NEW YEAR'S GREETINGS

THANK YOU, GLENN, for New Year's wishes to us all. How charming to think of the last posting embellishing someone's Christmas Morning.

I decided to try sunset photos. This one is taken looking West across St. Vincent's Gulf towards York Peninsula, from a lookout point just half a mile from my sister's home. Here is how it looks at 8:29 PM. If you watch enough sunsets here a bouts, you could get lucky as follows. The sunsets during a period of fine weather can get very red (red sky in the night is a shepherd's delight, as the saying goes), due to the fine dust particles caught in the high pressure system. Here, the sun's rays are reaching across hundreds of miles of land can cause an occasional copper coloured flash, or so I am told. You have to be lucky but I have met at least one person who claims to have seen it often. But then, he lives right on the sea front and spends a lot of time watching the sunsets with a beer in his hand.

All Australia is in sack cloth and bedaubed with ashes. The Poms have thrashed us at cricket and retain The Ashes. Having lost the Fourth Test in Melbourne, the best the Aussies can hope for is to win the final test match in Sydney to draw the series. Win or loose, the Sacred Urn remains at Lords Cricket Ground in London. I know many of you will be truly saddened by this news. I jest, as important as cricket may be, it can't be all that serious. For those of you accustomed to baseball and basketball and the vigorous arguments that umpires at these games must sometimes endure, consider this. In this last match, the Aussie captain talked too long with the umpire about a decision and got fined 40% of his match fee. Such ungentlemanly behaviour is just 'not cricket'!

As I write, most of the yachts in the International Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race as still completing the course. The super-maxis have either finished or are about to. The boats set out on Boxing Day and were soon into the teeth of the infamous 'Southerly Buster', with its 30 foot waves and 50 knot gales. Quite a few yachts have had to retire due to extensive damage. One had two men overboard in wild seas, crossing Bass Strait. The race was won by the 99 footer, Wild Oats. Sporting sails that total 4.5 square kilometres and costing almost a quarter of a million dollars, this three year old boat can really go. In strong seas, the ride can be tough and even seasoned sailors can suffer sea sickness. The photo at left gives an idea how sailing conditions can look.

I have an affection for this race as, a quarter of a century ago, when I was young and foolish, I helped crew a 33 foot boat that attempted this race, taking it around from Adelaide to Sydney (ten and a half days at sea). I got a bit sea sick on the way down St. Vincents Gulf (about where this sunset photo was taken) and did not eat much for a day or so. Mainly, it was a quiet ride until we rounded Gabo Island and had a Southerly Buster at our backs most of the way up the eastern coast almost to Sydney. On the way, we broached the boat, tore our storm jib and had to heave to in very impressive swells to make repairs. I do recall some very uneasy moments but the terror I felt then has long since faded.

Safe sailing for 2011, me hearties!