Wheelie bin rib

 About a week ago, I was shuffling cars and boats, getting organised to get out next morning for a sail, when I managed to crunch my rib cage on the gunnel of the Skerry. An xray says no cracks or broken bones, apparently I have torn the muscle between my ribs. My GP calls this condition wheelie bin rib, quite common as people reach over into their wheelie bins to retrieve something they have dropped in there in error.  

Either as I get older, I  do sillier things, or my frame is less able to withstand the silly things I do, or both. Better try and be more careful from here on in.

It is painful enough to wake me up each time I roll over. Which means I haven't been sleeping so well. The good news is it will get resolve in about 6 weeks.  I cunningly timed this to coincide with what looks like a long spell of windy weather,so I am not missing much. And I think I can sail ok when the next good day comes along. I managed to row Leigh's Mirror ok on Sunday at the WBA sailing day.

Meanwhile, "Sea Pup" has been getting a workout. 

 I am planning Harriet's next boat for when she grows out of "Sea Pup". I like the look of the Angus Rowboats "Bumblebee" https://angusrowboats.com/pages/bumblebee-sailboat.  

Count down on for TN2025 ... I put a few way points in the gps tonight and Peter sent charts with courses marked on them,  both which might be good if things get exciting. Belt and braces. I don't expect we will be ahead of the fleet in the SCAMP though, unlike last time in the Skerry. But we might be so far behind we will have to find our own way. 

Here's a pic taken by Mark or Nick on "Blackboat" in 2023. Their caption:"Derry leading the fleet past The Images". That was a splendid, moderately terrifying sail alright!

To see ourselves as other's see us

 

We have been getting some almost Spring-like days, in between cold fronts that sweep through and take us back to Winter.  The fates aligned so that Chris and Gerard and I had a free day on one of the warm, balmy days, and we seized the opportunity to get out for a sail from Werribee South.  With one thing and another, it had seemed like a long time between sails.

We were on the water by 10.  The alleged Northerly has swung quite East, and was blowing close to down the Channel, so Chris and Gerard used their Torqeedos to get out to clear water.  Being an incorrigible smart arse,  I decided to tack out of the river, which of course had consequences.

Chris as always took some nice footage, here is a very edited view of the day.  Watch closely and see if you can spot what the price of my under sail exit from the river was.

The low water is mighty low on either side of the channel, and I suspect, on one of the tacks, I must have been a bit over ambitious, and caused the rudder quick release to quick release itself.  But somehow, in the excitement, I didn't notice.  Well, I knew something was out of balance, and kept trying to adjust the bleater to move the centre of effort of the sail to correct the weather helm.  Then I suspected I was just over powered, so I put in a reef.  Which is when Mark from the WBA  came up behind me on a stonking great boat and gleefully captured us with the rudder in full bounce. Dammit. At least I was sailing, they were just burning diesel. 

I eventually twigged and fixed it. The helm feels wonderfully better with the rudder down.  

Chris anchored past Wyndham Harbour, off one of the break water walls to the east, which should have been a bit sheltered according to the forecast but wasn't. After a huge amount of stuffing around, getting lines and fenders arranged, I was just about to fang into a much needed lunch, when it became clear we were dragging.  Indeed there was a large ball of weed on the anchor when Chris retrieved it.  The wind was still strong as we disentangled, got sail up and got moving, providing some good free entertainment for a person sitting on the beach.  Once we started heading back to the River the wind eased right off.  There was a rain storm over Geelong, and it felt a bit ominous, but we got back into the river fine, and moored up to one of the visitor moorings to enjoy a late lunch.

It was a good outing, apart from the rudder fiasco. The new Torqeedo mount is ugly as sin but it works fine and feels solid,  so I will just have to avert my eyes from it.  It is all learning and evolving. I got a few ideas for a few more little tweaks that I have been adding over the last few days, namely a more robust and quickly rigged arrangement for the rear mast/sail transport carrier, and some hooks and bungey to hold my oars out of the water when they are in the rowlocks.  Looking forward to testing them out soon.

Back and forth

About two weeks ago there was a hint of spring weather. A rising of the sap, a rush of blood to the head, I thought I had better get stuck into the garden which has been sadly neglected. I mowed the lawn, then without thinking, twisted, tried to pick the lawn mower up to put it away, and did my back in. I seem to do this every couple of years. Oh well. The back seems to get better one day, then it plays up again the next. It has slowed me down a bit. But in between I have managed a few outings.

 I did manage to get out with Andrew for the relaunching of his Red Jacket.

Always interesting trying to work out how to rig a boat.  You can see me, in this photo taken by Hahn, cheerfully getting ready to raise the jib with the spinnaker halyard.  But we eventually sorted out a reasonable set up.  Luckily it was a very light airs day.  We got a visit from a big pod of dolphins, a good omen for the relaunch.

