Seattle & New York Info

For anyone in town or wishing to visit when we arrive into Seattle or New York, I have listed the details below for reference.  Feel free to give me a ring or send an email if you want to catch up or take a tour of the boat while we are in town!

Seattle Info

Arrival window - April 15th - 20th

Departure on April 28th

Boats docked at Bell Harbor Marina

New York Info

Arrival window - June 12th - June 14th

Departure on June 20th

Boats docked at Liberty Landing Marina (I think this is actually in New Jersey)

Since this is a long race, we may not make it to Seattle by the 20th, but those are the dates that Clipper can best estimate our arrival.  And you can always keep an eye on the race tracker for an hourly update of our position at any time during the race.  Which can be found with this link:

http://clipperroundtheworld.com/race/standings

Clipper has also started using periscope to video all the boat arrivals and departures live with everyone across the world.  So if you cannot be there in person, you can pretend with periscope and even send messages through!  I have no idea how periscope works, so you'll need to figure that one out on your own!

Cheers!

Leg 4: Hobart Stopover

Flashback to New Years and the Hobart stopover that was missed....

We only had a few days to spend in Hobart, but we sure made them memorable!  I think it helps that Hobart puts on several events for the incoming sailors finishing up the Sydney to Hobart race.  As noted, we had a ridiculous greeting as we sailed into the marina, being welcomed by all the locals and the other boats who had already finished.  We had a welcome brief with Sarah and then it was time to celebrate with a few beers and champagne, which Christine, Chris's wife, so kindly provided for us!  After a few drinks, Karri and I were swiftly off to the showers while the others continued the celebrations on the boat.  The team had not so surprisingly made it to the bar yet by the time we came back and were a few sheets to the wind.  We all headed over to the local bar for a drink.  Considering there were only a few bars to choose from, this place was beyond packed!  So after a drink or two, we headed to find food.  Since it was a bit later in the evening, the only place serving food was the local Aussie pie shop, so we got a ton of pies and went to town!  I made it a somewhat early evening and headed back to the boat afterwards to get some rest before New Year's Eve which was the next day!

The next morning, we were up early, got some breakfast adjacent to where our boats were docked and then it was back to the boat for our one major day of deep clean, sail repair, etc.  Once Karri and I were done with our work, we had the afternoon to ourselves.  We got our nails done and then met up with Jan who was randomly sleeping under a tree in a park...why would I be surprised by that?  The three of us spent the rest of the afternoon having drinks and food and I may have started on my espresso martinis, but to be fair, I was falling asleep at the bar so needed a bit of a pick me up for the big night!

Love me some hot knife!

We headed back to the boat, where I happily ran into Patsy who lent me her hotel key to have a real shower at her place instead of using the marina showers.  I parted my way and was meant to meet up with the crew on another boat who were "having people over".  Of course, by the time I made it back to the boat, no one had left yet.  Most of our crew ended up meeting up on our boat where we had a pre-party of sorts, drinking red wine and eating my favorite cheese crackers!  I also managed to sneak a few espresso martinis on the boat from the restaurant next to us.  We were all still around at midnight and in the true Spanish tradition, we ate or rather scarfed down 12 grapes at midnight.  I used to do this with my family as well at new year's but not sure if there was ever any meaning behind it.  Hobart supplied us with a lovely display of fireworks and it was quite a sight, seeing all the boats with people celebrating on the bows watching the show.  

Ready to party!

Karri and Jan waving to Reero...

And vice versa...no, Reero wasn't actually there, just in spirit!

And this was just too funny to keep out!

Not sure what we're doing here, but nice group shot

At some point, I was lying on the deck next to split wine while being outlined with white electrical tape as if I was a dead body...

After midnight, we headed over to the LMAX boat where the unofficial gathering was being held.  As we arrived, we noticed a shopping cart had been hoisted up the mast and there were two other shopping carts on the bow...we sure know how to keep it classy!  I may have partaken in a few shopping cart races on the bow while inside the cart, had a bit of a dance party in the cockpit per usual, and managed not to fall off the boat!  We then somehow managed to find another bar to continue the celebrations and it was the wee or rather later hours of the morning that we finally made it back to our boat.

Can you find the three shopping carts in the photo?

New Year's day was the worst day of my life!  I thought I was going to die...literally!  But, I did not and managed to get out of bed to have breakfast with Ros.  What I had forgotten was that I decided to go to a museum that day with a few others of our crew.  So Jan and Karri dragged me along with them, where Amancio, Luke and his friends met up with us.  Turns out it was quite the thing to do on New Year's day and there were a few other fellow Clipper people on the boat as well.  We took a ferry over to the museum, where I had a coke and slept.  Once we got there, we had about three hours to roam the museum and check out the art displays.  It was quite an interesting place with very, shall we say modern art.  After that, we were ushered out to a big grassy area with a stage and food stands set up.  What I didn't realize was there was a bit of a music concert after the museum part!  It was actually quite nice.  However, I didn't have much time to get dressed and happened to still be in my wine stained shirt from the night before, so had to walk around in the blazing heat hiding my shirt behind a sweater, again, so classy.  It ended up being quite an enjoyable afternoon with good company, food and drinks.  We left the place on the first ferry back around 8 and then it was finally back to the boat for a shower and some much needed sleep before the race 3 start the next day!

