Jessica Watson arrives back home
May 18th 2010 01:02
Last Saturday we were on Sydney Harbour to watch Jessica Watson arrive home...
But 1st we had to do some maintenance. We went down to the RSYS on Friday morning and picked Y88 "Fast Forward" from her mooring and brought her into the pond off the club. Winches were greased, impellers were cleaned, decks were scrubbed, top sides were washed down and polished, the usual routine. What a beautiful morning's work. Sun beaming down, warm, mucking around with boats. Perfect. Then off to for pizza and a wine or two. On the way back from lunch and off to the bank I was called to by a couple of old sailing buddies who were sitting in the sun outside of another pizza restaurant drinking Lemoncellos. It would have been rude to not join them so I did. More drinks in the sun. A good nights sleep Friday for sure.
Then Saturday, Jessica's return. After a race of course.
There was quite a bit of confusion as you would expect. With the prevailing wind our start would have taken us across the flotilla escorting Jessica up the main harbour. Not very good. In fact a very scary concept.
The girl was running later than her advertised ETA so the race director in his infinite wisdom decided to start the race and set a short course. Good thinking.
An exciting race. SW 15 odd knots so we were flying. The little 29 footer was clocking 9 knots under a shy kite. We liked that. A lot. Great fun. So much fun that we ended up 1st across the line thrashing the next boats a 35 footer and a 34 footer.
After we finished we dropped sails and as we could see helicopters flying over the headland a couple of miles away we started the engine and motored up to meet Jessica and her welcoming flotilla.
It was huge. The entire width of the harbour was filled with a wall of boats that was four times as deep again. We managed to sneak our way through, turned about and followed them in.
What a wonderful enthralling sight. A welcoming friendly escort for a deserving little Champ. Mind you you couldn't see Jessica through the fleet as her tiny little boat was dwarfed by the charter boats, the police boats, the fire boat and many and assorted power boats and yachts. I think we were the smallest boat there after her little pink baby.
A great event. I makes an old bloke like me feel very proud.
Cheers
chris
But 1st we had to do some maintenance. We went down to the RSYS on Friday morning and picked Y88 "Fast Forward" from her mooring and brought her into the pond off the club. Winches were greased, impellers were cleaned, decks were scrubbed, top sides were washed down and polished, the usual routine. What a beautiful morning's work. Sun beaming down, warm, mucking around with boats. Perfect. Then off to for pizza and a wine or two. On the way back from lunch and off to the bank I was called to by a couple of old sailing buddies who were sitting in the sun outside of another pizza restaurant drinking Lemoncellos. It would have been rude to not join them so I did. More drinks in the sun. A good nights sleep Friday for sure.
Then Saturday, Jessica's return. After a race of course.
There was quite a bit of confusion as you would expect. With the prevailing wind our start would have taken us across the flotilla escorting Jessica up the main harbour. Not very good. In fact a very scary concept.
The girl was running later than her advertised ETA so the race director in his infinite wisdom decided to start the race and set a short course. Good thinking.
An exciting race. SW 15 odd knots so we were flying. The little 29 footer was clocking 9 knots under a shy kite. We liked that. A lot. Great fun. So much fun that we ended up 1st across the line thrashing the next boats a 35 footer and a 34 footer.
After we finished we dropped sails and as we could see helicopters flying over the headland a couple of miles away we started the engine and motored up to meet Jessica and her welcoming flotilla.
It was huge. The entire width of the harbour was filled with a wall of boats that was four times as deep again. We managed to sneak our way through, turned about and followed them in.
What a wonderful enthralling sight. A welcoming friendly escort for a deserving little Champ. Mind you you couldn't see Jessica through the fleet as her tiny little boat was dwarfed by the charter boats, the police boats, the fire boat and many and assorted power boats and yachts. I think we were the smallest boat there after her little pink baby.
A great event. I makes an old bloke like me feel very proud.
Cheers
chris
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