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.
No comments:
Post a Comment