Please excuse the delayed posting of this week’s edition of Monday Morning Tactician. Getting ahold of the internet was not the top priority of yesterday’s business. Here’s a look as to how it went:The reverse-redeye flight going westbound from San Francisco overnight to Sydney went without much worth comment, albeit I did jump about 100 people waiting for customs when one of the officials singled me out as a sailor. “Sydney-Hobart Race?” He asked as he motioned towards the empty lane. “Not quite,” but we’ll take bonus treatment when we get it.A short train and cab ride later, I found myself standing among my pile of bags in front of a seedy one-star looking hotel that I had hastily booked last week. I checked in and dropped the bags and immediately started on the hunt for better housing.I walked from Bondi Junction to Rose Bay, home of the Woolahra Sailing Club on the south east corner of Sydney Harbor, whereupon I caught my training partner from Newport on his day off from sailing making the rounds at the club.Using one of the contacts he made through his housing search earlier this month, we cruised down to Clovelly to checkout the room for rent in the back of a private home. Twenty minutes later we were heading back to the original hotel, snatching my bags up, grabbing a refund from the hotel and dropping my stuff off in the new place.Realizing the irony in the fact that I sold my bike to Dave in Portugal last summer, I bought his bike for a couple hundred bucks and jammed off to the bike shop to obtain a helmet (to avoid the $70 no-helmet fine) and headed home for a jog, some pad-thai from a corner shop and some highly-demanded sleep.The boats have just arrived here, noontime at Woolahra so I’m off to put together my new toy and take her for a spin.Same faces, different boatpark. That’s our status here. More to come from Sydney International Regatta this week.
