Cross the great water

 

Every morning as I walk Oz along the beach here, I look over at the coast on the other side of the bay. My brother Tony lives near there and for ages I have been saying I will sail over and meet him for lunch. Yesterday the wind forecast looked promising so we set off early. Roman was cycling by and kindly held my boat while i parked the car and trailer.

We sailed out of safe harbour under mizzen, to find there was a decent breeze out there. It took a while to raise the main and get organized.

But once we were set up we flew along, a very broad reach with quite a chop. Apart from the Bellarine ferry and a survey boat that seemed designed the generate spray, the Bay was empty of vessels.

We had a top speed of 6.8 knots, probably surfing down a wave, but burbled along round 5 knots. We hove to across the shipping channel for a cuppa and to add a few more twists to the mainsheet attatchment, for some reason I turned the wrong way in the few seconds I had holding the end of the sprit before the boat starts turning into the wind. The lesson is, make sure the attatchment is untwisted on land before setting off. 

I dropped the main outside Sandringham and came in under mizzen, past all the massive white expensive boats that are moored there. But I was sailing, they were tied up, so I rekon I was getting the better deal. Tony was there as welcome committee, and I ghosted in and tied up next to the little beach of the off the beach sailing club.

We had lunch and an excellent coffee at the little kiosk there, then I set off for the journey back.

The wind faded and I motor sailed across the shipping channel, then settled in for a long beat back. About 17 NM for the round trip.

As the I Ching puts it, "It furthers one to cross the great water".  I feel distinctly furthered.

Super light

 

Feels like someone has turned the temperature down. It was 4.7 degrees yesterday morning when I was rigging the boat. But the forecast was for steady Westerlies below 10 knots, a good day for Bjorn's first sail on the Core Sound, and it warmed up as the morning progressed.

Bjorn took some nice photos of the getting the boat in the water phase. I usually have my hands full and too busy to take photos. Altona ramp was very peaceful, despite the blue skies and light winds. The wind must have seen us coming for it faded away pretty much as we motored out of the harbour.

Steve was out in his Impulse, and eventually ghosted over and came aboard for morning tea. 

Bjorn did a great job as both helm and expedition photographer, and I thank him for the photos. Despite lack of wind, it was a good outing.

When I got home and the Core Sound washed and put to bed, I put the second coat of epoxy on the interior of the Skerry. I got most of the epoxy where it was meant to go, but there were a few runs, and some wound up in the dog's fur, on my jacket, on my bench, down my right sleeve, over tools, etc. I think I was a bit tired. But it is becoming a boat I think.

Launching and lunching

 

Peter, who built my Core Sound, launched his new boat at the Wooden Boat Association sailing day on Albert Park Lake today.  

Not much wind, but a good opportunity for him to try out the new boat and rig.

There were some lovely boats there today, including Roger's 120 year old lifeboat. 

The lapstrake panels are made that way to allow for wear as the dinghy was hoisted up and down the sides of the mothership.  After a couple of hours sailing we ghosted back to tie up in front of the club.

Some serious, boaty conversations ensued. After lunch we sailed round the island again, after which the wind died. Time to break out the oars.

I dropped Gerard back in Werribbee, and got home round 4. I am pretty tired now, but it was a good day.

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Sparring

 

Next step in the Skerry manual is to fibreglass the interior. I know that is going to be an intese couple of days, so I thought I would tackle someting a bit less demanding. The boom, yard and mast, how hard could that be? 

Three days and three buckets of sawdust and shavings later, I have three bits of wood the right dimensions. It has been hard work. Day 1 I made  a right mess of things. Day 2 I dug myself out of the hole, and managed to find enough ok oregon to laminate together to make the pieces. I spent today sanding and smoothing with the magnificent No 6 Stanley plane my brother Mike kindly passed on to me.  I judged the last oregon buy pretty well I rekon. I have made all the parts needed, and only a couple of odd slices left over.

I put up an ad for the Sabre down at the club today, and put the word out that it is for sale. The end of an era probably, but I am ready to move on.

Mizzening

 

The BOM did not do a great job with the wind forecast for today. Instead of 8-12 knots, we got 19-23 knots. Oz ate some very bad fishy bits while i was rigging, and barfed repeatedly on the jetty as we were considering our options. Not the most auspicious omen. But there we were, so we set off. I put the first reef in the mizzen, but we still went 4.5 knots,  and managed to overtake Jim with his junk rig.  Thanks Andrew C for this photo, and for coming along in Mars, his tug boat, which was a reassuring presence out there.

We sailed down to opposite the time ball, with some mighty good gusts coming through. I was too busy to take photos, thanks to Khiem for his photos and video.

It was an interesting day, and as always I learned a few things. Don't trust Northerlies might be one important lesson. 

Infinity pool

 

It was one of those calm mornings where the surface of the water seems continuouswith the sky. "Like a giant infinity pool" Anne observed. 

We spent an our ghosting along at under a knot, chasing patches of freshettes of breeze. We rafted up with Ian in Westy for a cuppa. About 11.30 the cloud suddenly burned off and the breeze filled, and we could actually sail. It was a great morning.

Gunnelled

 

I had some carpentry jobs to do over at Vincent's house, which took up a fair bit of the day, but I could not resist taking the clamps off the last rail, and sawing and rasping the gunnels "into a pleasing shape" as directed by the Skerry manual. Well, it pleased me. It seemed to make a big leap in the appearance of the boat. It looks way more solid and boat like. 

I wound up covered in wood and dried epoxy dust. Anne persuaded me to go for a swim. Glad I followed her advice, it was lovely down at Flemmos in the golden late afternoon light.