Two days of sailing...

The weather can change quite a lot between Friday night and Sunday morning. It makes a big difference to the experience of sailing.

Zak and Emma are both sailing, Friday night coaching sessions and Zak is racing on Sundays.

On Friday we had blue skies and 5 to 10 knots of breeze from the south (which means calm water where we sail).

Emma is sailing an Optimist. They are sailed all over the world by kids as young as 8, up to 15. It is about as small as you can get. Zak sailed this boat for the last couple of years.

Zak cruised by Emma's group in his new boat, a Starling. These are a New Zealand design, not sailed much anywhere else. It's a bit longer, has more sail area and goes much quicker!

The Starling is big enough for me to sail... I've only had one go so far and didn't tip out. (I did sail the Optimist a few times too but people laughed at me because my legs stuck out one side of the boat and my head out the other :-) ).


and then... Sunday.

Zak has been doing Sunday races for a while now but until recently they were in the Optimist. Today, under a more threatening grey sky, racing started with 10 - 15 knots from the north west.

Zak made a really good start at the head of the Open class. (Click on the image for a larger version - number 2168, you can make out the red 'Angry Birds' hat he sails in). But... it didn't take long for the bigger Laser Radial boats to catch him up. This was expected. The actual problem was the wind increasing to 15 - 20 knots and gusts up to 25. The water got bumpy too (not like the ocean or even a big harbour but enough that it knocks the boats around some).

On his first gybe he and the other Starling in the fleet capsized and got there masts stuck in the mud. :-(.

In the Opti, he's sailed many races where the wind came up this high but things happen quicker in the Starling and he is only just at the minimum weight so today was... a challenge... Over the next couple of hours he lost count of the number of times he tipped out, somewhere around 7 but was still in good spirits (and good company) after racing was abandoned because there were a couple of breakages and way more sailers in the water than rescue boats available!

Melbourne Australia Day 6

Today we went to The Melbourne Scienceworks Museum. There was some displays based on fairy tales and some displays based on science fiction or the future. They also had lots of displays about your fitness and what sports you would be good at. One of the fairy tale displays I liked was the three little pigs. It had a video explaining why each material the pig used would be good to build a house. The display also had little house models with furniture and a pig in each of them. One of the other displays I liked was the touch screen that allowed you to build a car. My favourite part of this was the futuristic add-ons, you could choose from a force field, wings and 3 others. 

My car

Then we went to Direct Factory Outlets (which Mum went to the other day) to buy me some new converse. I spent a long time trying on shoes but had trouble deciding between a light blue and a purple pair. In the end I choose the blue pair. While Mum tried some shoes on I looked at the array of flat laces. The different colours were multicoloured, fluro pink, fluro green, fluro yellow, black, white and lots more. Then we stopped off at the supermarket to stock up on icecream and other essentials.

When we got home Dad and I went to check out the pool which is next to the gymnasium at the ground floor in our apartment block. It is about 15 metres by 5 metres, the pool water looks a deep blue because along the sides of the pool there are bright blue lights. Dad and I swam around for a while and then went back to our apartment for dinner.

Melbourne Gaol

Today I went to the old Melbourne Gaol with Dad while Mum and Emma went shopping. It was very cool and old and I had lots of fun. First we watched a reenactment of the criminal Ned Kelly's trial and Dad was one of the volunteer actors. Next we got went on a tour of the temporary holding cells and then finally explored the main prison. I got to wear a replica of Ned Kelly's armour and take some mug shots.

From Zak

Melbourne Australia Day 4

Today we went shopping at the Chadstone mall. We went to quite a few shops and I tried a lot of clothes on. In the end I only brought two tops and some hair clips. 

We went to Gazi for dinner. Gazi is one of George Calombaris's resturuants. Dad and I had tuna, Zak had steak and Mum had pork belly. We also had chips, a lettuce salad and some dips with bread. Overall we quite liked our dinner except we thought that the pork belly was very fatty. 

The desserts were even better though. Zak had chocolate icecream in a waffle cone with chocolate popping candy on top. Dad had strawberry mouse with strawberry gel. Mum and I shared the nights special which was a red coloured white chocolate medium sized Easter egg with passion fruit ganache inside it. It came with strawberry gel (which tasted like strawberry jam), chocolate spaghetti (chocolate flakes), marshmallows and a chocolate and coffee flavoured crumble.

