Rules

 One of the rules of my local branch of the Fairweather Sailing Club is to avoid sailing if at all possible when our local weather App, Willyweather, features blue arrows for its wind forecast.   The blue arrow signifies winds 15 knots, which means that gusts will be higher.  It is a good rule, except when every day seems to be all blue arrows.   A good rule.  But only if you follow Dylan Winter's Rule number 1 for Safe,Sane, Solvent  Sailing  "If sailing is possible, sail.  You will always enjoy it more than you thought you would".  Last Thursday was a blue arrowless day, about the only one for ages, so we launched Anjevi.

Forecast was for SW about 10 knots, we got winds gusting round 17 knots most of  the outing, which made for rather bumpy sailing. Oz was a bit cross as he could not snooze.  It was a chilly 11 degrees, and not surpisingly, we were the only boat out. Which was good for sailing out of and back into the harbor, as there were no stink boats to dodge. Dylan Winter is right, I did enjoy it more than I thought I would. I love that SCAMP.

A few days before, I was mulling over Dylan's rule number 8, "Do not own too many boats".  He points out rightly that boats inevitably need maintenance, and the time you spend fixing and maintaining them is time you could be on the water.  I kept reminding myself of this while being consumed with envy at Stephen's remarkable find of a Welsford Long Steps for an almost give away price.   Gerard, Chris and I went over to view the new addition to the fleet, and Gerard, excellent photographer that he is, took a great photo of Chris, me and Stephen inspecting the boat.  Very interesting to see a precursor to the SCAMP design.  Long Steps certainly has some nice features, but on balance, I think the SCAMP suits me better. 

Gerard's photo reminds me of those Pre-Raphaelite paintings, he captured the body language  splendidly, and the picture captures the moment and tells the story.  Stephen's granddaughter thought so too, and has started a terrific drawing based on the picture.  Looking forward to seeing that finished!  I hope to get a signed copy.

And, speaking of granddaughters, our little Harriet is coming along very nicely.  She is a bright little thing, and it is wonderful to watch how quickly she is growing and engaging with the world.

And, speaking of family matters, my brother Brian is heading off on a trip to Ireland shortly, which led me to do some more research on our great grandfather, Alfred Hutson, who was chief of Cork Fire Brigade through the burning of Cork by the British in 1920.  As an Englishman, those must have been very tricky times to navigate.  Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I stumbled over a story about him  that I did not know - https://www.echolive.ie/nostalgia/arid-40236050.html - and a photo of him I had not seen before.  The docos on the burning of Cork are well worth a look. https://youtu.be/4TFGn_KiVUU?si=tFK8v47HbMBYSVPG 

Great grandfather Hutson was by all accounts a remarkable man.  Lovely photo, but it does not compare to the one from our family album, showing the Captain demonstrating his highly developed management skills

Inbetween, I have managed to do my back in twisting awkwardly carrying the mower. That will teach me to try and tidy up the garden.   I am creaking around hoping the back resolves before we get some forecasts not covered in those darned blue arrows.   Otherwise, I will just have to keep doodling around. 

Stick to it

 Winter has definitely set in, and I am definitely slowing down.  Lots of  mornings, the temptation to have another coffee and dawdle round the house is too tempting.  Ozzie has almost given up on hassling me for the after breakfast walk.   But I have managed a few outings notwithstanding.  I got over to Stephen's workshop with Chris and Gerard to help with gluing up his birdsmouth mast.   Stephen is very organized, and it all went very smoothly.

Not that I did not know it before, but it reminded me that I am not a super organized person, and that I made a good call getting an aluminium mast.  

The weather systems have been whizzing through quickly after the long period of settled weather with the blocking high.  Perhaps catching up, making up for lost time. Tuesday was diabolical, Wednesday lovely, Thursday diabolical, Friday lovely.

