Drifting away

Today the forecast was for very light wind, dropping to under 5 knots at midday. Anne wanted the car, hence no launching the big boat. I thought I would wheel the Bolger Pirogue down for a sail or paddle. I took the old inflatable Tahiti canoe along too, as Kate has been wanting to try it out since I lent her Audrey Sunderland's Paddling North.

It was a lovely morning, and we  paddled a bit out to the reef to check out the sea birds, rafted up and drifted for a while,  then landed on the dog beach for morning tea and a reinflation of a leaking chamber on the Tahiti.

Ozzie was very disappointed there were no dogs around to see him make a dramatic seaborne arrival.

It was all very relaxing and pleasant. After we returned to our launch spot, I  ran the Pirogue onto the sand, then carried the Tahiti up onto the grass. I unlocked the club door, opened the air valves on the boat to let the air out, and generally pottered round, till I suddenly noticed the Pirogue quite some distance offshore, drifting slowly away. The sand bars shelve out quite a way, so i ran after it, but couldn't get to it before the water level was too deep to stand. My swimming seemed to be about the rate of drift of the boat, and I was beginning to think I would have to let it go, when a nice chap in a kayak saw my predicament, caught the errant boat, and towed it back to shore. A happy lucky ending to what could have been a bad situation.

I knew the tide was coming in, and the wind off shore. Hard to fathom why I let that happen. Just stupid I guess.

Under the heading "Weird coincidences", I noticed tonight that the AYC web cam has  become stuck and is showing an image from some days ago,  capturing me rigging up the Core Sound.

Half way

The wind forecast looked like it was a good day to sail over to Sandringham - a Westerly in the morning to run over, changing to a South Easterly in the afternoon for a reach run back. On the water it was a lot more flukey, but we made reasonable progress till we reached the shipping channel,  which is just over half way there. We bobbed round in the swell, sails slatting, centreboard banging, for what seemed an interminable time. Tried the engine but the noise quickly drove us crazy. Irrational I know, and against most experience, but the prospect that the wind had packed up for the day made us turn round and start what looked like a long slow trip back. I rowed for a bit, with the sails up and whatever breeze there was, enough to move us in the right direction at 2.5 knots. Then a light but steady breeze kicked up and the sun came out, a wonderful peaceful sail home. Oz found it very relaxing.

Back on the water

Just coming to the end of a project to replace the luff sleeve arrangement on the Core Sound 17's two masts. This project turned out to be much longer and more expensive than I anticipated, but it is almost finished.

Although the luff sleeve arrangement had the great virtue of simplicity - it was quick to set up and visually uncluttered - I found it had several downsides.  I mostly sail with just me and Ozzie the dog, and when the wind kicked up I found keeping the Core Sound sailing flat challenging.  And I really like being able to just drop the sails completely and motor into the boat harbour, without 115 square feet of windage producing sail cloth waiting to push me in some unexpected direction.

I am still refining the set up, and it is certainly taking me a lot longer than it used to, but I can keep practicing and experimenting with leaving as much in place as I can.

Yesterday was a splendid sailing day, despite a rather gloomy forecast.  Andrew who has been a regular at our midweek sailing days came out with me and we pottered around for a couple of hours.  I dropped him back at the beach in front of the yacht club, then headed back out for a bit more tweaking and attaching fittings.  Andrew took a great photo of me heading back out to Kirsty Ann.  You can see me carrying Oz in the extreme left of the picture.

I have a few more projects lined up for the boat.  Next in queue is to make a platform so Oz has a more comfortable space to spread out and sleep. If we are to make some longer voyages, the crew have to be comfortable.

Heading for the top mark

This week I received a newsletter from the lovely people down at South Gippsland Yacht Club, a wrap up of the Inverloch Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta which is held each year on Australia Day at the end of January. And what do you know, there on page one, was a photo of Jess and I, in Peregrina the trusty Mirror, heading towards the top mark. 

Jess is smiling but also looking a bit worried, as she thought I might be going to T-bone the crash boat before I tacked away.  A great photo to have and I am very grateful to Tim Wilson who took it and Trilby Parise who sent it through.