The yachts of the Volvo Ocean Race.
Ryan and I.
Ryan and I.
The route.
The yachts leaving Cape Town for Melbourne.
Steve and Gillian.
Lucy, Kami and Shannon.
A water pool in Wellington NP.
Kneeboarding on Lake Stockton.
The High Street of Collie.
An empty train off to the local coal mines.
Shannon's brother and parents.
The flooded mine.
Black cockatoos.
January 1-6, 2018
Happy New Year to all!
On January 1st we drove into the city to the Dockland area to meet Ryan, the American, who I had met at the Cape Town airport. Ryan and his wife are flying around the world as part of the support team for one of the seven sailing yachts that are racing around the world. It’s an 8 month, 45000 mile race in 11 legs, visiting 12 cities and 6 continents. Ryan showed us around the boats and told us about some of the aspects of the race. He works as a physiotherapist for the sailing crew and when he was talking to us he wore a ‘watch’ that gave him all the details of one of the crew: heartbeat, calories burned, etc. The crew work day and night during the race and get little time to sleep. For example, the boats took 15 to 18 days to get to Melbourne from Cape Town and the crew is, more or less, on duty or call the whole time. At each city they dock for a period of time, The stop in Melbourne was for about a week over Christmas and New Year’s, to rest up and recover before the next leg. What an incredible and gruelling sport.
I spent most of the 2nd doing two things. I had entertained the idea of going down to the Docklands to watch the Volvo Ocean Race yachts leave the harbour for the next leg, but I decided not to because they would not be under sail and the actual race doesn’t start until they manage to navigate under the West Gate Bridge which is three metres shorter than their mast heights.. In order to do that they have to be pulled over on their keel to a 65% angle from a barge before the bridge. That is time consuming and it took most of the morning to get them out. So, I decided to stay home and configure my new laptop downloading programs, backing up photos and getting it ready for the trip. I spent a good deal of time which Apple configuring my iTunes account to manage the library on the new computer. In the afternoon I watched the actual start of the race though Phillip’s Bay. On each yacht there is a reporter who broadcasts footage every day and provides live coverage of what is happening on the boat. The seven yachts raced from Melbourne to the Mornington Peninsula and then had to navigate through the narrows to get out into the open ocean. As soon as they did they were hit with four metre swells and strong winds. It was amazing to watch the boats being smashed and tossed about as they raced through the waves and the amount of water that swept over the deck. No ones stays dry for very long. If anyone is interested here is the website for the race where you can see what it is all about and follow the boats around the world.
http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/home.html
On the 4th we visited Steve and Jillian Schneider at Mount Martha on the Mornington Peninsula. I first met Steve when I attended the orientation meeting in Melbourne for my exchange. He was part of the International Teaching Association that welcomes all the teachers on exchange. He did an exchange himself to Bellville, Ontario and they enjoyed it so much, they now refer to their life as before and after Canada. They have been back once to visit the school, the kids and the area. We had visited them twice during my year in Australia. We had a great time catching up with them while enjoying an Aussie barbie. Steve plays master baseball and his team won the gold medal in the masters class recently in Tasmania. They have a son who is currently on a year long tour through Australia, South Africa and South American who are also blogging.
On January 5th I spent most of the day sorting and reorganizing my bags while Lucy worked. In the afternoon we flew to Perth for the Underwater Hockey National Championships. It is a five hour flight from Melbourne to Perth, longer than Toronto to Vancouver. Lucy’s daughter’s boyfriend, Shannon, picked us up and took us to his house. He lives with Kami, Lucy’s daughter, and two other friends. Kami was working and Shannon had plans so he leant us his car and we drove to an Italian restaurant they recommended for dinner.
On Saturday the 6th, Shannon and Kami drove us to the town where he grew up and his family still lives, Collie. We stopped at a roadhouse on the way and had a pie for breakfast. Pies are a huge part of Aussie and Kiwi culture. We stopped at a couple of very scenic water holes along the way in Wellington National Park and went for a couple of short walks. At Lake Stockton I watched with envy two people kneeboarding around the lake. Then we drove to his childhood home where we met his parents Drew and Jennie and one of Shannon’s three brothers. For lunch we had a chicken parma, which is another staple of the Aussie cuisine. After lunch Shannon and Kami were making some new hockey sticks from wood in his father’s workshop and Lucy and I went for a walk around the town of Collie and along the High Street. It is a typical Australian, rural small town.
Later in the afternoon Shannon took us to a local swimming hole that is actually a flooded unused mine. The water was a beautiful turquoise colour and a great temperature. As we had a swim a flock of black cockatoos flew around squawking. From there it was a two-hour ride back to Perth. When we got there, we went for dinner at a steak and rib restaurant before heading back to their house for the night.
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