Zak's dessert

Dad's dessert

Me and mum's dessert

Melbourne Australia Day 5

Today Dad, Zak and I went to the Sealife Aquarium while Mum went shopping. We saw lots of fish, sea horses, crabs, sharks, stingrays, a saltwater crocodile, jelly fish, a manta shrimp and a lot more.

The scariest by far had to be the saltwater crocodile because it was massive and it stayed so still, without even blinking until it had to come up for air (which was every 20 minutes or so). Some people even commented and said that it was fake. The saltwater crocodile was Zak's favourite thing at the aquarium.

My favourite thing at the aquarium was the stingrays because some of them were huge and some of them had cool patterns on the top. Some stingrays were triangular on the sides and flapped when they moved, others were more circular and there bodies moved in ripples. One of the other things I liked in the aquarium was how many blue dorys there were.

Dad's favourite thing was one of the humungous crabs which had a pincer more than twice the size of a human hand. Unfortunately we do not remember what type of crab this was.

After we had looked at everything in the aquarium we checked out the gift shop. Then in a sheltered area near the exit/entrance of the aquarium we waited for Mum. When she got there we ate our packed lunch together. Then Zak and Dad went to visit the Melbourne gaol while Mum and I went shopping. While looking for the shops we found quite a few cafes and chocolate shops. We went into one of the chocolate shops and bought a milk chocolate caramel bar and a milk chocolate peppermint bar which Mum and I shared. There was one place we passed through which had a tearoom with people queuing out the door. There was a big display of all the cakes and slices they sold in the window. When we finally got to the shops I tried on quite a few things but in the end only brought one top.

Photo of tearoom display

Melbourne Australia Day 3

Today was Easter Sunday so Zak and I got Easter eggs. We had 14 minis and one large egg each, I was doing very well finding them. The plan for today was to go see Australian Centre For The Moving Image (ACMI) and maybe go and check out Queen Victoria market. After breakfast we headed down to the ground floor and began to walk to ACMI. 

On the way we spotted a bridge with locks hanging off it. As we got closer we could see that people had written and engraved their names and messages on them. One lock even had two faces drawn on it. Some of the locks had bows and ribbons tied to them. 

The ACMI is a museum of Australian television shows, movies and video games and how they were made. There was a lot of screens showing scenes from various movies, short films and TV series. Most of the video game displays were interactive. There were some screens showing animated films and some screens showing how lighting or sound makes the film better. There were also some computer screens where you could play different games. Dad's favourite part was the shadow screen which showed you your shadow and added things like teeth, eyes and assorted shapes to make your shadows look like creatures. Mum's favourite part was the camera that took photos of you and could be printed as a flip book. My favourite part was the zoetrope with the mouse that jumped into a puddle, the bird that waved, the crab which moved sideways and some other characters which had a moving sequence.

After we had finished looking at the displays in the ACMI we had lunch in the park outside. Mum had packed us rolls and cookies. There were screens in the park showing short animated films for free which we watched while eating. The films were quite funny and we would of liked to stay to watch for longer.

On the way to Queen Victoria market we found GAZI one of George Calombaris's restuarants which we are planning to eat at. When we walked around the corner we found Georges other resturuant The Press Club (we had considered eating there but after looking at the menu we decided it was too fancy for us). The Press Club had very fancy light shades and leather booths. Further along there was a sign talking about experimental evenings. George and his head chef would make something up and serve it to those attending the night and make a decision about wether or not it would go on The Press Club menu.

Next we went on two different trams to get to Queen Victoria market. There were lots of people selling fresh fruit and vegetables, clothing and various trinkets. There were also stalls selling jewellery, souvenirs and lots and lots of t-shirts with Australia on them. Mum brought a new pair of beige slippers. Zak brought a 3d laser etched crystal dragon and a model pirate ship. We also brought a twirled deep-fried potato on a stick, it tasted a lot like fries. Dad and I also had waffle cones with milk chocolate, marshmallows and strawberries. There was a colourful sign that said Melbourne in capital letters. At first I thought it was a sculpture, but when I looked closer, I realised that they were bag tags, which people had written their names on, hanging off the wire to form the letters.

On the way home we spotted a street show going on. It was near the end of the show but the man was about to perform several stunts so that was okay. He juggled two knifes and a torch on fire on a roller-bowler.

Before we went home we stopped at the community centre because we can see it from our apartment balcony and I saw some pretty cool pictures drawn on the concrete. When I looked closer I could see that they were painted on the ground. My favourite paintings were the ying yang flower, the peacock and the extremely detailed mandala after taking a few photos we went home to our apartment.

