Father's day

 

Because of the lockdown, the kids couldn't come over. Anne made a memorably splendid dinner, which was some compensation.  

Free entertainment

 

A beautiful sunny early spring day today, with light winds, so I gave the Skerry's sail a try. It took me longer to get set up than I had managed in the driveway, and I was a bit disorganized. I forgot both hat and oars. 

I had the sail set too far back I think. I tried multiple times to sail out of the shallows but kept getting blown back onto the sandbar. It would have been good free entertainment for anyone watching from shore. Eventually I twigged, and adjusted the sail, and we had a lovely sail, tacking back and forth in the little bay there, for about 20 minutes. Frank saw me out there and sent the photo below. Just as well he didn't come along earlier.

A lovely day to be on the water and, as always, I learned a few things. 

oarlocks on backwards day

 

Even though my horizons are somewhat circumscribed at the moment, I am trying to do at least one different thing a day.  This morning I walked with Oz down to Ransom Reserve, to suss out the launching options down there.  Hmmmm.  Soft sand, very shallow.  A high tide required to have any chance of getting in and out. No trailer space, so it would have to be a car top trip.  It is potentially a good trial exercise for cartopping, so I will put it on the list of things to do.

Another thing I have been wanting to try is walking the Skerry round to Flemmo's, the local beach, where I used to launch my kayak. The Skerry is a good bit wider and a bit heavier than the sea kayak, but I got it down there ok.  The wind, a South Westerly, had kicked up a bit by the time I got down there (16 knots at Laverton), and the tide was about half in so I had almost no sand beach to wedge the boat on, and a steady stream of small choppy waves bouncing the boat about.  I got Oz in, put the oars in and rowed off as best I could.  It was not my most graceful or organized launching, but we managed to miss the the various rocks that I saw sliding past on either side.  Rowing into the wind and chop was interesting, particularly as I discovered. after a while that I had put the oar locks in backwards, which didn't really help.  But we had a good row, over to Altona Pier.  I decided I didn't want to try my luck again at Flemmo's, so we rowed round to the Red Stick, then back into the little beach at the base of the Revetment.  There was just enough water to get in there and it is nice and sheltered compared to round the point. 

Getting the boat trailer over the soft sand was a work out, but doable, and we got home, pretty much within the allotted hour of outside time we had left.  

Oz found a noisome dead something in the sand when we landed.  I made him come and sit in front of the boat for a photo.  You can tell he was a bit peeved.

It is good to have the folding trolley, so I can launch and land in different spots without running around.  We rowed about 2 nautical miles, top speed 3.9 knots, probably down a wave face, average 2.5 knots.

Driveway sailing

 It was too windy, and too busy, to get the boat out today, but I tried some driveway sailing instead.  I wanted to try and set up a topping lift/lazy jack arrangement, which required a bit of fiddling.  And it was good to practice raising the sail and rigging everything.  Sail set looks much better.  I timed my last attempt:7 minutes to raise mast, fit rudder and tiller, raise sail, adjust topping lift and down haul.  About 5 minutes to put it all away again.  I think it is worth giving sailing a go, I could get an hour or so of sailing in I rekon.  

Double happiness

 

The skies were blue, the weather warm, the wind light, hurrah for the first day of Spring.  Anne came out in Derry the Skerry with me this morning, and we tried two up rowing. 

We tried to get Oz to settle down right at the other end, to help trim the boat, but he likes to keep down low, probably a good instinct, and we were down a bit in the nose I suspect.  But we managed to keep moving without too much effort.  Our moving average for the trip was 2.2 knots.

Anne and I used to row our double kayak "Xi" or "Double Happiness", over to Point Cook.  The kayak got harder to get into and out of, so I sold it.  Rowing the Skerry is a very similar experience in all the good ways.  It is nice to get into a good shared rowing rhythm, very companionable. The nice thing about the Skerry is that you are not so cramped, you can move round a bit.  And we can take Ozzie too.  I hope we get many more outings, and bit more time to be out would not go astray, so we could do a bit more drifting.  But no complaints, it was a great morning!

Nice work

 

I think Ozzie is getting the hang of this rowing lark. 

It was a blue sky lightish winds morning, though the wind kicked up as the morning progressed.  We got out again today, that's two days in a row.  I rowed straight across towards the Jaw Bone, and back, about 3.6 nautical miles, average moving speed 2.6 knots which seems to be what I can manage without busting a boiler. 

I rowed yesterday to the creek mouth again.  The tide was too low to get in, but it certainly gave me a good view of some of the scattered rocks lurking around the entrance. 

I shared this photo with Jim, who suggested it could be discarded ballast from a boat wanting to get up the creek.  I am reading "The Frayed Atlantic Edge" by David Gange, a historian who makes a journey by sea kayak down the Atlantic facing islands from Shetland southwards. He observes that "archaeology is rarely about discovering or confirming facts but more often a process of inventing the most plausible stories." I like the ballast story, I will look more kindly on those randomly scattered hazards.

Wind forecast looks promising for tomorrow, I might be able to make it three in a row with luck, though the weatherman says a high probability of rain.

Rain reading

 

Oz and I seem to get pelted by an icy downpour every time we set out for a walk. I missed the one morning I could have got out in the Skerry.  I was out of sorts all day afterwards, hopefully that will teach me. Maybe some ok days later this week.  I am keen to get down to Kororoit Creek mouth again.

I have had a few books on the go. Just finished Secret Water, which has some fairly odd parts - all the stuff about savages and eels and stuff doesn't age that well I find, but also some wonderfully evocative writing describing small boat sailing.  I like the mapping.   I see that the idea of rafting up is not new. I am very slowly working my way through The Frayed Atlantic Edge and Murray Darling Journeys, both books require a slow pace, perhaps to match the journeys they describe. 

The State Library of Victoria has an aerial photo, sometime between 1955 and 1970, of what it titles :

"Embouchure of Kororoit Creek into Port Phillip Bay"  

The google earth photo shows that it has changed a bit.  The point opposite Vancouver boat supply has eroded significantly, perhaps because of the massive tyres that have been put there in an attempt to slow what has been happening. The tyres sure haven't worked, beyond adding a few more hazards to navigation on the way in.

There have been strong westerly and south westerlies to go with all the icy air flowing up from Antarctica over us, and the icy rain down the back of my neck. The Northern Pacific starfish, an aggressive invasive species brought here in the 90's in ballast water in Japanese tankers, don't seem to have liked it much, the dog beach was littered with dead ones.  I can't see what was so different about the last few days and why there should have been a mass extinction event for them.  I hope it is not a harbinger of something going on out there under the water. 

The covid numbers show no sign of slowing down, and it is becoming harder to imagine a liveable future.  Maybe we are like the Northern Pacific starfish, an invasive species who has woken up one morning and found that something in our environment is going to polish us all off.