Pete

Team members and families are now on their way to their bottom of the world, to join the advance Sherpa party in tuning up for the Hobart Race. Gill insisted we rough it on the long flight out – all good preparation for the adventure ahead. We slept through the afternoon tea to toughen us up – you have to make sacrifices every now and again. And late breaking news – snowing in Tasmania. Am now looking for fleece jackets…

Well today was about getting ready to leave Wollwich Dockyard and get to the yacht club in time for the crew party. We succeeded! In the background Casey and Carla sorted out the pre-loading of food for incoming folks, Christmas turkeys and hams (not an easy find). And then Carla and Casey joing Joe and I for the delivery from Wollwich to the YC. I have sailed in a lot of places but to say Sydney Harbour is busy is…

Today was a bit of a rest day after the feverish preps from earlier in the week. Fearless Leader headed off to golf at a fancy schmancy course that had a strict rule against ratty old Novi golfers so he went off alone. The Joe got a birdie on the 12th hole, a Par 5. Bill Murray would have been proud! Carla, Casey and I headed off for the Manly area to watch some surfing but primarily to heck out…

Well today dawned cool near 20C and rain. Lots of rain. More boat prep, replaced broken bits, sorted the ditch bag, replaced the top instrument display on the mast, tuned the rig from top to bottom (these Aussie’s know their stuff) then went for a tune-up sail with Joe, me, Casey and the yard manager David, his daughter-in-law (who stripped and organized the boat and delivered it from Newcastle), and the riggers. Sydney Harbour is a series of interconnected waterways…

Lindy is finally looking like a boat again. More melting in the extreme and little relief in the shade or below. We took Lindy out to have her southern compass swung and the fluxgate compass calibrated and all was good. The container is finally looking a little more empty and we have been going through all we need for the race. All the docs are close to being complete as well which is huge.  And small jobs are getting completed…

Yesterday was a remake of the Wizard of Oz… the part where the witch melts, declaring, “melting”… “melting”. And yes, we did look like flying monkeys. We tried to get the sails on the boat before high-noon and the heat wave hit but we failed miserably. It was brutal. We finally moved the boat closer to the ramp and a dockie helped me load while Joe watched. I am now 5’ 2”. And we are sure you folks still dwelling…

Still fighting jet lag but not cold weather so that is a win. We are wide awake raring to go at 0500 and by 1500 we are done. Oh well, hit mid 20s yesterday, very nice, except in the Lindy container which was like Barbie’s Easy Bake Oven. The dockyard where we are moored is a long fjord dug out by the Brits way back when… correction, the Brits had it organized to be dug out by some no doubt…

Hi all, as Joe said, for day 1 we had low expectations for productivity and on that account we delivered. Everything took longer than expected from arrivals to driving through traffic to signing off for the day with a final cleanse. Driving in heavy traffic from the airport was fun but we haven’t hit anything and no one has hit us. Our rent-a-car is a Jucy (see pic) and green and purple in colour. It screams out, “Don’t hit me,…