Boxing Day

So to backtrack a little bit, Boxing Day in Australia is the day after Christmas. It was traditionally a day for employers to give bonuses of money, foot or old clothing to their employees or lords to give agricultural tools and seeds to their tenants for the coming year.  Now Boxing Day is a major shopping day.  It's almost like Black Friday, but the day after Christmas.

Also on Boxing Day, it is the start of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race as well as the Boxing Day Test (cricket) in Melbourne.  We went to watch the start of the race in the harbour.  Below are photos from the day.  It was pretty crazy. Wild Oats XI ended up in Hobart first in a record time, but Commanche filed a complaint from a tacking error that almost ended up in a collision at the start of the race.  Wild Oats XI was penalized an hour, which meant that Commanche ended up winning the race. Comanche now holds the new race record of 1 day, 9 hours, 15 minutes and 24 seconds.  

These were the smaller boats racing

Tacking before heading out into the ocean.  People in boats follow the racers along their path.

Spectators in boats...even the ferries stop and watch the race.

The two leaders...there was an incident at this turn which ended up costing Wild Oats XI a penalty.  Also count how many helicopters you see :O

Wild Oats XI and Commanche 

Close to the beginning of the race

Start of the race before the gun went off

Waiting for the race to start

Police boat telling everyone on a loudspeaker that you can only go 6 knots and no wake.

It was really cool to see this.  After this race was done, I saw on the news that some guy did the route in a dingy with a motor.  He looked miserable and was so happy to be on dry land.

Hope everyone is having a great start to their new year!  Much love to all!

Ann & Aram