The most dangerous things on a small boat

 At our last SCAMP sail at St Leonards, a sail round Corio Bay looked like a good idea.  The forecast for Monday/Tuesday last week looked fairly good so we tried for that.  As with all group endeavours various impediments and commitments impacted availabity of different members of the fleet.

Chris and Stephen and I launched at St Helens Monday.  Not much wind to start with, but it was a good photo op.

We got a bit of breeze and sailed to the wave attenuation barrier, swaggered round a bit and had a coffee then sailed back over the Lime Burners Bay /The lagoon on the north side of Corio Bay.  Stephen got good wind or current or who knows what, and managed to get to the buoys leading in well before us, but had to get home.  Chris and I sailed in, Chris tied up to the visitors buoy, I rowed in close to shore and anchored.  Andrew in his Sunmaid came in after dark and tied up to the club jetty. 

It was a peaceful if chilly night. Next morning was super foggy. I had arranged to meet Geoff who was coming from Learmonth and to give Tony a crew position on Anjevi.  I recall a saying that the most dangerous things on a yacht are a watch and a calendar, and having arranged to meet the chaps at St Helens at 10 made me decide that the fog was clearing, which it wasn't.  In fact it got thicker. We crept along at a couple of knots, hearing all sorts of noises in the fog, and half expecting a freighter or a fishing boat to appear out of the fog and run us over. I had the fog horn ready to make one last blast of protest, but luckily didn't need it.  We got to St Helens  Geoff and Michael rigged and launched their boats, so we sort of felt that we had to go somewhere.  We headed off back to the wave attenuation barrier, but the fog got thicker, and Geoff lost touch with the rest of the fleet. Luckily Chris saw what was happening before they vanished into the murk, and turned back to help them back to St Helens.  The rest of us made it to the barrier, the sun came out and we had another coffee in the sun. 

There was a bit of breeze and visibility a bit better, so we headed off in a South Easterly direction but all too soon the fog rolled back in, thicker than ever.   I headed along the bearing that I had last seen the other two boats, and luckily found them anchored and rafted up for lunch.  We joined them and as the fog cleared found that we were anchored just off the big rock that sits outside the Limeburners Point ramp, much to the amusement of the stink boat owners no doubt.  The fog getting back seemed even thicker, I could barely see the jetty as I crept past the breakwater back at St Helens. 

Here's my video from the day, with footage from Chris and Stephen.  

It certainly had its highlights as an adventure, but on reflection, the pressures of sailing with multiple people led me to do things I would not have done had I been by myself.  I think wisdom would have been to just prop at Lime Burners Bay and read a book, or maybe do some gentle exploring up the creek.  The sky did eventually clear after 3.

Whatever, there definitely were some highlights.  I loved beating up the narrow channel into Lime Burners Bay

Salty

 Some very nautical looking chaps in a photo from the latest advertising for the AWBF. This was waiting to get to land as we shuffled the boats at the end of the TN raid. 

EOIs for the 27 raid now open, but my attempts to get a leave pass have not gone well so far so probably this was my last Raid.

I had four consecutive days of boaty activities this week. Saturday was  Howard Rice's presentation at APYC. Stephen and I brought our scamps for some background colour. Amazing to meet Howard. The day went well I thought.

Next day was WBA Werribee River Sailing Day.  Just finished video:

Next day, fix hub on trailer then drive down to St Leonards to stay with Tony, a SCAMP fan. Next day we launched from the yacht club, sailed to West Channel mark then to Edwards Point. A top day, but I was tired at the end of all that!

It gets better from here

 It gets better from here, right?

I was listening to the Nano cruising podcast interview with Luck Mehl, packrafting guru who has completed some amazing expeditions.https://open.spotify.com/episode/7toriOinWQ7y6PnYypYrXc?si=knBUm08oQcOgXAUJGNMjxw&context=spotify%3Ashow%3A5CeANWhuMbM7EhX6s0npwn.  He said, one big lesson from his expeditions was "it always gets better". 

