Cruising

 

Still a bit to tweak and finish on the SCAMP, but the only way to do that is to use it! (thanks Chris for this photo and all your video btw)

I got out with a bunch of WBA boats a week or so back, for a sail over from Warmies to St Kilda for lunch and back.  

It was a good day, except Gavan dropped his expensive Garmin watch over the side at the Warmies ramp when we were launching.   By coincidence, I managed to capture the moment on my 360 camera.  We went back next day and tried diving to find it, but the water was too deep and murky. 

It was classic day sailing, we all sail around videoing one another, straggle off in more or less the same direction, have lunch somewhere (usually a bumpy lee shore but this day sheltered behind St Kilda Breakwater) and then retrieve and go home for a nice lie down.  

We had a tentative sail date planned for Monday, Gerard couldn't make it Monday but thought maybe Tuesday, Chris suggested he was free both days ... so we decided to try an overnighter, up the Werribee Monday night.

The weather was perfect Monday, and we had a grand sail down wind along the coast, anchoring at the traditional lumpy lee shore lunch stop off Little River.  The water isn't getting any warmer, and I wanted to check the reboarding sling arrangement.  Much better to do that before you actually need to rely on it.  So I hopped over the side and indeed, the slings were a bit too short.  Much easier to adjust that standing in chest deep water than bobbing around in deep water. I need to practice and do some more research on technique, but I did successfully reboard from both starboard and port sides which is another bit of psychological comfort - I now know that if I did go in the drink I could get back out again.

Speaking of psychological comfort, there is something about the SCAMP which is extremely reassuring.  Part of it is the stability, thanks to the hull form and the ballast.  It is so nice to have a boat that you can't tip over standing or pulling on the side gunnel.  The high cockpit coaming means you sit right in the boat, and the ergonomics are terrific - you sit really comfortably with a foot in the footwell, another on the opposite bench.  The cuddy offers protection from spray and wind, and a sort of ostrich head in the sand sort of comfort as well.  You don't have to have the hyper alertness that you need in a tippier boat. Hard to describe, but the package is remarkably relaxing. 

Still lots to tweak and refine.  I guess that is the fun with boats, they are never finished.

I watched Mat Conboy's latest video last night, talking to Geoff Macqueen of The Dinghy Spart fame, which is well worth a watch. 

Geoff took six weeks, sailing round the west coast of Tassie from Macquarie Harbour. He had a rule of thumb that he would not go out if the forecast was over 20 knots and if the wind direction did not allow him to reach or run to his destination. Otherwise he would just stay put, which he did for up to a week at a time.  

While the highly adventurous sort of dinghy cruising is appealing, I am more interested in more low key minimalist cruising at the moment.  I would like to explore how little I can do in a day, maybe dry out on the sand bar, sit and have a cup of tea and watch the world go by.  The circumnavigation of Port Phillip is still out there as an aspiration, but I forsee a patch of very micro cruises coming up.