Last Day Overseas

We were off early today as we had pre booked a boat to Alcatraz.

It left at 9.10am and we were nice and early. It was nice to be back on a boat but it didn't take  long and we had landed. What an airy feeling walking up the road to where so many hard out nutters had been locked up in such a notorious prism. 

The tour here is superb with a oral description leading you through the different areas of the prison building. We heard about the two major break out attempts and general life in this hell. Its hard to image how close the prison (island) is from San Francisco. Some ex-inmates described how, with the right winds they could hear the party's from the city waterfront. 





After a couple of hours and chilling out around the grounds we left by boat again. As we peered out over the water from the ferry we realised that Team New Zealand was out racing against Luna Arossa. They were a long way off and it was hard to tell who was who. We docked and immediately went to the America's Village. 

It was great and we sat down to watch the racing on the big screen. Some of us preferred to just get comfortable and do as little as possible. When the end came nigh we ran to the dock side to watch the  kiwis come in. The course is designed very well in that it all happens very close to the wharf. The kiwis won by miles and we had to wait for some time for Luna Rossa to cross the line.

Team New Zealand celebrate while Luna Rossa are still heading over the line.

The cup village was the type of place to hang out for a few hours which we had. There was a kids zone where they actually got to sail a boat on land. Not quite the real thing but a chance to experience sailing and wind. Of course there was the inevitable bouncy castle and blowing toy boats down guttering type channels full of water. 





Later a couple of the Team NZ crew came out to sign autographs. None of the organisers seemed to know who they were but we managed to find out that one of them was named Grant Loretz, Sail Coordinator and Trimmer.

Once we had finished all this action we used the tram one last time before heading back to the hostel picking up all our gear and catching the taxi to the airport.