I seized the opportunity on Wednesday and got Derry out for a row for an hour in the afternoon.  Anne bumped into us as we were wheeling the boat up the walkway to Flemmos beach. 

It is great to have a light super simple boat that you really can get on the water in under 10 minutes, and great to live close enough to the water to be able to do that.  But having more than one boat presents challenges for someone with such poor organizational skills.  Note the gum boots in this boat.  Due to a significant lack of brain power, they were still in this boat when I went to launch the SCAMP on Friday.  A nice cold wade in bare feet will hopefully teach me not to make this mistake again.

After my last SCAMP outing, I determined to come up with a better arrangement for the Torqeedo attachment.  I spent a bit of time trying to come up with a raising lowering arrangement, but saw a stainless adjustable bracket for $75 so I decided to try that out.  The bracket arrived Thursday afternoon, I got it bolted on to the removable bracket, and looked at Willyweather for next possible day to test it out. Much to my surprise, as the wind that evening was howling and rain falling, the forecast for Friday was excellent, so I decided to launch.  Luckily Chris could make it as well at short notice.

We got on the water by 10, despite the usual couple of blokes who used to sail who wanted to chat.  Ozzie put on his usual pantomime of stoic reluctance, but once we got going, with the sun warming him up in the cuddy, he was perfectly happy.

The wind eased right off after about half an hour.  Chris did a grand job rowing - sort of motor sailing - moving Ysolde along at round 2.5 knots.  On the basis that I needed to check the outboard bracket, I used the Torqeedo. 

We got over to the mouth of Skeleton Creek and anchored in about a metre of water for a very pleasant lunch.  It is a nice spot I rekon.

The bracket arrangement looks weird but it works well.  Prop is well out of the water when not in use, the prop is well below surface to avoid cavitation when the bracket is deployed down.  It is relatively easy to switch between up and down.  I can't see it when I am in the boat, and basically, who cares anyway I wonder?  I can take the battery off which reduces the weight on the various connection points.  I hope it holds up ok in more robust conditions.  So with luck another system in place that works. 

The wind picked up a bit and swung more southerly while we were having lunch.  It was a lovely sail back over relatively flat, clear water, in the sunshine, at about 2.5 knots.  Magic.  I sailed back into the harbor.  There was a guy checking his phone standing in the sunshine at the end of the middle jetty.  I was so quiet coming in, I sailed right behind him and he didn't notice. 

Retrieving the boat, I managed to get the trailer close enough to the jetty that I could retrieve without even getting my feet wet.  All in all a really nice day on the water.  

Crisp

The weather man was saying that there was a "blocking high" heading our way.  The wind prediction  promised  reasonable wind on Monday, then lighter for the rest of the week. I figured I could get somewhere Monday, and would be able to get home again eventually.

I packed way too much stuff, a car shuffle while Anne kept an eye on the boat at the harbour, then set off about 10.30.  Anne took some lovely photos of us setting off.

Wind was allegedly Southerly, so I figured once I got round the corner at Point Cook I would have a reasonable line for Werribee South.  The wind was predicted to be 10 knots plus till after midnight, so I wanted a sheltered spot for overnight.

As always, Point Cook looked close but took forever to get past.   I thought I was never going to get past Dumb Jo, and a number of tacks were required. 

Gerard said he was going to launch from Werribee, and there was loose talk off meeting up off Wyndham Harbour round 1400.  I rang Gerard at 1300 to say fat chance as I was barely round the point and the wind was fluky and on the nose.  He had fallen for the lure of the nice downwind run, and was off the Seaplane jetty near the RAAF base.  It was a hard slog but I caught up with him (ok, I admit, I used a bit of Torqeedo to bridge the gap) and we met up round 1400, with about 5 nautical miles to go back to Werribee.  

The wind picked up round here, and swung SW, so it was a beat into an increasingly lumpy sea.  I could just about get the line to clear Wyndham Harbour, but Gerard's Shimmy doesn't point so well, so we spent a fair time as he tacked his way along the coast.  It was good sailing though, the SCAMP loves those sort of conditions.

