Anthony and Cy

Cy’s Australian Journals

For those of you that remember Cy’s journals from Portugal, he has done the same for our adventures here in Aussie. For those of you that have never been blessed with Cy’s prose, it is really funny. He takes all the funny moments of the day and puts it to words. People have let us know how funny these things are. To read them, click on the link for Cy’s Jounrals at the top of the page.

Here is a small sampling:

Sailing in Sydney harbor is such a cool experience. I mean you always see pictures and postcards, of the Opera house, and are in awe, but while sailing we see it every day, and just glance at it like we have seen it so many times before.  I guess we will never appreciate it true majesty, until we are walking in or around it.
Today the wind was up again, but not as consistent. It was blowing from the complete opposite direction, and was very shifty.  But the nice thing about the wind coming from that direction was that it gave the water no chance to build up and steep chop. Very nice clean sailing all day long, that made it more of a tactical game.  The first couple races were not to impressive with a 19th ( I have an excuse for that one) and then a 12th, but then we brought out the A game, and cranked up the tempo a little, pulling off a 6th, and an 8th.   Nothing too exciting really happened on the water other than Anthony almost literally getting killed. And I am not exaggerating, I mean having a spinnaker pole sticking out of his thigh.  Here’s the story! Bear with me.
We had just rounded the leeward mark in about 10th place, and were heading back upwind for the last leg of the course.  On the downwind run was this Australian boat, just flying with the spinnaker up.  Usually if you are going downwind, it is a very good reference that the boats that had just rounded are an indication that you are getting very near your layline.  This was not the case with these guys.  We had all the rights, and they had to keep clear.  Anthony started to YELL, basically for his life “HEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYY, HEEEYYYYYYYYY, What the hell are you doing?” The skipper finally sees us, and makes the worst decision ever. He probably would have been able to cross our bow, as we had began to slow the boat to provide him with more room to do so, but instead he goes for a gybe.  Remember that the closing distance is so fast in these boats. Within half a second of his gybe I knew there was going to be a collision.  I immediately got off the rail, and dove into the boat, getting out of danger, while Anthony sat back there still hooked in and out on the wire, taking it like a champ.  The guy gybed so close that his spinnaker completely blanketed Anthony, and as they sailed past their leeward shroud snagged Anthony’s shoulder, and sent him flying around the stern of the boat.  Having gotten my weight off the rail, and allowed the wing to raise off the water, this made it possible for the other boats spinnaker pole to graze Anthony ass cheek rather than go right through his thigh.  Now we had flipped over, and instead of quickly rushing to get the boat upright again, we just sat in the water for a couple seconds, and realized that, what had happened was really scary. That was the reason for the 19th place that day

Enjoy!