VS crew chillin on the grass

Leg 4: Airlie Beach Stopover

I am skipping a blog for the race from Hobart to Airlie Beach as I never wrote down a thing and now have no recollection of what actually happened on that leg.  The one thing I do remember is that we did have a tethered man overboard with our dear Patsy, which gave us each a scare.  I was on mother duty when it happened.  As we were making dinner, there was suddenly a huge bang as the boat came smashing down on a wave.  We looked up the companionway to see what the heck they were doing on deck and we see everyone's faces go white.  A huge wave came over as they were dealing with the hanks on the yankee, sending Patsy off the bow where she was sitting and the guys on the foredeck several feet backward.  She was quickly pulled back aboard with just a few good bruises to show for it.  We are sure glad that was the result and that she made it safely back on board!  Otherwise, here are a few photos from that leg:

Some of my watch

We had a crazy pod of dolphins play with us!  This is one of the many.

Daydreaming...

A squall in the distance of the sunset

We arrived earlier than expected into Airlie Beach so allowed ourselves a quick tidy up of the boat and we got the rest of the day off before starting the deep clean the next day.  Posh, Karri, Jan, and I got checked into our quant little hotel room that Karri booked for us at the last minute when we found out we'd be in early.  We quickly threw our swimsuits on and took a swim in the lagoon outside our hotel.  The pool lagoon wasn't exactly super refreshing with the millions of bodies in it, but it felt great after not showering on the boat for so long!  We then grabbed some food and drinks nearby and espresso martinis may have been consumed. After a real shower, we met up with the rest of the crew at Malagans.  More drinks were consumed and then it was off to some fish place for dinner where I proceeded to fall asleep at the table from exhaustion.  We ended the night at one more bar where we met up with some other crews and danced to some solo guitarist that was playing on a tiny stage.

The next day was an early start at 7 am so we could beat the Airlie heat.  We had a quick swim in the lagoon to wake us up before heading to the boat.  I was on repairing donuts around the boat and Karri was working on her bow strop masterpiece so Patsy would have something to hold on to at the bow.  By the time the afternoon came around, we called it quits to get out of the unforgiving heat.  We had a quick drink at the yacht club then it was back to our place for another swim. Karri and I enjoyed the afternoon relaxing and she made us some of her Aperol Spritz to sip on.  This is when Karri showed me the hilarious video of a guy pranking his mom and her pranking him...we watched it over and over again laughing hysterically.  That is when we decided it would be a good idea to start pranking each other to keep things interesting!  It started with a few random screams in the face but slowly developed...

Aperol Spritz!

We met up with a majority of our crew that night for dinner at some hamburger joint.  A few of us were lost to Patsy's penthouse so when a group of Clipper folks showed up looking for a table, Karri insisted they join our table.  I am pretty sure the waitress was none too pleased with our lot but we were having a grand old time drinking beer, rum and gingers, and of course a couple espresso martinis.  After dinner we headed to a bar to continue the evening.  It was apparently rum and ginger night with our crew as I cannot even begin to count how many were consumed!  We met up with more Clipper crew there as the night went on.  I don't know how the subject came up, but at some point we were reminiscing about drinking games and the subject of getting "iced" came up.  The next thing I knew after we made it to the next bar, there was a Smirnoff Ice staring at me as I rounded the pool table.  In true fashion, I got down on one knee and downed it like a champ.  And not shortly after there was another one in the pool table pocket!  That little shit, Matty!  I had to refuse that one as I was still recovering from the first one.  The entire rest of the night I was determined to get back at him but I had no such luck...he will simply have a surprise waiting for him when he least expects it!  After Jan and I got schooled by Matt and Lukey with his pool shark skills, a few of us continued on to what I think was supposed to be some sort of club venue.  By this time, people were in rare form and started to call it quits for the night as a result of the overconsumption of rum and gingers. After a short stint at the club, we all parted our separate ways dreading the early morning to come in a few short hours.

Some of ze boys

Too many rum and gingers!

