Sydney Harbor Christmas 2015: Let the Games Begin!!!

Hi All,

Wow….what a week we have had in Sydney Harbour (Spruce and Minnie B note the spelling:)))). As many of you know, we had to work really, really hard to get here and of course, in the back of our minds, we are wondering if it was really worth it. Well…..it was soooooo worth it….I am having trouble finding the words to describe all the activity but it far exceeded all our expectations!!!!

First, the airline travel woes continued for our friends Jim & Caz. Their flight was canceled out of Cyprus, as well as every leg was also late, and finally arrived on Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, 24 hours late.

But, the show must go on. Christmas was indeed very, very different for us this year as we were far, far away from our family. But, with modern technology we were able to facetime with our sons and their families as well as many videos were shared of their Christmas. There is just something about watching your 2 year old granddaughter as she descends the stairs and sees that Santa has come….just precious, precious times for Josh and Courtney and our family!!! Of course, watching David and Dana’s “girls”, aka their dogs, open their treats was hysterical as well!!

We stayed in Rose Bay and started the festivities on Christmas Eve with Brett and Stacey on Bella Vita as well as Peter on Seeker. Stacey and Brett made a traditional Swedish dinner complete with pickled herring….yes, Bad Bob and Les I did sample….still have not acquired that taste, however:)))) As all opening ceremonies, the bottle count was quite high….yahoo!!!

Christmas day was on Mystic Moon, starting with champagne and Kathy’s traditional sausage cheese balls and fruit salad in the morning. We cooked our traditional beef tenderloin for dinner complete with all the trimmings and complimented it with some very fine wine!!! The five of us were quite content. I even found a radio station playing Christmas carols and Kathy did a great job decorating Mystic, albeit much subdued from back in the USA.

No rest for the weary as the next day was the start of the Rolex Sydney to Hobart Race. For those who are not familiar with this sailboat race, here is a description:

The Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race is an annual event hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, starting in Sydney, New South Wales on Boxing Day and finishing in Hobart, Tasmania. The race distance is approximately 630 nautical miles (1,170 km). The race is run in co-operation with the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, and is widely considered to be one of the most difficult yacht races in the world. The race was initially planned to be a cruise by Peter Luke and some friends who had formed a club for those who enjoyed cruising as opposed to racing, however when a visiting British Royal Navy Officer, Captain John Illingworth, suggested it be made a race, the event was born. The Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race has grown over the decades, since the inaugural race in 1945, to become one of the top three offshore yacht races in the world, and it now attracts maxi yachts from all around the globe.

It would have been easy to stay in Rose Bay and see all the racers line up but we wanted to be in the thick of the madness. So, we moved Mystic to Watson Bay, just slightly ahead of the start line. Jim and Caz took a cab from the airport to Watson Bay and we picked them up in the dinghy well before the race began. We were joined by Brett, Stacey and Peter and we were in a prime position until the police came by and said we were anchored inside the restricted line. I tried my best polite manner to convince them we were not over the line but to no avail. So we had to pick back up and move about 200 yards down the way and slightly back….turned out it was in a better spot so all was good!!! I don’t know how many boats were out there….well over a thousand but most boats were going to follow the racers outside the harbor and into the open waters. We were content to just watch as the race went by and then, watch as all the boats came back!!! Wow!!!

The race was won by Comanche, a 100′ supermaxi, owned by Jim Clark, founder of Netscape and Silicon Graphics and his Australia wife, supermodel Kristy Hinze-Clark, who actually participated in the race!! The race was one of the hardest in 10 years with only 77 of the 108 boats finishing. About 12 hours from the start they were met with a southerly front of up to 45 kt winds and 15-20′ waves…ouch!!!!!

After the exciting race start and pandemonium, we brought Mystic into the CYCA marina. This was the marina/yacht club that sponsored the race and thus had a lot of empty berths. However, when we got to the marina our berth was occupied by a race participant that had been involved in a collision at the start and damaged their bow….the crew was not in a happy frame of mind and any attempt to have a conversation failed miserably…..the marina just found us another spot!!!

OK….I’ll stop the blog here and start back up later!!!

Hope all is well!!

John
Mystic Moon