Suvi and I picked up our wheels - a very snazzy pale blue Hyundai hatchback in the city where we met Annabel.We successfully navigated our way out of Melbourne, despite the trams trying to confuse us and rules on having to turn right from left hand lanes, and over the impressive West Gate Bridge.I think we also drove on Batman Avenue (possibly the best road name that I have seen so far!)Our first stop was for lunch in Torquay.Nothing like English Torquay and its claim to fame is that it's the surf capital of Victoria.We checked out the surfers on Bells Beach (the spiritual home of Australian surfing) which looked pretty cold given the weather! Through the grey the coastline did start looking pretty spectacular, but it was rather tricky given the pouring rain.Luckily we kept ourselves entertained singing and taking the mickey out of other tourists - example: random tourist: "Excuse me where are the 12 pustules?!?" us: "12 apostles?" tourist: "yes, the pustules" us: "about 7 hours away and it's already 4pm!", tourist: "ah ok we must wake up more early".Surfside backpackers in Apollo Bay was run by a sweet old lady called Robyn.We had a fun night back at the hostel chatting with a group of Gemans.They were pretty funny, generous with their Goon and had pimped up one of their cars by putting pink neon lights under the bottom of the car - they were so proud of it!They were also convinced that I was only 24 which pleased me no end!

Set off in the rain again on Sunday, but as Robyn had promised us, the weather improved dramatically as we got to the other side of Cape Otoway.By the time that we got to the 12 Apostles the weather was fabulous and perfect for photos and a swim at Lord Ard beach.On the drive back to Apollo Bay we decided to try and visit the lighthouse at Cape Otoway as we were convinced that it was the lighthouse featured in the kids TV show "Around the Twist".Unfortunately, by the time we got all the way down there it was all closed up for the night.However, the road down (beautiful through the eucalypts) was teeming with wild koalas.There were some really close to the road and one even climbed out of the tree that he was eating in to head up another tree whilst we were watching - such cute animals and great to actually catch them awake!

On Monday morning we tried again to visit the Cape Otoway lighthouse (with plenty more koala spotting on the way).This time it was open, but despite being "Australia's most significant lighthouse" it WASN'T the Round the Twist lighthouse (and it cost $20 to get in)!!! Determined to find the lighthouse of our (well mine and Annabel's, Suvi had never heard of it) childhood dreams we headed up to Lorne and Airey's Inlet lighthouse.Annabel and I had a great tour from Fiona up to the top with lots of lighthouse and Around the Twist trivia to keep us entertained.

From Lorne it was a short drive to Geelong where I was keen to check out the sailing as it was the end of Audi Victoria Week, Australia's largest regatta (Aussie equivalent of Cowes).Annabel was also keen to go as she had worked a couple of seasons with Sunsail in Greece and Turkey and hadn't done any sailing out in Australia.I wandered into the yacht club, stuck my name up on the board and seconds later had a call from a guy called Paul Heyes (odd coincidence - this is the name of the J boat distributer in the UL who we have bought our last 2 boats though) looking for crew for his Thompson 7 (sportsboat).Even better, they were joint leaders going into the final day.Obviously I said yes please and arranged to meet them the following morning.So that was me sorted, but Annabel still needed a ride… this resulted in one of the funniest night's out that I think I have ever had.Some classic lines of the night:

From 2 old boys: "maybe you should just sit outside the yacht club with a sign saying "Screw for sale" with the "s" crossed through?

From Bangers: "this is what killed Lady Diana" in reference to all the flashes going off when we were taking photos of the evening.

From our neighbor in the car park who had seen us brushing our teeth outside the car: "are you the Poms that they were feeding biscuits to the other day? No? There's more of you?!? At least those ones were housetrained…"

And plenty more that I can't really share as they were a bit rude.Terrible potty mouths these Australian yachties have.