We had another early day ahead of us on the boat.  Karri, Posh, and I were up early and took another swim in the lagoon where we laughed about all the previous night's activities... Everyone was dragging their heels this morning, but we all eventually made it to the boat to start the day's work. Now remember the prank game I told you about? As it was ridiculously hot out, I decided to prank Karri with our boat hose.  As I was working on a donut in the back of the boat, I asked her to come over to look at what I was doing. When she finally (I waited patiently for a good 10-15 minutes with my camera going!) came and bent down to look at the donut, I squirted her in the face with the hose, muahaha...5 points for me!  Unfortunately my camera had switched off at this point so I only managed to video squirting myself with the hose as I was waiting!  

Not the action shot I was waiting for!

After working on the boat, we headed over to Patsy's to check out her penthouse suite.  Oh my word!  I decided I was moving in right there and then.  I mean she had three extra spare rooms so it was completely plausible for me to do so.  That evening there was a welcome event for the Clipper crew at the Abell Point Marina.  We made a quick appearance and then I was off to my place for a quiet evening and packing up for the move into the apartments Tino had originally booked for us.

View outside Patsy's redonkculous pad!

The next morning was Jan's birthday and we pounced on him with a morning sing song of happy birthday!  Then we let him be and Karri and I made our way to the boats.  After a quick stint at the boat, we started our scavenger hunt to find birthday gifts for Jan. We not so quickly realized that Airlie beach was too hot to sell merino wool shirts after venturing to several outback stores and wandering the highways on foot carrying lots of bags.  We did find some silly gifts and luckily ran into a nice boating couple who offered to give us a ride back to the marina...have I mentioned how nice Australians are?  After we made it back, we checked one last store with no luck and gave up the hunt and went and got some drinks.  It was at this place that we ran into the lovely local, Christy.  We chatted her up for a bit and she recommended a company to use for one of the White Haven Beach excursions that her friend worked at.  We eventually made it over to Patsy's to meet up with Tino, Jan, and Posh before heading over to check into our new apartment.  Our place wasn't quite as posh as Patsy's but still quite nice, with great views, a swimming pool, and a W/D in the unit...who could ask for anything more!  We settled in and the cheeky person I am, claimed the master suite, which Karri will not let me live down!

View from our place

After a quick swim in our new pool, we got ready to go out for Jan's birthday.  Our entire crew met up at Fish and Dive which Jan had picked out.  We had a fun evening over the dinner table enjoying each other's company.  I think at this point in the week, most were partied out and headed straight home after dinner but a few continued on for a nightcap at a nearby bar.  It wasn't long before we were all ready to head home for the night and made the trek back up the treacherous hill to our place.

Happy bday!

There was much discussion over this being my new FB profile photo...clearly it didn't happen!

Thursday was laundry and pool day with Karri where we proceeded to burn the crap out of ourselves even though we put on 50 SPF every 5 minutes...freaking Aussie sun! Then we were off to Patsy's for a BBQ which each of us were helping with, me on 7 layer bean dip, Tino on the BBQ, and Karri with her amazeballs salads!  We had entirely too much food as always and decided we would have to have a round 2 the following evening to finish all the food we had.  The food was absolutely amazing, just making my mouth water as I am thinking about it now!  As the night progressed, I was determined to teach my crew mates how to play flip cup.  We managed to get cups however, we were lacking in the watered down beer department so were playing with lagers.  After a not so quick explanation from me, as standard, we attempted to play and I think people were catching on as we went down the line.  Once we reached Tino, he could not manage to flip his cup for the life of him and caused our team to lose!  Not only did he give up on that game, he refused a rematch which is the whole purpose and made us drink to the Roxanne song instead...so not as fun!  I'll have to train him on the boat so we can have a proper game next time.  I left the party early with Jan and Karri as we had a full day of fun ahead of us!

Prepping the food

Oh yes and a closer look of the 7-layer deliciousness!

Of course dancing to be had with Patsy smiling in the mirror

Patsy enjoying her place

Cheeeeeseburger...nom, nom, nom!

And the most amazing salad!

Failed attempt at flip cup...

...which quickly turned to drinking to Roxanne

Friday, we were off on our excursion to White Haven Beach!  It was booked for Karri, Jan, Posh, Tino, and myself but Tino ended up backing out to take care of some other things.  When we made it to the marina to check in, we asked the guy who happened to be our local's friend if she was going to be able to make it.  He said it was a no go since they were fully booked that day.  Well lucky for her, our fifth person backed out, so we told him to phone her up and take his place since it was already paid for.  As we walked up to the boat, we were happily greeted by our new friend, Christy!  The ride took us over to a section of the reef for a little snorkel where we got to wear the most amazingly attractive stinger suits.  At the end of the snorkel I got offered a tow off the back of the dingy to get back to the boat...guess my flippers weren't paddling quick enough!  Then it was over to the beach where they prepared lunch for us.  Christy had told us previously about the sand which was made up of tiny particles of glass and how you can use it to clean your jewelry.  I came prepared and brought my badly tarnished Tiffany's necklace with me which I tested out as we waited for lunch. Low and behold after a few minutes rubbing it in the dry sand, it was becoming shiny and new again!

