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.
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