Melbourne, Australia Day 2

On Saturday we went to Healsville Sanctuary and met Freya, Aunty Rebecca and Uncle Rob at the entrance. After we brought tickets we went in and saw a zookeeper with a snake wrapped around her arm. We were allowed to touch it, the snake felt smooth and soft. The snake slithered up dad's arm. 

We saw some rather sleepy koalas and some cuddly looking wombats.

 

We also saw Pygmy possums, bilbys and other cute rodent- like animals.

We went to the bird show which was very cool. They showed lots of birds of prey including my favourite bird of prey the wedged eagle called Jess. I also like the colourful parrot. Freya's favourite bird was Kevin the talking parrot. Mum's favourite bird was Rusty the Australian kestrel. Dad's favourite was the same one as Mum. 

After the birdshow we went to an aviary where there was a treehouse type platform were you could see the birds from above. My favourite bird there was the lyre bird. Then we went to check out the gift shop and went home.

Melbourne, Australia Day 1

Melbourne, Australia day 1

When we got to Melbourne it was late and we got lost trying to find our accommodation. It was an apartment. It had two double bed rooms, one bedroom with two single beds, a bathroom and an ensuite, a living room, a kitchen and a balcony. We were completely exhausted and went to bed straight away.

The next day Mum and Zak went down to reception to check we had the correct room which we didn't. We got up and dressed, Mum made us hot chocolates then we packed our bags and took them down to reception (the staff would move them to our new room for us). Next we drove to Uncle Rob and Aunty Rebecca's house (because the apartment had no food in its kitchen and all the shops were closed due to good Friday). My cousin's name is Freya. We said hello then Zak and I followed Freya to the backyard where we bounced on the trampoline and had sword fights with her foam swords. For brunch we had: breadsticks, salami, a few different types of sausage, several different types of cheese, octopus and tarts with tomato and basil. Octopus is chewy in texture and it tastes seafoody. 

Then we went to Mornington Peninsula, it was freezing cold and Zak, Mum and I were all wearing shorts. We walked along a board walk to Cape Shanck. It was a sort of rocky beach and I took lots of photos. We also enjoyed climbing the rocks and exploring rock pools. After a while we started our long journey back to the car park. Before we got back in the car we brought ice blocks. I had a raspberry pineapple calippo. Then we drove to Dromana beach. The water was crystal clear and along the beach there where lots of colourful boat houses. We played on the sand for a bit then we drove back to Aunty Rebecca and Uncle Rob's house.

When we got to their house we had more sword fights, played on the trampoline again and met their cats. Their cats were called Frieda and Cake, Cake was very shy. I took photos of them with my iPad but it was dark in the room they where in so they weren't very good. We had pizza and bacon tart for dinner then we went home to our apartment. Our actual apartment had one double bed room, one bedroom with two single beds, a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom and a balcony. It was quite like the first apartment except the view from the first apartment showed the main part of Melbourne. Because of the mix up Mum got given free wine and she was told we also have free parking and free wifi as well!

Sailing - Club Champs

Zak entered into the sailing club championships last weekend.

They had a short racing clinic in the morning and then were back on to the water for 6 races in the afternoon. The weather was beautiful, with a consistent breeze of around 10 knots.

Zak is second from the front with 4099 on his sail.

He got 5 second places and 1 third. (His arch nemesis, in front in the picture, getting 5 firsts and one 5th...).

On Sunday the effects of the approaching cyclone Pam were beginning to be felt so racing was restricted to 3 races in the morning.
We got to see the bottom of a few of the boats today, including Zak's! He had a wee mishap before the start of one of the races and was frantically bailing when the race started. Despite being 7th over the line he managed to catch up and finished second!
The conditions for the final race of the day were challenging everyone in the fleet but Zak did a great job and was one the only sailors to complete the course without some kind of incident, finishing first by a good margin.

His final placing was second.

Pt Chevalier Yacht Club Optimist Sailors (and coach).

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Sailing

One of the many things that we should have blogged about is has been going sailing.

Zak has been sailing for a couple of summers now and Emma launched into it as summer arrived in 2014.

Recently Zak's Friday night group escaped from their usual spot in the harbour near Pt Chevalier and did a trip from Westhaven Marina, under the Harbour Bridge and out to Pt Chev. Being Friday night, there were a lot of big boats in the harbour for the regular Friday night races...

On the same evening, Emma, in a club boat, had sailed from the boat ramp to the beach where her class went for a bit of a swim. Then, because it was so good to be in the water that night, they had capsizing practice, over and over. Arriving back at the ramp very soggy and very happy.