July 25, 2004
Sailing on Penny Bay.
These days WINGS is parked in a Marina near Penny Bay, on Lantau Island, in Hong Kong, and Disneyland is coming to Penny Bay. Yes, the big Mickey is building a new theme park on 320 acres of Lantau Island right by our new Hong Kong home. It opens in 2005 or 2006.
Living in Hong Kong is like being in Disneyland already. There are wonderful sights and sounds, shopping, crowds, and fun rides to take; sailing on Penny Bay for example.
Penny Bay is a fun place to sail. There, always in the background, is Hong Kong Island, with its tall buildings, Victoria Peak, Aberdeen Bay, and magnificent Victoria Harbor. All around are sheltered waters, scenic bays and coves, and often, nice wind. We went out on both days on one recent weekend. On Sunday we sailed with Neal on EPIC, in a race which we won to some place where we had lunch and drank too much, then slept all the way home, while Neal helmed and the Macao Jetfoils dodged around us on both sides, but that's Hong Kong. There is always plenty of traffic.
Saturday we had gone out on WINGS. It was sort of a practice, and we started training some people whom we hope to turn into future race crew. It was a hot day on the water, a lot of work, a lot of fun, and a good practice. Judy and I even practiced arguing about what sail to put up, if you can believe that. We went out in light winds, with too small of a sail, but I guess it was easy for training. Then we set the kite, and had too much sail up for the tight reach back in. It came down to this: Leave it up and become a permanent part of Fantasy Island, or take it down and get home safely, if less spectacularly. You can guess which option Judy preferred.
Anyhow, after two days on the bay we had exhausted ourselves, and we had completely forgotten any and all worries or everyday concerns we might have accumulated after a month in Hong Kong, looking for jobs, moorage, work permits, etc. Sailing does that.
Australian Rugby Hoodlums.
Where there is a yacht club, there will be a bar. And if WINGS is parked outside, you can likely find us in the bar. One night we were sitting in the yacht club bar here on Lantau Island, minding our own business, drinking some Champaign to celebrate a new job, (yes, there are careers in Hong Kong) and an unruly bunch of Ozzies started to rip the place up watching a rugby game (the state of origin, for those in the know). Well, it was noisy but tolerable until I helped myself to a meat pie off a platter someone set down, just after NSW made it 28 to 8, and the guy who bought the pies (in a Maroon shirt, no less) took umbrage. It seems that the pies were for his mates in the footie club, not just some presumptuous Yank who wandered in off a sailboat, and who had the gall to be drinking Champaign while his Maroons crashed and burned.
Anyhow, bodies started flying as Blues defended my right to a pie, and Judy and I ran out the back door with our bottle of whatever it was, and finished it up home on WINGS.
The point of this story is not about Aussies, or Champaign, it's about jobs. I have a job now, and Judy is getting close, and we know we'll stay in Hong Kong for a few years making money for future cruising.
The Big Buddha.
Finally, on the most recent weekend, as a change of pace and on the spur of the moment, we went for a Kung Fu sort of a day. We went to the Po Lin Monastery, up in the mountains on Lantau Island, and climbed 268 stairs up to pay homage to the world's largest sitting bronze Buddha.
Po Lin is a fantastic place, high in the clouds, with lots of pilgrims, bowing and burning incense, and not a few tourists. To get to Po Lin we took a ferry to Mai Wo, a Chinese town at the foot of the mountain, took a bus up the hill for 42 minutes, then spent the day wandering from one shrine to the next, including the long climb up to the Buddha. Our $1.50 admittance ticket included a vegetarian lunch with tea or Diet Coke. We shot four rolls of film and how have 154 pictures of the big bronze Buddha. On the way home we had to wait for a ferry, so we went to… where else?, the nearest bar, where we met a South African couple, new expats, here for jobs, had a beer served by a beautiful Indonesian waitress, (here for the job) and watched the day end with Hong Kong glistening in the distance. It was a glorious day.
So, if it is Disneyland, Bhuddism, great sailing, or just a chance at a good job, Hong Kong seems to us to be the place to be right now; and we love it.
Fred & Judy, SV WINGS, Hong Kong
