GBR Cadet World Team arrive in Melbourne
by Neil Collingridge 17 Dec 2022 06:59 UTC
GBR Cadet World Team arrive in Melbourne © Neil Collingridge
The Brits have now been arriving in dribs and drabs from the snowbound UK to find Melbourne bathed in sunshine with temperatures in the mid 70s (old money) and lovely moderate breezes.
We've been made welcome from the moment we touched down - border force may work hard to keep Australia bio secure but they manage it with grace and friendliness. It's half a world away (it literally is!) from the freezing UK beset with the cost of living crisis, strikes and political discord.
The immediate task has to be dealing with the challenges of jet lag. Various approaches have been taken - from stay awake for as long as possible so you're ready to drop through to taking a trip to see the Penguins to hitting some cocktails hard, going for run and taking in a curry - its probably too early to tell which is the most effective but I know which my money is on.
Williamstown, where the sailing is based is a quaint suburb outside of Melbourne - lots of tidy bungalows lining the streets which run down to the waters edge and plenty of eating and watering holes for us to explore. Its sits across the water from the business district and has a great view of the skyscrapers. To the north, the Yarra River empties into Prince Philip Bay which is simply vast. The locals have been saying that La Niña has meant they've had so much rain that all sorts of debris was floating down river and into the bay until quite recently. The water was brown with sediment a little reminiscent of Rio del Plata off Buenos Aires when the Cadets visited Argentina in 2016 but that seems to have settled down and the temperatures are warming up - a barbecue for Christmas may yet be on the cards.
The Royal Yacht Club of Victoria is a welcoming spot (certainly a huge step forwards on some of the car parks we've visited over the years) - a lovely bar opening onto a deck and a grass area next to where the boats launch into Prince Philip Bay. There's an old 12M, Kookaburra KA11, sitting alongside the dock - not quite looking like when she did the Americas Cup back in 1985 but still well looked after and sailing regularly - and the clubhouse is full of spectacular silverware which is a reminder of how seriously the Aussies take their sport; sailing is no exception. Above the bar sits the beautiful woodie Cadet, Magic Mayo, complete with its original wooden mast... interesting that it appears to have quite a lot of pre-bend built in - I wonder whether they all had that.
Tucked away in the corner of the boatyard is the 40ft blue GBR container with 8 cadets and a rib inside it. In addition are countless sails and spares for those chartering locally and boxes full of gear to keep our sailors dry, warm and competitive when racing. Tomorrow we unpack the container but a sneak previous seems to indicate no big problems even if the customs inspection moved a lot of kit around and didn't re-tether the boat racks with their ratchet straps. Shouldn't be a problem as its not far from the port to the yacht club so I doubt too many things have shifted about.
On Monday we start to ramp up the excitement as the Aussie Nationals commence. We meet the GBR coach - Rhett Gowans is actually a local and is Victoria State ILCA coach (as well as having won the Aero worlds on Prince Philip Bay) but he's undaunted by being an honorary "Pom" for a couple of weeks and the sailors are excited to see what he's got to add as local knowledge.
So that's that for now. This blog will update from time to time as we progress. In the meantime a mahoosive thank-you to everyone who helped get us to Australia. Its already been quite an adventure.