Volvo Ocean Race Visit and a Tour of Scallywag

It was not a coincidence that we anchored off Auckland again in time to visit the Volvo Ocean Race Village.  We intended to only drop in a couple of times, but ended up visiting the Village so often the staff started to recognize the "Canadians from the yacht".

One of the highlights of the week was a chance to have a tour of one of the Volvo 65 race boats - Scallywag hosted a rare 'open boat' event for the public, and we made sure we were first in line!  We were fortunate to receive a detailed tour from John Fisher, one of the senior members of the crew, who gave us a great tour of the boat and patiently answered our many, many questions. 

It was heartbreaking to hear only two weeks later that John had been lost at sea in the Southern Ocean, mere days after the excitement of watching the start of the Auckland-Itajai leg.  We feel honoured to have met John, and we are reminded by the suddenness of his passing that we must all live our lives to the fullest.

The late John Fisher answering our many questions (Photo from the Scallyway Facebook Page)

The late John Fisher answering our many questions.

The kids checking out Scallywag

A tour below on Scallywag.  Not a lot of room for Lego, kite boards, spearfishing equipment, school supplies, etc so I think we will stick to Fluenta.

Benjamin is a bit small yet for the coffee grinder.  This photo was taken the day before they closed this exhibit to small children as too many bonked their heads with the handles ...

Maybe we should have coffee grinders onboard Fluenta.

Hmmm ... cleaner than our old Perkins ....

Kind of just like on Fluenta

Benjamin on the other hand was more interested in playing with the cars.

The fleet at the dock

Just like all boats, lots of work going on.  This is about when security suggested we were rather too close with our tender.

Bowline training.  Victoria ended up teaching one of the Volvo PR team members how to do bowlines at their bowline exhibit.

You never know who you will meet in Auckland !  Here is our friend and favourite legend Marie-Laure.  We had met her and her husband, Benoit, in New Caledonia a few months ago and crossed paths a few times since.  We asked about her special entry pass and that is when we found out she is a "race legend". She did the race on Export 33 in 1978 around Cape Horn.

We signed up to attend a talk by some of the woman racers.  It turned out that the talk was cancelled but instead we had a lovely morning talking to our own favourite race legend.