Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race

On Boxing Day each year, Sydney hosts a yacht race that begins in Sydney Harbour and ends in Hobart, Tasmania. It’s quite a big deal out here and we headed to Watson Bay (pretty much the most Eastern point of Sydney Harbour) to watch the racing yachts start their journey and sail out to sea. 

We made our way in a two car convoy (which ended the day as a one car convoy as Farag dropped us off and we didn’t realise he wasn’t coming to watch the race too so drove off) in an hour long journey across Sydney to Watson Bay. The area is nice, Robertson Park gives you a view of the Sydney skyline which is really nice from afar and we climbed the steps of Gap Bluff to stare out to sea whilst waiting for the race to begin. There was a large crowd of people across the cliff-line, all waiting to see the boats take off and all the main tv stations sent helicopters to cover the event – we think we counted thirteen helicopters all trying to get footage of the race.

Joel & Sean 

Joel & our housemates

The lighthouse used in
Mission Impossible 2

 

Remember these? Still big down under!

At 13:00 the race started and within around 20 – 30 minutes most of the yachts had filed out of the harbour to begin the race which passed right in front of where we were placed giving us a great view of the action. There were also dozens of speedboats, luxury yachts and chartered ferries sailing almost parallel and sometimes in front of the yachts to get a view – it looked very congested and a potential death trap to us but no-one was hurt (that we know of) and in all it was a pretty pleasant trip; even though I had to head home by public transport with Sean, Nick (our new German housemate) and Mi Yung after Farag had driven off leaving a shortage of cars to drive us back home. It made no difference time wise though as due to the traffic (and directions/lack of directions) the car with Nicola, Loic, Lily, Nam and Kyu arrived back in Burwood around the same time as us.