At one point I realized that I had lost my flip flop (a complete disaster).After checking with the band they assured me that they had seen it flying across the grassy area towards the yacht club.With the assistance of some very helpful chaps who found it hilarious that every Bundy and Coke can that was crushed on the floor I tried to put my foot into, I recovered my shoe.Happy days.By the end of the night I think Annabel and I had befriended pretty much everyone in the club - what a friendly bunch!I also bumped into a couple of people that I knew from home - one being Led who used to be the bowman on Leopard.In further evidence of what a small world it is, Led and my skipper Paul had done the Sydney Hobart together this year on Wild Thing.Annabel and I also managed to find ourselves a bed for the night on a brand new Beneteau 45 - our own cabin with sprung mattress and duvet - best night's sleep that I had had in ages!

After a fried egg sandwich, a cup of black coffee and the necessary Berocca I was ready for racing.Happily the sun was shining and there was a lot less wind than the previous day (I was slightly concerned about being broken).Annabel was getting texts from all sorts of randoms that she'd given her number to the night before, but successfully managed to get herself onto a boat called Wide Load.Racing on Foam Fast was great fun.Completely different to sailing on bigger yachts and completely like dinghy racing - my tummy muscles were screaming by the end of the day, but I was rewarded by the boys on board (Paul, Snoadie, Stewart and Brad) with belly kisses at the end of racing (apparently my hiking was up to scratch!)We got a 2nd in the 1st race, but the boat that we were on equal points with got a 1st which meant that it was all to play for going into the last race of the day.All was going to plan and then the boat that was now 1 point ahead of us got tangled in the windward mark, thus becoming the mark.As they were the first boat to go round they became the mark and we all sailed around them.We had a good run down, but then we too hit the mark! We recovered quickly after our turns (our penalty for hitting the mark) and finished the race in first, convinced that we had won the series.Unfortunately, on docking we learnt that the boat that had tangled in the mark was protesting the race committee and was asking for a 6 minute redress (which would put them into first place).After a tense time of waiting for the result of the protest, unfortunately news came through that they had been successful and so we were in 2nd place overall.Still, for me, it was a fantastic experience, just a shame for Paul as he was so disappointed.Both Annabel and my crews headed straight off after racing so it was left to us to party with all the people that we had met the previous night, including Glen from Yachting Australia (Aussie RYA), and some that we knew before like Tom, Mike's friend from the RMYS and Led.It was another brilliant night with lots of free drinks (including a bottle of wine from the restaurant owner) which ended up with Annabel and me sleeping in the car (Suvi had got a lift back to Melbourne with my skipper and his family).A few snapshots of the evening were: dancing around in the rain (quite a lot of this) to the tribute band at the yacht club playing Australian classics such as Men at Work (but sadly no Kylie or Jason), dancing with a little girl called Ebony and her bogan dad listening to Aussie Robbie Williams (who had a Stoke football shirt on and was trying to speak with an English accent) and stealing trophies (passes, hats, flags etc, not the big silver ones in the trophy cabinet!)I was pretty sad that it was all over, but I couldn't have done another massive night out (even though it was Australia day the following day)…

The drive back to Melbourne was pretty uneventful except for the laps of the Southbank that we did before we got on the right side of the river! We were both pretty exhausted after our epic few days so we headed back to Annabel's hostel place for a couple of hours kip.I then headed over to Clare Weber and her boyfriend Mark's place in the Docklands to watch the Australia Day cricket (we won this time) and the fireworks which went off from the top of the Eureka Tower and spend the night there.It was wonderful to be in a plush flat with no one else in my room after sleeping in cars, tents and hostels for so long, so many thanks again to Clare and Mark, the perfect hosts.Clare and Mark had to get up early for work this morning which worked out fine for me as my friend Paul who I had met sailing on Shoshana in Sydney was arriving into Melbourne on the train from Sydney in order to deliver a DK46 yacht back from Geelong to Sydney so I met him for breakfast at Southern Cross station.I spent my last day in Melbourne wandering around the city, watching the tennis on the big screen at Federation Square and a live band there in the early evening, and eating sushi.I also collected the remainder of my birthday post that had arrived including presents from Thalia and Rosie and Paul, and cards from my Nan, Aunt and Lynsey and Tom!Was like having another birthday a week later!I am now on the night train from Melbourne back to Sydney.So far so good, but we'll see how I feel at 7am when we arrive into Central Station!!!