Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Entwistle's Tribute to J/109 GAIA's Crew- Riggle & Macay

*  Ray and Sandy Entwistle from Sydney, Australia recently sent us a sweet note regards Bob Riggle and his friend Phyllis Macay- "Hi Stu & Jeff- We were devastated to hear about Bob and Phyllis last week as the news filtered through.  We had the pleasure of meeting them when they stayed with us before catching a plane back to the USA during there circumnavigation on their J/109 GAIA and had regular email contact since then.  If you know anyone in the family or friends please pass on our condolences. They certainly touched a lot of people worldwide including ourselves.  Below is an extract from their website when we caught up with them.  Phyllis was commenting on their visit with us:

"I had another one of those 'destiny' moments. I made airline reservations for Bob and I to go home to the States and ended up with a 17 hour lay-over in Sydney. So I thought …OK…line up a talkative taxi driver, find a hotel for the night, and go on tour of the city. I swear the next day we get an email from Ray.  "You don't know us but we are the J-Boat dealer in Sydney and we follow your adventures on the website. If you ever find yourself in Sydney you must let us be your tour guide and you must spend the night at our home."  Bingo!!  We had the most delightful time with Ray and Sandra Entwistle. Ray started out racing Flying 18's which require very high energy, athletic men (sorry my lady sailor friends it appears way too crazy for most women) who race these sleek boats through treacherous waters. The next morning during breakfast at their lovely home I got up close and personal with the wild lorikeets (pictured above) and watched a family of Cockatoos acting silly. Ray escorted us around the city and we went to the north entrance to Sydney Harbour (pictured here). Everyone knows the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, but do you know what the entrance to the harbour looks like from sea? The coastline is very steep and jagged sandstone with a 2 mile long entry. You could see the Emerald City just over the next hill and it looked so inviting. Before we knew it we were off to the airport for the 12 hour flight to San Francisco."