Christmas and Boxing Day

Christmas Day aboard Maunie was a very sociable time - we had Adam & Cindi and Kerry aboard so the table extension in the pilothouse was set up and was soon loaded with some lovely food and drink. Perhaps thankfully, the weather was cloudy and cool so we thoroughly enjoyed the day without overheating The food element was, of course, a bit different from the traditional British turkey and sprouts:.

Sling another prawn on the barbie

Always rely on local skills - Kerry in charge of the barbie whilst Di, in the cabin, looks after the drinks

At the lunch table

Pavlova and Di's orange and almond cake for pudding

After all this, Boxing Day was a complete contrast. We took the bus down to Manly, at the north end of Sydney Harbour, and walked up to the cliffs of North Head to watch the start of the Sydney Hobart race.

A big crowd assembles 

Adam gets the Big Lens out whilst Di and Cindi share a joke about focal length

The conditions for the race start were pretty gentle so we had plenty of time to watch the big fleet tack out of the harbour.

And they're off..

The black sailed maxi racers soon left the rest of the boats

A race-changing moment - Wild Oats (with the Audi logo) is on port tack so has to give way to Comanche...

Wild Oats tacks right in front of Comanche

The tack is completed but Comanche raises a protest, saying she had to take avoiding action. At the end of the race (which smashed the record by 5 hours), Wild Oats was 35 minutes ahead of Comanche but the protest committee upheld the protest and penalised Wild Oats by 1 hour, handing line honours to Comanche.

The Clipper round-the-world fleet took part

A fun day was had by all