Too easy

 

I had volunteered to do a recce of the Herring Island landings. Chris with his lovely newly launched Garvey "Teale" with 20 hp Tohatsu wanted an outing, and kindly offered me a crew spot for a blast up the river. Engines feel like cheating to me, it is too easy.

Elusive Little River

 

Chris, Gerard, Oz and I set out from Werribee South to see if we could crack the Little River entrance. We arrived round three hours past high tide, and ran aground in soft goo well before. We anchored for a bumpy lunch. When it came time to claw off the lee shore my centreboard was stuck. A bit exciting there till finally I freed it. We had a great broad reach back along the coast. I shook out the reefs in my sails, and of course the wind kicked up with 20 knot gusts. I recorded a Max 8.1 knots. It was a grand sail. But I have unfinished business with that River. I might try a launch from Kirk Point with the Skerry.

Slow sailing

 

Another still sunny Autumn day. I was not feeling super energetic but I got the Skerry out and we went for a very peaceful couple of hours over towards Williamstown. Average sped was 2 knots, which is fine with me. Anne and Ozzie seemed to enjoy the day as well. 

Six sail to St Kilda

 

Perfect but very still Autumn day for our sail from the Warmies to St Kilda. I have wanted to get there for ages, as I was sure that beach would be OK for landing, and so it was. A really good day on the water.

Cabanage

 Chris S sent me a link to a YouTube video "Cabanage Skerry". 

I collected a set of ikea bed slats from a neighbouring rubbish clearout, and I have been thinking about how I might create a boat camping space on Derry. The video shows one possible way. I have side seats now, so  the framework he uses not required. 

Also the centreboard and centre seat plank can stretch across and fill a bit of space, so less slats required. The proof is in the sleeping, but, with a couple of camping pads on top, I reckon that just might work.

I thought too the oar and mast support structure in the video might be a bit tricky to set up on the water. I will try a boom and boom crutch arrangement. I had a boom crutch and rough tarp tent from the Mirror- not a bad fit, but a bit short.

Lots of room for improvement but it has got me thinking.  And it could just about work. Quite cosy really ...

Tide

Anne and I took the Skerry down to Rye, for the WBA sailing day.  We stayed over in a nice rental, had a really nice day the day before pottering around, swimming and generally lazing about, so we were in good shape to get down to the ramp bright and early Sunday. The wind on the morning was a bit stronger than forecast, a brisk Northerly, and Rye was a lee shore.  The ramp is quite exposed, and was mighty choppy.  None of the WBA gang were keen on risking launching in those conditions.  The Skerry, weighing all of 45 kilos, is a beach launchable proposition.  

We got some WBA volunteers to help us carry the boat to the water's edge, then rowed out through the breaking waves to get some sea room.   Once we had the sails up, with the reef in, we took off and blasted our way along the coast to Sorrento in no time. 

I thought as we were sailing that it was my extraordinary seamanship and boat handling, but in fact it was about 3 knots of tide helping us along.  We landed on a nice sandy beach there.  Peter and Kirsty had driven up to check out the Sorrento ramp, and were on the beach to welcome us, which was very nice of them. 

We had some shore leave and raided the lunch rations and the thermos for a nice picnic in the sun, watching the Sorrento beach walkers, mostly with dogs, parading back and forth. 

When we set out to get home, we discovered that the wind had shifted, so we would be tacking back,  and eased right off.    Now we were heading into it, the affect of the tide also became apparent.  I was lucky to be making 1.5 knots over the ground, and at an angle of about 50 degrees off where I wanted to go.  We could probably have crawled faster than we were actually closing on our starting point. At one point I decided I would row faster, and I dropped the sail.  By the time we were organized, we had gone backwards, to a point we had sailed past a half an hour earlier.  Rowing directly into the current was hard work, and I could barely keep us going at a knot.   Eventually Anne worked out we could "motor sail". she would row with one oar, while I sailed as close to the wind as I could.  

It took us around 4 hours to get back again.  We don't really have to worry about tidal currents down our end of the bay, this was a real learning experience for me.

When we finally got back, Anne went for a swim.  I got persuaded to retrieve the boat from the ramp, which probably was not a great idea, and was the low point of the day, but overall it was a fantastic day on the water.  

 

Experiments

 Not a great day weather-wise but the only day that Gerard could make it, so he and Chris and I launched from Werribee South.

I tried out my ladder roofloader and a prototype dodger made out of blue tarp. The roofloader works ok, but it is slow tying all the bits and pieces on, and it is hard work.  But it does open up the possibility of Skerry Teardrop trips, which we will try hopefully before Easter.

The second experiment was a blue polytarp spray dodger that hooks on over the bow of the Skerry and is held on by a bunny that goes right round under the gunnel.  Ozzie hates being splashed by spray, so I wanted something that would give him some shelter from wind and spray.

Also note the side seats made for Anne should she ever come out sailing in Derry the Skerry. 

I was a bit rushed getting on the water, and I didn't have time to fit the curved laths that are meant to hold the material up. And once on the water, the bunny proved not to be tight enough so one side kept blowing up in the wind. But for all that, Oz seemed to like the arrangement and slept mosytof the way huddled down under it.

I was busy and didn't put much energy into filming. But Chris and Gerard were both very keen and took quite a bit. I think they like being YouTube celebrities.