Smoking Cannon

The RYCT seemed to be very quiet yet there was obviously a lot going on behind the scenes while people went about their assigned tasks in preparation for the arrival of the first of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, 2014 fleet.

Pumping up the finish line buoys.

 Towing the inflated buoys from the club to the finish line at Battery Point.

The finishing buoys in place.
Then they wheeled out the big guns.

The judges box.

Rolling out the Finish Line Cannon and getting into costume.

Anticipation surrounding the arrival of the super-maxi yachts was palpable anywhere we went (up Mt Wellington and Mt Nelson) and Hobart turned on the sunshine with clear skies and mild winds. The leading boats would not be halted by lack of wind on The Derwent, as so often happens.

 

We decided against joining the welcome fleet since the racers are so fast and the water would be awash afterwards. It was a good decision and we took up our viewing position with our visitors, Malcolm and Jenny Hawke along the Battery Point Sculpture trail just behind the CSIRO building.

Excitement mounting.

The Bloke chatting with Malcolm and Jenny at our vantage point.

 Wild Oats XI tacking up the River Derwent.

She tacked deep into Sandy Bay and almost disappeared from view.

 Almost at the line.

Boom!

3:03:26 pm 28th Dec, 2014.
2 Days, 2 Hours, 3 Minutes and 26 Seconds.
Wild Oats XI -Winner of Line Honours for the 8th time.

Getting High ....Up Mount Wellington

Mount Wellington certainly dominates the Hobart skyline and effects the weather too. What is it that compels us to get to the top things though? The concept is even buried in our speech 'Feeling on top of the world', 'On top of things', 'On top of your game' etc... We'd already suggested to Malcolm and Jenny that in the event of a clear day, they should not miss the opportunity to visit the summit of Mt Wellington. The summit is not always visible and can be shrouded in clouds or rain, sometimes for days at a time.  The Bloke had already been to the top with Glen and the little nephews and given the experience a 'tick'.

It is as much as 8C cooler up there, Jenny, Malcolm and the Bloke agree.

We were in luck and while the weather window presented itself, we jumped in the car to get an all-round view. Reports of the yacht race indicated that Wild Oats XI had already rounded Tasman Island, perhaps we'd get a glimpse. As it happened we thought we could see a smudge on the horizon through the telephoto lens. Fact or artifact, it certainly raised our excitement levels and anticipation of the racers arrival later in the day.

What is up there?

The Trig. point on Mt Wellington.

Everyone is keen to get as high as they can.

1,271m

The first recorded European ascender was George Bass on December 25, 1798.

217 Years and 3 Days later.... The Bloke takes in the same view.

The dolomite rock - up close.

There are weather instruments too.

 
Looking West to the ranges.

 An outcrop of dolomite rock.

 Comms tower.

Water, Islands, Bays..... as far as the eye can see.

The view to Cape Raoul and beyond.

On the way up I saw lots of coloured flora and begged to be allowed to pull over for a closer look later. The vegetation changed markedly as we popped our ears progressing upwards. Staggeringly, there were more than a few cyclists and those we had passed on our trip up were near the top when we began down again!

There is lots of colour in the flora if you get close and personal.

Some flora further down

View once down in the tree line.

Mount Wellington is laced with walking trails of varying length and difficulty. They could be a holiday in themselves! Meantime, back to the river shore to watch for those yachts headed this way!

When the racers get here.

Once the canons at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia announce the start of the Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, coordination of the event is passed to the team at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania and the CYCA event controllers fly to Hobart as quickly as possible.

There was an assembly of sailing enthusiasts (and tragics) assembled at the RYCT club house today to watch the start of the bluewater classic. There were plenty of experienced hands in the room. The chap next to us had notched 14 crossings! R E S P E C T!!

 We were joined by Pete off Beachcomber, who we had last seen in Port Lincoln.

We were lucky enough to be shown through the radio room by Alistair (R) and Pete volunteered for a midnight to 6am radio shift on 30th.

View across the club marina from the 'nerve centre'.

Individual participation trophies in readiness.

 117 yachts started this 70th edition of the bluewater classic.

Within 9 hours there have already been 2 retirements.

The winner's reward, but just getting to complete the race in Hobart is a trophy in itself.

Getting a tick on the bucket list

For more Christmases than we can recall, a Boxing Day ritual would include watching the start of the Melbourne Boxing Day Test Match (Cricket) followed by the start to the Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. Excess food from Christmas Eve (a traditional Polish style Wigilia) and Christmas Day Lunch made for a very relaxed start to the 'holiday' part of the holiday season - the preceding days being entirely frenetic.

Cougar is an entrant for this year's race.

They left RYCT for Sydney around 25th November.

Once settled on a sailing pastime, the commencement of the race to Hobart became of considerably greater interest and a fantasy emerged that we'd like to witness the end of this epic event. Of course the 'end' is quite a drawn out process, quite unlike the start which is more defined and commences with the firing of a canon at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia in Sydney. Notwithstanding, the journey for the finishers up The Derwent to Hobart, be it alone or in a tacking duel, is an immense achievement and we've wanted to experience the spectacle and the ambiance of Constitution Dock.

And so it is, that instead of remaining in Perth for a mere 5 days more and spending Christmas with family and baby Hugo, we winged our way back to Hobart to get ready.

 Flags flying at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania. It's the 70th anniversary Race.

We've got our memorabilia and some Tassie bubbles to celebrate.

We're ready! We've had a taste of a part of their journey in getting to Hobart ourselves - obviously without the pressures that these hardy sorts will experience.

We wish all the Skippers, Crews and Owners FAIR WINDS!

We'll be watching and waiting and we'll be putting a tick on our Bucket List too!

Mount Nelson Signal Station

We have visited the Mount Nelson Signal Station on more than one occasion. In 'The Day' it was an important hilltop for the communication of messages to Hobart from Port Arthur and vice versa. Although at least 100km from Hobart by road or a long sail, Hobart could be informed of the situation at Port Arthur inside of 15 minutes via semaphore and flag signals displayed on a chain of hilltops. Unsurprisingly, Mount Nelson offers spectacular views over the River Derwent and beyond, eclipsed only by those from Mount Wellington.

 Chris and the Bloke look at the view from the Signal Station.

View from the Signal Station in the direction of Port Arthur.

Pigeon holes for the storage of the flags suspended from the ceiling.

Morning tea at Mt Nelson with Chris, John and his Mum

at the restaurant adjacent.

There is a message there if we just understood the code!

A sketch of the Port Arthur signal tower.

The original was destroyed by bush fires.

Replica Signal Tower at Port Arthur.

A similar method of communication caught our eye at the Low Head Pilot Station on the Tamar. It was used to keep Launceston informed of what was happening at the coast. Messages were not sent out in full. A code book held a list of short hand messages for generic messaging as well as some private codes.

Olden day SMS's?