One of my favourite youtube channels is "Simon Bloke in the Woods".   Part of his technique involves putting his camera on a tripod somewhere, walking into or out of  view, repeat ... lots of times.  It is artlessly obvious, but I find it tricks the brain into going along with the illusion.   The trouble with sailing is that the point of view is largely trapped on the boat.  There are options of course, but how nice would it be to be able to put a camera outside the boat, like on a tripod?

While I have been creaking around with my back, I finished off my prototype spar buoy camera float.  It is a length of conduit, with lead sinkers in the bottom, a float in the top third, and a  wood plug with a screw thread for the camera in the top.  The red buoy and bit of rope is to make a good target and something to hook onto with the boat hook.

I tested it first with the old Flip camera, to see that the buoyancy was adequate - I didn't want my expensive 360 camera sinking to the bottom if I could help it.

It floated ok, but the unstabilized footage from the Flip was distinctly sea sick making.  But it showed the spar buoy could support the weight of the camera ok, so I tried again with the 360. The footage looks promising.  

After a few more days, cabin fever was setting in and I persuaded myself my back was feeling better.  What looked like a window of opportunity for a sail came up on Tuesday.  The BOM was forecasting 10-12 knot North Westerlies.  I got caught up with another project Monday (putting in a photo essay on building the SCAMP for Practical Boat Owner as part of my campaign to get Ozzie in there as Sea Dog of the month) so I didn't have time to pack or get ready.  Tuesday morning I was more than usually stupid packing up.  I forgot my sea boots.  I forgot the spar buoy, the purpose of the whole exercise, though as it turned out it was probably too windy to have used it.

The weather man often underestimates North Westerlies, and this day was no exception.  I should have twigged as we blew out of the harbour at about 3 knots under bare poles.  Anyway we got sail up, then quickly put in the first reef, and headed over to Kororoit creek mouth.  It was just past low tide, and an off shore breeze, so I figured if I did run aground  on the sand bars, I would not be there long.  When we got there, there was a woman with two big dogs romping along. It is a bird sanctuary there, definitely not a place for off leash dogs.  Grrrrrrr.  In the interests of not getting my blood pressure up, I gybed around, and tested the ability of the SCAMP to steer with both rudder and centreboard up.  We scooted over the shallows leaving two furrows behind in the sand, and managed to sail broadly where we needed to go.  Clever little boat.

I ran down past the Jaw Bone, thinking of maybe a run along the coast to T21 to visit the seal, but I could feel the wind gusts getting stronger.  At last the voice of common sense got through, and I put in the second reef, and turned for the beat back to Altona.  Along the way, the wind really piped up.  I was thinking of the third reef there for a while, but we were going ok, and I tacked in so I was sailing reasonably close the shore, which gave some shelter.  

When we got to Altona harbour, the wind was really up, and straight down the channel leading in.  I thought the smart thing to do would be to get the Torqeedo fired up. I put the battery on, connected remote throttle, lowered sail, engaged forward ... and my outboard bracket promptly popped out of two of the three the connectors on the transom. I had the engine almost in the water, lots of chop, wind gusting up, and us drifting off for Mount Martha. Hmmmm.  I tried a few times to get the bracket to hold without success, but it was clear it was not fixable under the circumstances. There was no way I could row the SCAMP in with that wind. The only option left, I was going to have to sail in.   I raised sail and let it out and while the SCAMP drifted sideways.  I got the battery and throttle disconnected and the engine out of the water, put an oar in the oarlock, got fenders and lines ready, then tacked my way back.  

Luckily no one else was silly enough to be going out, so there were no stink boats to dodge.  There were some serious gusts coming through, but heading in to the wind, the boat speed is very controllable, and the SCAMP behaved totally reliably. We tacked up to almost touch the inner green buoy on the outer channel, which then gave a line so that we could squeak through past the rock walls on either side of the inner entrance, then a couple of tacks inside the harbour itself so we could come up to the jetty. At Laverton, wind gusts to 27 knots at 1.40, right when I was coming in. I chose the windiest time of the day for my manoeuvrer.

I had a cup of tea and some soup to get some energy for packing up.  I gave Oz some soup in a bowl on the jetty.  As he took the last lick of the bowl, a gust picked it up and it frizzbied off, landing right side up in the water.  Last I saw of it, it was heading off to Sorrento.  No way I was going to chase it. 

 

Someone very wise (I can't remember who ) observed something along the lines that: "The sea will find out what you did wrong" .  I knew that bracket was a bit dodgy, but as I was also using those connectors on the transom for my sail/mast carrying arrangement, I shied away from changing it over.  Well, now I will just have to.  I am grateful that it all worked out ok, I think I got off lightly this time.