturday, we finally had a day off and I was really hoping on making it to the beach but instead started the day at the shops with Patsy and Posh and ran out of time. That evening we had the CYCA Sydney to Hobart race party with live music and of course, my favorite, dancing! Patsy tried to steal the DJ's job on breaks, but he caught on and locked his ipad. It was a very entertaining night and fun to hang out with some non Clipper sailors.

Oh yes...look what we found!

Tino getting down with Pats

Always the first on the dance floor!

Sunday, our local Aussie, Luke, arranged for our crew to go to a Cricket game. This was the Sydney vs. Hobart Christmas game, so should have been a good match up....nAt! It was entertaining for about the first ten minutes while I attempted to eat my meat pie, which went horribly wrong and drank my beer, but the beating Australian sun was hard at work and Hobart turned out to be no match for Sydney. All and all a fun experience, can't say that I would want to go again though? I did, however, know what my sister was referring to on her FB post referencing a hat trick later on, so at least I gained something valuable from the experience!

After the game, we found a Mexican, well perhaps an Aussie version of Mexican, restaurant to eat at. I always judge a Mexican restaurant by how good their salsa is. This place did not pass the test...why, you ask? They put freaking mint in the salsa!!! Are you kidding me! Worst salsa ever! It did have potential to be good, but that one ingredient messed the whole thing up...what a shame.

I had a half day on Monday, so Luke, Sean, and I attempted to make it over to Manly Beach before the weather turned bad. We had no such luck and it was chilly and overcast when we got there. Luke and Sean braved the waters but I stayed clenched to my towel for warmth. We then headed back to the Marina to help out on the boat. However, they had stopped work for the day since the weather was bad. Instead, Patsy was corralling our team to join in on the UNICEF bike ride that Marta had put together. So I volunteered as I love a good spin ride, but of course the rain started pouring down once we got on. Marta considered closing shop early, but Sean said we could handle a little rain, I mean we live on a freakin boat in the elements for goodness sake! So we pushed through and got soaked, quite fun though! At least this way, people couldn't tell how much I was sweating...I'm such a charmer.

Gloomy Manly Beach

Did I mention that the cab driver got a flat when he pulled up to our place and Luke so kindly changed the darn thing for him! Never would this happen in LA! Aussie's are too nice!

Out in the rain for UNICEF...Marta, Sean, and Skipper Pete in action

After that, we had a quiet evening in and Posh and I found Love Actually on the TV!! So I bagged my candy and watched one of my favorite movies!

Bagging my candy

The next day was more boat work. After working in the heat, I was dying to find a swimming pool, but had no such luck since Sydney apparently doesn't believe in putting pools on rooftops. Why! That should be a fundamental addition to any building, I am just saying.

Cheering with my biggie over FaceTime!

And then pretending to freeze the camera as we chatted...never gets old!

On the 23rd, we had our big shoot for the Seattle Seahawks!!! There were rumors about this on our boat leading up to Sydney and I was sooo excited but couldn't say anything until it was officially announced, so I went crazy once it was out in the media! We took the boat out and got a few "action" shots. Unfortunately, the weather was a bit gloomy and rainy, so not the best day for a shoot, but the drone managed to get some good shots. This was quite an awesome experience for me coming from the States and getting to support a kickass team like the Seahawks! Although, I still stay true to my Buffalo Bills! I only started really getting into football several years ago when I started playing fantasy football and then I was addicted! At one point in the first season I played, I had a lot of Buffalo Bills players and hence forth they became my team since I was always routing for their players...go Stevie!!!! I will also give a shout out to the 49ers otherwise my Big will not forgive me...love you Big! :)

In case you didn't see enough of these photos already...here they are again!!!

Me on top of the staysail

After the shoot, we went for drinks at the Yacht Club and got to meet Luke's family and friends who were great fun to hang out with! Tino's family was also there who have been following Tino around Australia and the two families together made for a fun evening chatting the night away.

Drinks with Luke's fam

We came home to a beautiful dinner spread that Sean had made for us!

The next day was Christmas Eve. We had our crew briefing for the Sydney to Hobart race in the morning and then there was more boat work to be done as usual. I also handed out my treats to everyone after our own boat brief, but that was perhaps not the best idea since they all melted in the hot sun and became a congealed ball of toffee and chocolate! That night Karri's fiancé had booked us a lovely place to have a crew Christmas dinner. The restaurant was across the bridge on the water overlooking the Sydney Opera house. We had a lovely dinner with everyone and it was made even better by a special delivery of gifts from Emily flown over by Andy, literally as he is a pilot! We were hoping to hang out more after dinner but Sydney shuts down at ten so there was no where to meet after and we ended up parting our separate ways and waiting for Santa to greet us in the night...

Driving under the bridge

Our view

Huw giving a speech about how much he loves us!!!

Ana and Andy handing out the gifts

Us with all our crazy gifts!

...low and behold we were greeted by Santa himself that evening! He came dressed in his knickers, hat and beard! I wasn't sure in my groggy state, but we woke up to stockings made out of christmas hats in the morning with personalized gifts for each of us! I received a hat with "Santa's helper" on it, a small bottle of gin, a small snow globe of tinker bell, candy and of course a white beard to dress up in for the day! It was a pleasant surprise to know that Santa could still find us in Sydney!!

A blurry pic of Santa sneaking in...

Thanks Santa!