It was getting towards sunset when Gerard fired up his Torqeedo and we could make the run into Werribee River.  I tied up at the ramp, so Oz could have some shore leave and dinner, and so I could give Gerard a hand retrieving.   It was getting distinctly dark when I cast off and headed over to pick up one of the visitor moorings ... which led to some excitement.  In the gathering gloom I hooked the slimy rope attached to the shackle on the top of the buoy, hooked my bow line through it and cleated off to a cleat on the boat.  I was just about to light the stove for a nice cuppa, when a change in the sound of the water made me look up, and I was just running aground.   Luckily the mudbanks are soft there.  I got out oars, pushed off, rowed back to buoy, and cleated another line through the "loop" thinking I must have somehow mucked up  my first attempt .... but in short order I was drifting again - the "loopL must have frayed through. Third time lucky, I tied a line through the shackle, but I forgot to secure the bow line, which had consequences.  I was pretty tired and hungry by this point, and it took a while to get organized.  I had taken too much stuff which I didn't need, which got in the way of me getting the things I did need.   At any given moment, Oz managed to be sitting on top of or in front of  whichever hatch I needed to get access to.  But we got organized, got the tent up, got dinner and numerous cups of tea and settled down for the night.

Despite the chill - it was 1.5 Celsius overnight - and the wind (which stayed brisk till after midnight as forecast and required a couple of reluctant forays out of the nice warm sleeping bags to adjust flapping halyard and creaking boom) we slept well, till Oz woke me at 6 to let me know he had an urgent appointment with a bush onshore.  Amazing how motivating that is to get you going on a cold morning. I dropped tent and rolled up sleeping stuff in record time, started the torqeedo, and got about 50 metres before it stopped.  We rowed in, Oz and bush were united, and while he had breakfast I investigated the engine.  The bow line, that I had not secured properly in the dark and my tiredness the night before, had wrapped round the prop.  Luckily revs were low, and the Torqeedo cuts out at first sign of resistance, so it was easy to unwrap and the prop shear pin was ok.  

I was expecting almost zero wind, but there was a nice breeze so we headed off round 0700 down the channel, and soon we were running nicely along the coast at about 3 knots.   I got out the gas stove and Bialetti, and we had coffee and porridge ticking off the miles back to Point Cook.  Very pleasant.

The curse of Dumb Jo struck again though, and about a mile off the point the wind became variable, then died completely/  I stuffed round for an hour, trying to chase the breeze, but eventually abandoned the exercise, and fired up the Torqeedo for a glide across the mirror surface of the water of Altona Bay. 

I got set up with an extra puffer jacket, scarf, multiple layers, and we ticked along at a bit over two knots.  It was so peaceful, I suspect I drifted off a few times ... but we stayed more or less on course and there was no one else out there that morning to run into.   

Back to the ramp a bit after 12.  My phone was flat, so I left the boat tied up at the end of the jetty and Oz and I walked home, got the car, came back and retrieved.  A nice chap, Norm, came over to talk SCAMP.  He knew what it was, and he seriously wanted one.  I think Anjevi is a good advertisement.

 It was good little trip, about 28 nautical miles.  The cold was not really an issue, and it was OK with Oz.  As always, there are some lessons.  I need to get a better arrangement for the torqeedo.  I need to be a lot more selective on what I take.  I still got pretty tired, and I need to come up with some strategies that conserve energy.  But all in all it was excellent fun, I am looking forward to the next trip.

Ps ... just reading Charles Stocks "55 years in Shoalwaters". He has a delightful chapter entitled "Learning to Cruise" , and another "Learning the Thames Estuary",  which recount his early voyages. He finds a pipe cot frame, makes a bed, and works out how to efficiently stow his boom tent. He observes "Life began to get organised which is the secret of all small boat cruising." I can relate.