Christopher Crowhurst: January 2010

Thursday night there was a production storage issue in the datacenter, being a part of the management team I was up all night assisting my colleagues lead the process of recovering from incident. Best news was no data loss and little to no end user impact. But it did impact me and the many other folks engaged in the process, I slept for 65 minutes that night, and then in the morning went to bed at 6:30a, and got back up an 8:00am for a staff meeting with my leadership team.
Why is this relevant to my trip? Well it set me up for being completely drained by the time I reached MSP airport. J and I had arranged to meet at Houlihan’s restaurant just outside security and we had lunch together, it was good to see her and give her a hug, she had been out west all week at a work training event, so that was our one chance to see each other in 15 days. Eventually J had to leave and go pick up K from school and I went through the security at MSP, very quick no issues on Friday. I went to the Delta Crown Room and noticed there was an earlier flight to Los Angeles (LAX) so I was able to quickly change my flight and jump onto the earlier one, I generally prefer to get on the earliest one possible to reduce any issues of delays etc. I landed in LAX and then wandered the airport looking for somewhere to buy Australian Dollars and Argentinean Peso, I eventually walked through a tunnel to another terminal and found somewhere that could sell me Aus Dollars but no luck on the Peso. I spent a few hours in the Delta Crown Room charging my laptop and phone and clearing up my inbox, and then headed to the gate. I had been expecting the flight to be around 20 hours, but it ended up being 15, I think in the itinerary I had read the combined first two flights as one… Anyway 15 hours was quite long enough, I slept a good 7-8 hours and didn’t feel too bad when I landed. The appraoch to the airport was amazing, the wind was from the south so we landed over the harbor from the north and got great views of the Opera House and bridge. I was given a pass to expedite my way out of the airport, I was glad to have it, the immigration line was not bad but the customs lines was massive, I was just waved through bags x-rayed and out in a matter of 2 minutes. Oh and on the way I lost a day (I never saw Saturday....)
The drive into the city was great and I saw a lot of the main sights from the ground so I have a general idea of the layout for the city. The hotel is nice, modern and clean - the room has a washer and drier!
After a shower and a shave I took a cab to Mosman which is on the other side of Sydney Harbor from the hotel, there I had arranged to rent a kayak, from Sydney Harbor Kayaks. When I arrived I had just missed the “Fat Paddler” which was a shame as he and I had exchanged a few messages as he too is an avid paddler and blogger – next time I will have to let him know I am coming. It was interesting how much more relaxed the rental company was than a US based one would have been, no massive deposit, no signing away your life, just hand over $30 and go for a paddle. I was able to select an old sun bleached Kokotat PFD and a Werner paddle and then headed to my assigned boat, I had asked for their longest thinnest boat.. holly cow it was a cross between a nuclear sub and a bath tub (Boreal Design Saguenay), any way it was awesome to be afloat. Apparently local laws prevent them renting spray decks and I did not feel like buying one so I went without. The wind was blowing about 20 knots in the outer channel and there were white caps everywhere. The bath tub loved it, plowing swiftly through the chop and when I turned around I was able to catch many waves and really enjoy the warm water. I couldn’t resist taking the opportunity to roll the boat so when I was back near the launch site I locked my knees in and flipped it over, I used an extended screw roll as I had no idea how tough it was going to be, it popped right up, but of course was full of water. I pumped it dry and then went off into the wind to dry off and repeat the surfing. An hour later I was done, soaked from the chop spraying over me but happy and warm. I landed and then lay in the sun to dry off. While paddling I had noticed somewhere that looked fun to eat so I walked around the corner to the Plonk Café and had a really nice lunch of locally caught Blue Cod, and a glass of local Sauvignon Blanc, both were excellent. I slowly made my way back to the hotel across the Harbor Bridge (which I hope to climb on this trip), I managed to survive until 7:30pm and then my body decided enough was enough and sleep overcame me. I awoke at 3:30am (hence this posting) and am about to try to get some more rest.