Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race Finish

Once again we are hiking out hanging off the rail in the freezing cold as we are making our final approach to Hobart. We are all out there together out of our shifts from about 3am all working together for the last miles and as we work our way up the Derwent and into Hobart and the Harbour.

Tacking up the Derwent and racing the other boats as we all converge together towards the finish line we are all getting excited about finishing and keen to beat the flying fish yacht which is along side us. This is also a personal goal for both skipper and first mate having previoulsy worked for flying fish, so we are going for it big time... then nightmare again as the jib sheets break tacking up the river. Unbelievable, we are just about an hour from finish. We fix the issue but can't trust the setup, so we have to put in a place a back up, so now we have 4 sheets (instead of 2) running off the headsail in case the others break.

Its hard work but we manage it and we beat flying fish and sail into the finish line, big cheers from the crew and lots of hugs and congratulations. I think we deserve this after the whole experience, we certainly worked for the finish and never gave up despite times when morale was low due to no hot food. Fantastic experience though and a brilliant race, I loved it.... it was everything I expected and more.

We cross the line at 7:06 am on the 30th December after 3 days, 18hrs 6 mins we are 64th over the line and 21st in class out of 26. But looking at the times between places we are pretty close together in the middle of the pack. A great run given the circumstances and a testament to the effort put in to the race.... brilliant.