Images: boys on pilons post long lunch at melbourne with the good ship "Samskara" Beneteau 47.7
Seals in Port Phillip Bay
Foa Bear's new hat
Captain Stoopy, Mike and Pete in background.
The crew on arrival to Stanley.
What brings me to this point i am unsure, having attempted this race 2 years prior in a howling storm and too many sick crew, i swore to myself never Bass Straight again.....
anyway... I think I was caught at a weak moment and the reasoning behind such a ludicrous adventure is to qualify the boat and the crew for the Melbourne to Vanuatu race in 2010. now we start talking about warm tropical climates and I start to get interested.
I spent the day with the skipper, good mate David Stoopman (Stoopy), provisioning and getting the interior of the ship ready for sea. Mike and Pete went off to the Melbourne Wine Show which they sponsored and I thought it a good place for me to stay away from considering the journey ahead.
It was pouring rain and windy all day and was not exactly inviting for loading our boat being the furthest along the jetty but we managed. Nothing like your wet weather gear wet before the start...
I enjoyed the day pottering on the boat and getting everything sorted so at least I knew where things were. I wasn't going to starve! The rest of the crew filtered down throughout the day and we threw the lines about 4pm and motor sailed up Port Phillip Bay for about 5 hours until we reached Queenscliffe. Too late for a countery at the pub Nik Fo found the local Pizzeria and ordered a feast. A few of the crew went in search of more grog only to have an indian cabbie take them everywhere but an open bottle shop. Lucky we provisiined well before we left.
The race started at 4am 31st October just off Queenscliffe and we sailed into a heavy fog which failed to lift for most of the day. Eerie it was, but I was happy that the breeze was not howling nor the swell running to high. We enjoyed a pleasant days sail and settled into watches for the night. We copped a bit of strong breeeze and swell just past the half way mark that did not really let up all the way to Tassy. We crossed the finish line at about 10.30am on the 1st Novemeber.
Strong weather was forecast to come from the north so we pretty much turned around and headed back for Melbourne, we had a extremely pleasant sail home with our captain getting attacked by the bundy bear soon after we finished.
After a welcomed uneventful run through the "rip" at the heads of melbourne we decided to head for a nice lunch located and moored at port melbourne. Lunch at the London Pub on the beach followed by Thai dinner in Williamstown and more drinks on the boat.
Next day was Melbourne Cup day, after a big vessel clean-up we watched the race at the yachty and then went mad with joey and mick from the whitsundays in some kooky local pub of fo's. great night!!
It was then off to Adelaide and home where I have been since - yay, am going to try and write at least every couple of days so I can keep on top of this blogidy log!
PS: since being home have been riding most days, now thats something, will write about the crazy things I see later...
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