Sailing

Relentless chatter across a sun-blown harbour but I can only hear it as we pass close to another sloop. A dozen yacht races, maybe more, tack their way from one marker to the next in the afternoon breeze. Each crew is focused solely on their own endeavour.

A sense of historical irony strikes me as the vessel in the lead brings the Bridge into focus. It’s spinnaker of brilliant white is emblazoned with the Union Jack that has led its way into the sheltered waterway at first colonisation some 222 years before.

The technology has changed dramatically in that time, and the landscape has been immutably altered by towering monuments of concrete and steel. But that doesn’t stop me wondering if those brave sailors of old would still find familiar the etched cliff faces and salt-stained islands of this magnificent harbour.