That day, I spent calling family members in the morning wishing them a Merry (not Happy!) Christmas and finished packing my bags to take to the boat. We met up with some other Clipper people at Manly Beach later in the day for a beach barbecue, where the one and only Leo came and met up with us! Posh and I had dinner and drinks with him that night and then it was back home to get ready for race start the next day! All in all a great stopover, although would have been nice to see a little bit more of Sydney...guess that just means I'll have to come back and visit again!

Leo, Posh, and I

One last sad goodbye for reals this time until we see him again in New York!

All the cars parked up on the lawn to come watch the Sydney to Hobart race start!!!

A few other random photos...

Sean made us breakfast in bed one morning...

...and I made breakfast burritos another morning! Nom, nom, nom!

Our boat during the haul out...looks so massive from this view!

And the last pic I'll leave you with I found while browsing FB one day in Sydney...this is what I am searching for when I stare out at the waves every day on the boat at sea...

...a big freaking whale hidden in a wave!!! I still have about 7 months to find one! Cheers!!

The race start was spectacular! I almost had a heart attack! I think there were about 115 yachts competing in the Sydney to Hobart race this year, which takes place every year on Boxing Day, the day after Christmas. The yachts range widely in size so we are up against small boats and huge, very sleek professional racing yachts. There are different classes that you actually compete against but you are all out on the water at the same time for the race start. There are three lines for the start, I would have never of known this unless they told us in the brief though because boats were everywhere!

For this race, they had the skippers wear the VIRB camera with the heart monitor activated. They really should have put the heart monitor on me if they wanted a good show! We nearly missed one boat after the race start. As we came close, the other boat's bowman literally reached out and pushed our stern away with his hands. That is how close we came to hitting them! That is when I nearly had a heart attack and started hyperventilating momentarily. Unfortunately, we were in the wrong, so we had to take a penalty of 2 tacks to right our wrong.

We ended up last out of the harbor amongst the other Clipper fleet, but started to catch up once we went downwind. We started the race with the intentions of sleeping on the rails like how all the locals do it. This means you sit on the high side, with your legs over the side and you literally sleep on the rails during your off watch. At the start, we did do this. Not the easiest way to get sleep, but you do manage to sleep some. However, a couple of watches in, shit hit the fan again, and the predicted storm finally came through. So at that point we were back below deck for sleeping since it was unsafe to stay up. This was the worst storm I've experienced yet. The only good part about this is that the wind gusts were really warm and the water spraying all over us was warm too. Since we were in the middle of the fleet at this point but still close to the boats ahead of us, we had the lucky insight of watching each boat in front of us do some kind of tack or boat movement on the AIS, so we knew the front was about to hit. We got the spinnaker down within minutes of the front hitting, so we luckily didn't have too many issues getting it down and the staysail up. Wooling the kite during that storm was quite fun in the sail locker with the boat crashing onto each wave. I went flying a few times in my seat on the floor with my whole body leaving the ground. Good thing I had sails to soften the blow on the way back down. However, later on once the worst of the storm had passed, we still had strong winds and managed to snap one of our staysail sheets. We still have the remains of the old yankee sheet that we wrapped around our propeller previously, so we used that to replace the broken staysail sheet and continued on.

The other interesting thing we realized after we left Sydney was that none of our wind instruments were working, which means we can't tell the wind angle or speed of the wind. So during that storm, we actually had no idea how strong the gusts were. The wind speed is also important to know to determine what sails to put up since each sail has a max wind speed it can handle before we blow them to smithereens. So we just had the windex to use for helming which is fine for people who know what they are doing but makes my life slightly more difficult when helming. I suppose I am learning the original way to helm now...

The last day/night, we hit yet another wind hole. Besides the fact that we should be racing, it was a beautiful day and we had flat, glossy water to look at with the sun reflecting perfectly off of it. Our watch ended up staying up later just enjoying the peaceful sailing and chatting with the other watch. When I woke for the night shift, nothing had changed, still going at 1-2 knots. Still amazingly frustrating with all the boats holed up around us and slowly progressing closer. However, the stars were bright and it was a lovely sight to see all the lights in the sky and surrounding us from the other boats. Although frustrating, it is nights like this that I will remember. We have Jack Johnson playing at the helm, but Suzanne has her own mix playing in her headphones, dancing away at the grinder in her own world...just makes me smile that we get to enjoy moments like this...again, even though we are painstakingly close to the finish!

We finally decided to put up our code 1 even though there was no wind and luckily it did the trick and got us moving again. Unfortunately, Telemed had the idea first and took off in the lead. At this point, we had merged with most of the boats so it was a neck and neck race to the finish! Telemed ended up getting away but we were able to overtake Mission Performance when they decided to switch kites and barely kept the lead minutes from the finish line when we had a gybe go wrong, but luckily for us, they blew their tack line and were not able to overtake us!

The reception in Hobart was absolutely amazing! People were everywhere cheering us in! It was such a great experience to take place in this iconic Sydney to Hobart race among 115 other boats, of which about 30 dropped out during the race due to things breaking from the storm. But we made it all the way and with our best finish yet in sixth place! We are slowly moving up the ranks and hope to claim a fifth position soon! And it should be mentioned that the winner of this race among the Clipper fleet was Wendo on DaNang, Vietnam!!! Wendo is an Australian native and this was her tenth time participating in the Sydney to Hobart race. She also won in the overall race for being the first female skipper in! Cheers to Wendo and her team for doing such a kick ass job! We were all routing for them to win!!!

The marina was packed on the way out!

So many boats!!!

This is our nav screen showing other boats on AIS...so close to the rest of the fleet! I think I would have been more stressed out had I been watching this screen during the race start! Gesh!!!