America's cup...

One of the highlights of Jo and John's visit was the America's Cup yacht race between Team New Zealand and Team USA.  We went into San Francisco to the America's Cup pavilion and watched two of the races there and then watched a third from the stern of the Balclutha which is a historic ship docked at the Hyde Street Pier in San Francisco.  The Balclutha was a wonderful vantage point as we could see all of the race except for the finish.  

We watched the rest of the races on television, wherever we were!  It was so exciting to see - those catamaran's really FLY!!

 Team NZ supporters at the venue

The broadcast/awards stage at the venue

 Note the builder of the Oracle catamarans

John with the captain of Team New Zealand

 Jo and John with James Cook - we loved this!

 Writing in the sky with 5 planes controlled by a computer system.  Quite amazing.  The writing was for the Oracle conference that ocurred near the end of the race, which went longer than scheduled.

Team New Zealand supporters

 Oracle supporters

 Team New Zealand support chase boat

Both teams at the pre-race gathering area

Leaving for the starting line

 

 Both teams with their support staff going to the starting line

Getting into position at the starting line

Racing on the bay

 Team NZ foiling during the race

Team NZ coming in for a win

Oracle coming in for a win 

 

And we celebrated NZ's win with a Moa beer

Sadly, New Zealand did not win the America's Cup this year but we are confident that they will take the cup back during the next race.  Needless to say, the NZ team members we saw in line at the airport were not happy!