BurbleChaz

Yes, I know, insufficient bloggage, lazy, lack of care for loyal reader, apologies etc. Anyway. On to today's activities, just to give you a flavour of Life Downundah.

The day plan was simple: Surf, Superboats, Sauvignon Blanc. Executive one-phrase overview: Total Success! Read on for detailed report.

So, after an early start, we wasted no time in dashing down to catch the 1200 ferry to Circular Quay. The day showed all the promise of a long, hot, sunny afternoon, and we had no intention of wasting one moment. Into the queue for the Manly ferry. There is a display above the gates showing how many spaces are left aboard. When we turned up, there were less than 400 out of 1000, and several hundred were milling around ourside the gates. Neither surprised nor dismayed, we applied our elbows to the problem. Several little old ladies, cute toddlers and disabled war veterans trampled to the floor, and a place on the ferry was ours. No seat, obviously. A little-known feature of the Manly ferry is the cafe. A passable cup of coffee is available for a reasonable fee, and there are few early-morning (well, noonish) pleasures above leaning on the rail, supping a spot of caffeine as the harbour slips by.

Knowing that the ferries were to be disrupted by the afternoon's entertainments, we checked the notices on arrival. Stress ensued. We had little over 90 minutes before the service was suspended for the rest of the afternoon. We dashed along the Corso, handed over a fiver to the nice chap with the secure lockers, and headed into the surf. Except there wasn't any. Flat as a very flat thing indeed. "Joy", said the sensible person. Bugger, said I. On the plus side, we had a very pleasant swim. The biggest wave we saw was less than half a metre. Let's hope for some Autumn storms.

Back to the ferry wharf, and we managed to grab a place aboard the last ferry. More caffeinated beverages, owing to the lack of licensed facilities aboard. The harbour was full of boats waiting to watch the racing. Our ferry had to wait ten minutes while the racing boats powered past the Opera House on their way to the start. I would post pictures, but we had no camera, owing to the swimming thing. And I can't post the rubbish ones from my mobile, owing to their general rubbishness. See what I mean?

Zoom, goes the blurry object. Roar goes its noisemaking apparatus.

The course was around 8 miles long. The fast boats were doing it in five minutes. Yes, that is close to 100kts. Average. The noise was amazing - deep-throated roaring from multiple huge petrol engines. The control systems driving the power into the water must be an astonishing piece of engineering. Regrettably, it doen't always work. Yesterday, one of the boats crashed in practice, killing the driver and seriously injuring the co-driver. Story here. Very sad. The qualifying yesterday was cancelled out of respect.

So, we watched these astonishing machines hurtling around the harbour for a while, until the lure of the next event dragged us southwards to Hyde Park. A wine festival, no less. Many suppliers were showcasing their products. Shiny, we said, Until we realised the catch. They were charging full commercial rates, plus you had to fork over $5.00 for a plastic glass. Bugger that, we said. Homewards, via a more reasonably priced facility.

Food: Roast Chicken. Wine: Verdelho. Well, it's a bit like a Sauvignon Blanc. So, plan executed!