I was telling myself that yesterday morning when I tripped and fell heavily on my side. Bruised hip, sore wrist, but nothing broken luckily. 

So, I am sure, it always gets better, hopefully we can get the subfloor finished next week and the floors can start going in, which will be a huge boost.

Sold

 

Much to our relief, our house found a buyer, at a price we were happy with, before auction. It was a cliff hanger, but looks like we got there. Now we need to keep the house watered and mowed and neat till settlement, early April, and that chapter will be closed.

Getting to here was a huge effort, and we are deeply tired. But now the pressure is off a bit, we have been tentatively started doing other things. I launched Barca from one end of Williamstown beach, rowed with Oz to explore the little anglers club harbour, then down to Jawbone. The wind was South east, so it was a bit of a slog getting back and poor oz got a bit wet from the spray. We met Anne at the kiosk for lunch, then I rowed back to the bike trailer.

It was good timing, as Jess and Harriet came over for a visit just after we got home, and I was able to continue my cunning program to imprint boats onto Harriet's impressionable consciousness. 

Chris kindly invited me along for a Stornoway expedition from Werribbee South down to West Channel Pile - 28 nautical miles and a real passage making sail.

That boat really chews up the distance, it would have been a much longer day in the SCAMP.  But a bit more comfortable I rekon. I have managed to get two SCAMP sails in as well. One with some other Welsford boats ...

And one with Stephen. 

This last outing was testing out Williamstown Sailing club jetty, which is excellent. Lots of potential there. I just need the time and the energy to take advantage of what is on my doorstep.

The last phase of moving and disposal coming up, and hopefully we can get moving with fixing Cole street, and I can get back sailing. It is the Paynesville Classic Boat Rally and Raid this week, which adds an edge of awareness of missing out on lots of good sailing. Hey ho. It will be very welcome when we can really get back out there.

The force is with us

 One thing about a multi month moving exercise, having possessions like tools spread across three different physical locations, is that inevitably something you need in one place will be located, probably deep in an unmarked box, in one of the other places.  

When I came to dismantle my canoe kayak rack, I discovered that I had used bugle head screws to attach the cross braces. And of course I had packed the bugle head hexagon fitting for my electric drill in a box, and taken the box to the shed in Williamstown. And which box I could not exactly remember. I resigned myself to buying another and postponing the dismantling job, but, walking back from Coles, head down with a heavy backpack of Christmas supplies, there lying in the middle of the footpath was the exact bit I needed, a bit rusty but perfectly functional.

The chances are beyond my comprehension of finding the exact thing I needed lying in the street on the day I needed it. The deconstruction and moving of the rack proceeded as planned. Feels like the force is with us!

As the twig is bent

 

I cunningly seize every opportunity to sit young Harriet in a boat, shaping those wonderfully receptive neural pathways for a boaty future I hope.  She really enjoyed exploring the little pirogue today, there is something about the contained space and the hatches and storage, even on a little simple boat, that she likes.  

We had our traditional present exchanging over at the Williamstown house this morning, and very pleasant it was too.  The new house is a bit like a holiday house so far, the simplicity and lack of stuff makes it a relaxing place to be. As long as I can avert my gaze from the mass of work to be done.

A new chapter

 

After a cliff hanger of a day with a few hiccups along the way, we got the keys to our little cottage, about 5 minutes before the agent closed. And my word did we get keys - there are a ridiculous number of keys for a little house. Anyway here we are waving regally from the front gate, looking very pleased.

We took over a folding table and some camp chairs, and had inaugural fish and chips in the garden. Jess and Chris and Harriet came over which made it a real occassion.  The end of a very hot day, but the house was fairly cool, thanks to the massive thermal mass in those stone walls, and there was a nice sea breeze in the garden. And the garden is nice. There is a rather stagnant pond, breeding mozzies, and Harriet was magnetically attracted to it. We spent a lot of time steering her away from it, and it will be one of the first things to change I expect, tho we need a bird bath or and some other water source for the local citturs before we fill it in.

The fun has begun. Just do the next thing, I keep telling myself. So far that seems to be working.