Group shot on the way out

Such sexy stinger suits!

Janikins...

Yellow fish,

Blue fish,

Karri fish,

And Hobbits fish!

White Haven Beach

There were other inhabitants that joined us for lunch that day as well.  I forget the Aussie name for them, but they were basically huge ass lizards that walked about and tried to attack you for your food!  I was on high alert while eating lunch that day!  After lunch, I headed to use the restrooms, which were in some makeshift outhouse in the jungle of the beach.  I made my way back there cautiously looking out for the lizards and came upon a woman standing outside the stalls looking distraught.  I asked if she was okay and then she proceeded to tell me a story of how her friend was in a bathroom similar to this one recently when a spider jumped down and attacked her from the ceiling and then she pointed at the huge ass freaking spider looming on the ceiling of one of the stalls!!!! This thing was the size of a softball!  And not a tarantula, but just a big frigging spider with fangs!  Are you freaking kidding me!  This lady clearly had no idea of my unhealthy fear of spiders.  We both dodged that stall and found other ones, but I was on high alert of spiders jumping out at me from every corner of the stall!  Then I had the lovely task of making it back to the beach keeping a look out for not only lizards but big ass spiders this time too!

Jan and his lizard

Heading back

Christy was having fun with the camera...

...and made sure everyone was in a shot

No idea.

That night we had the prize giving ceremony at the marina. Clipper has an awesome way of finding the hottest places to hold these events, ensuring that we are uncomfortable and sweating profusely throughout.  Safe to say, we were happy to get out of there and head to Patsy's to finish off the BBQ from the night before.  This time, most of our crew made it over and we chowed down happily!  

Saturday, I slept in and made some personal calls to home.  I love chatting with my sister, it is amazing how well she knows me and can predict everything I say and do!  And my poor stepmom!  I'm still cringing over that photo!  Hopefully your face heals quickly!  After my calls, I ran some errands and then hung out by the pool for the rest of the day along with a few water fights thanks to the water guns left by the poolside.  Somewhere in between all of this, Karri managed to find a huge dead beetle on the ground outside, which she proceeded to take back with her upstairs to our flat and put next to my iPad where the charging cable gets attached.  So later in the day, while Karri is chilling on the porch and Jan and Posh are packing up in the other rooms, I was delighted to find the little bugger, no pun intended, when I went to unplug my iPad!  I at first screamed out of fright for seeing something, but then the scream turned into some horrifying death scream when I realized it was a beetle!  Posh and Jan (who knew about it and was probably secretly laughing as he came over) came running and I showed them the culprit of the screams...Jan starts laughing and then I catch on!  I run out to thank Karri for her lovely prank of putting a fake beetle in my bed (did I mention my iPad was on my bed! Ick), which she replies with, it isn't fake nonchalantly...ah WTF Karri! But it is dead she says as if this is going to make me feel better about it.  After much coaxing from Karri and Jan to now remove the dead bug from my bed, Karri eventually did (I'm pretty sure Jan was too afraid to touch it himself) but only after she played with it in front of my face and set it down on my clean t-shirt where it then got stuck and lost a limb to my shirt!  Ten points for Karri!  She has no idea what is coming during this leg....muahaha!!!  That night we decided to go back to the burger joint for dinner since Karri didn't get to try any of Tino's yummy burgers at the BBQ's.

Oh yes! WTF!

Sunday we got to sleep in a bit again, then it was off to the boats by noon for immigration.  The process was quite quick and we had some time to spare before the crew briefing at 3:30. I was sent on a mission to get otter pops or what they call ice Lollys here so we will have something to cool us down for this leg which is going to be a scorcher!  I ended up with 15 packages or 48, so I think we should be set for the 30 days we are at sea!  Then it was back to the marina for a quick drink, fleet briefing and then our own boat briefing.  At the fleet briefing, they also announce who wins the media awards for best picture and video.  I happened to step out to use the restroom for 2 secs when they announced my skittle photo was the runner up for the winning photo!  Dang it!  During the last race, I had the awesome idea of taking a photo of one of the many rainbows we see with a skittles package next to it...taste the rainbow!

We did however lose Posh in the middle of this as she will be traveling around Australia and New Zealand before joining us back on the boat in Qingdao!  After the briefing it was back home for us for another swim and a last meal in with the four of us, Tino, Jan, and Karri.  I spent the remainder of the night writing all these darn blogs!! Haha. We're due to be on the boat by 8 am tomorrow and then it is off to Da Nang, Vietnam after several hours of motoring out past the barrier reef...

We had a beautiful rainbow greet us on departure!

And can't forget Reero who was with us in spirit visiting Hobbitsland!

Leg 4: Sydney Stopover

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!!