An afternoon with the Royal Cork Yacht Club, Ireland

The Royal Cork Club, Ireland, is the oldest club in the world. Following the newly found hobby of sailing, when he was presented with a yacht,by King Charles 11 in 1600, it is believed that Murrough O’Brien, the 6th Lord Inchiquin (Murrough of the Burnings) took the interest of sailing to Cork.

The pastime became so popular that the Lords great grandson and his friends created the ” The Water Club of the Harbour of Cork,“ now known as the Royal Cork Yacht Club. The club became the pinnacle of local society with many membership applicants being disappointed.

Notable members included Prince Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria, later to be Emperor of Mexico and Sir Thomas Lipton. Today, after occupying a variety of buildings The Royal Cork Club can be found at Crosshaven, not far from Cork, from where it organizes many famous yachting events, including the Admiral’s Cup and the popular Cork week.

Our group was most privileged to be visitors at The Royal Cork Yacht Club, and our sailing adventure will be on the next blog.

Monaco - boating paradise in the sun

We travelled by rail from Nice to Monaco. We emerged from the railway station, which is modern, marble paved and set in the middle of the mountain into sunshine, warmth, to a scene crowded with wall to wall boats on the blue waters and wall to wall hotels and apartments piled up against the mountains. After strolling along the waterfront admiring all the yachts we moved on to inspect the Monaco Yacht Club's Racing Mark Laying boat. Instead of using anchors to secure the marks on the ocean floor, we noted that concrete blocks on the end of twine are used. Presumably the twine is cut and the blocks remain on the ocean floor! I wonder what the archeologists in the year 5000 will make of these when researching it for clues of human activities in the year 2009! After retiring to the very modern, classy Monaco Yacht Club for refreshments, we walked to the top of the old town and visited the Aquarium. Built by Prince Albert of Monaco, a passionate ocean and wildlife exporer in the late 1800's, the building hosts many acquariums of unusual and endangered fish and sealife. While inspecting the exhbition, and finding out about the research techniques carried out by Prince Albert and his team, one wonders if these practices would be acceptable today. However the sealife exhibits talk a lot about conservation, preservation and of the aquarium's most successful breeding programme for overseas aquariums. If you ever venture to this neck of the woods, the Aquarium is well worth a visit.

Out into the sunshine again we strolled, and relaxed at one of the cafes near the palace, where royalty still live, to enjoy Monaco's award winning beer. Then, somewhat reluctantly, we wended our way to the beautiful Monaco railway station back to Nice.

Oh, that's right - it is Saturday! Time to watch the New Zealand All Blacks play the French!! And to enjoy the conviviality of the Hotel bar where there is a wide screen TV!

And then, tomorrow, to sunny, exciting Cannes....... uh oh - don't like the look of the clouds - surely that cannot be correct????

How to get lost on a cruise ship

For someone who goes boating on a cruise ship for the first time it is very easy to get lost. Because the main foyer or the restaurants may be several floors high one often cannot travel from one end of the boat to another on the same floor or corridor. And do not think that to ask a crew person the directions! On the 4th floor, you will be told, but you will not be informed that you must go up an additional level, around a corner then down again. And do not ask another crew person either! Oh that person was new and did not know, you will be told. Oh well, after all that stress of getting lost I think I will retire to the warm spa and solarium...... Now, purchasing that Spa package and relaxing from the crowds of passengers is more my cup of green tea...... Just a minute, are there not 6 pubs, cocktails of the day,lots of wine,dancing,shopping and art to be enjoyed? Must get travelling around this cruise ship, there is so much to discover! Now where is the library? Ah, found it on the last day of our trip when we had to queue to pick up our passports!

Our week as Shore Crew at Newport Rhode Island

Two weeks after travelling to the Invitational Cup Regatta at Newport Rhode Island and now fully recovered from jetlag I now have time to reflect on why we were a little bit tired from that most exciting week.

On each of the 7 days we would do the shopping for 14 people. Fortunately we only had to cook dinner for 4 nights owing to the social activities put on by the New York Yacht Club. Most days we visited the boat shops for parts. Then each morning we would arise around 6.30 to prepare lunches 18 scrumptious rolls, snacks, sliced fruit, gateraded beverages etc etc and breakfast for everyone. We quickly became most skilled at negoting bulk food prices st the supermarket and finding real, rather than water infused meat for lunches. We became so adept at making bread rolls - that by the time we finished the 130th we reckoned we could take on Subway and win! The surprise tidbits were well received by our hardworking sailors. After transporting them to the jetty to pick up their boat we would to a quick tidy up and rush off to our next job - that of being New Zealand's number one fans! We were most fortunate to be offered spectator positions on some of the New York Yacht Club members' most luxurious vessels to watch the racing. These ranged in size from 70 to over 120 feet in length. A couple which could be better described as little ships had the capacity go to sea for up to 3 months without refueling. The owners were most hospitable and we met some very friendly fellow boating visitors. After the racing we would dash off and go shopping for more supplies then join in the after race activities. These included a magnificent seafood buffet on opening night and on the prize giving night a meal almost to die for, followed by dancing to blues music. However the most memorabale evening was the lobster meal. We all sat down to consume One Whole Lobster each! These are the same size as our New Zealand crayfish so this was an absolute luxury. To ensure our enjoyment we were all issued with a plastic bib, pliers, and instructions on how to eat them. Delicious!

At last the last day dawned and at a very early hour for a Sunday we dragged ourselves out of bed to farewell our sailors, some straight home while others via exotic places like Lea Vegas. After a final tidyup of our lovely
home for the week we strolled through Newport mainstreet before boarding the bus to next adventure. And how did our team go? They got 10th overall - and beat the french! See the Invitational Cup we site for more information.

Would we go back again ? Yes! For more racing and maybe some sightseeing this time........

The Swedish Winter holiday Adventure

Today I am looking out of the window at the ice covered Arlando Airport in Stockholm,, Sweden on a beautiful cold sunny morning, awaiting our flight to London.

We flew into Goteburg, a city of around 700,000 inhabitants on the west coast of Sweden, four days ago, and stayed with newly found relatives, Hans and Eva. Eva is a great cook, and I am sure that her wonderful cuisine helped my sinus cold to clear up in record time. Hans and Eva took us for a tour around Goteburg, along the street where my late Grandfather, Alfred walked before he emigrated to New Zealand in 1903 and around the spacious city centre. Then we viewed the large harbour which is dotted with islands and reefs, which are the bain of sailors. In the hot summer Goteburg is famous for sailing and boating events, including, I understand the Volvo Round the world event. But on this very cold day there was no evidence of any boating at all. Gotenburg used to have some large ship building yards, which no longer exist. Today it has the second largest tertiary education center in Sweden. A very nice place, I felt, and with all the trees everywhere, would look beautiful in spring, summer and autumn.

The weather in Sweden during our visit, has been settled, due to a ridge of high pressure over the area, so we have seen Goteburg, probably at its winter best, and without the mist that apparently covers the area in winter.

There was frost everywhere, and when we departed Goteberg for Stockholm by train, we glided through a white frost world, white trees, white fields, white streets and white, steep roofed houses.

At Last!! 10 snow ploughs have cleared the runway so it is time to go......