Wednesday was Australia Day at the Cowes Week Regatta. Basically three Aussies dressed up in kangaroo costumes and bounced around yachties drinking Fosters, Wolf Blass and Bundaberg Rum. All to promote a corresponding event sponsored by Scandia and held down in Geelong. I did my bit by tucking into the Bundy and Coke.
It wasn’t the brightest of ideas. My mate had got me onto to boat racing the next day and as we made our way out to the starting line I was feeling decidedly green. Once the race started I was OK – not being a regular (or natural) sailor I had to concentrate on which ropes I was pulling. The only tricky moment was when the skipper handed out our lunch – pork pies that seemed to have a lot of jelly between the pastry and the meat.
Anyway, we finally found the finish line, and came in a respectable 15th in our class.
Later in the week I had a bit of a wander around the Isle of Wight and came across another Aussie connection. Apparently all the rockets we fired off for the Brits out at Woomera were all built and tested in concrete bunker/pads near the Needles in the western corner of the island.
Not sure why they didn’t launch them there and save the expense of shipping them to South Australia. I’m guessing they didn’t have much control of them and were afraid of hitting something.
And figured that Adelaide was expendable.
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Adelaide is certainly expendable…
Its a small world. I had a similar thouight when I visited Australia and went to Woomera. Seemed to be a long way from anywhere, particularly home.
He didn’t tell you that he drank as much rum as was put in front of him, sang bad songs in the pub, and looked like S**T the next morning when he got on the boat. Now wonder the pork pies weren’t appealing.
Got to love the job of a travel writer!
Andrew- it’s true. You did get me on the boat. And I believe that much of what else you said was true too. But I’ve got to keep the best stories for the book!