The crews gathered at Gosport on the 31^st Dec for our pre departure briefings and to meet each other for the first time, the thought of leaving the snow and cold behind for the Australian summer was appealing.   Having departed Heathrow a couple of hours before midnight we celebrated New Year with a toast over Prague where Neil spotted the fireworks out the window.  With brief stops in Singapore and Melbourne allowing Simon to squeeze in burger on his world tour of Burger King we finally landed in Hobart at 10am on the 2^nd of January.  It was like a fine day on the east coast of the UK with cloud on the deck and drizzle.  The weather immediately brightened up and the shorts were on. We have arrived in a land down under and discovered that Qantas do a very good breakfast 3 times in 24 hours.  Neil attempted to sneak a tangerine past Australian customs but was stopped and threatened with a strip search.

It was exciting to be in Hobart so soon after the Sydney to Hobart race with many of the yachts still here and a good atmosphere all round.  The first day was spent shopping for food and kit, in Steven’s case, who seemed to have forgotten to bring anything on the kit list and broken all the things he did bring!  The challenge of the day was to see how many RAF personnel it takes to put up a sun awning – about 8 or 9 and several cups of tea.

Alison our on board doctor is looking after us well already treating a bite to Henry’s ankle mysteriously received during the flight he claims it was a killer snake!

After a long day fighting jet lag we intend to go to "The Taste of Tasmania" for dinner then head for a well earned sleep. With the start planned for Monday morning Sunday will be spent familiarising ourselves with our 67 ft craft and remembering which ropes to pull. 

Now we have the sun awning up we are hoping it will be a nice 20kts with plenty of sun to get us to Auckland but we note the Army and the Navy have not put their awnings up yet – do they know something we don’t?

Shout outs.........

Alison would like to send lots of love to her husband Peter and she misses him already and wishes he was here.

Paul sends his love

Phil says Hi to all.

Gillean says love to Neil and Hi to anyone else taking the time to read the blog.