Bumping along

The weather here is odd at the moment, super humid, with lots of moisture in the air.   Monday was grey, foggy and wet, with a bit of South South Westerly wind to add a bit of chop to the mix.   Andrew and Mars only had Monday free, so I got down early and rigged up in the rain. I am getting quicker, and the systems are getting smoother.  The new lazy jack cleating arrangement makes life easier.  We got on the water, squeaked past the dredger at the mouth of the channel to the harbour, and were well away by 10.

It was a broad reach most of the way along the coast towards Williamstown.  I was hooting along but decided I better put a reef in.  I did a bit of an average job, as the boat was bouncing round so much, but it was a good move. 

 We were still getting about 5 knots, and I clocked 7.2 knots maximum surfing down the swell off the breakwater.   I was a bit worried about jibing with the swell, so I tacked round onto port tack and we headed into  Williamstown, watching suspiciously for any freighters to come looming out of the fog.

Andrew volunteers on the Castlemaine, and said that we would pretty safe berthing for lunch on the commercial jetty as at most only one ferry would be running on a weekday.  We moored up for a nice lunch and a bit of shore leave for Oz.

After lunch, as we were heading out I noticed the tugs heading out to escort an incoming freighter.  The wind had eased a bit, and to get round the breakwater under sail alone would require tacking back and forwards across the shipping channel, which didn't seem like a great idea with the approaching freighter.    I fired up the Torqeedo and we started plugging straight into the wind.

Once round the corner and heading straight into the swell, it was a fairly bumpy ride.  So as not to hold Andrew up too much, I motored on till we were past the last south cardinal mark after which the angle was ok for sailing.  

I shook out the reef, and we pottered home, mostly between 2 and 3 knots.  Thanks to the rather grim weather forecast there were not too many fishing boats out, so retrieval was no hassle.  Home by about 2.30 pm.

This, btw, was my 31st day on the water with Anjevi since launching in late February, and I have done just shy of 250 NM.  A month of SCAMP sailing, in around 9 months. Definitely more fun than a month of Sundays.

This day, in any of my other boats past and present, I would have been moderately anxious.  In the SCAMP I was pretty relaxed.  It was a good day! It is a great little boat.

Off and on

 If only I could tell the difference between off and on with my 360 camera!

Today was another camera buoy fiasco, but very pleasant not with standing. 

I was a bit anxious about getting out after my last ramp experience but it was windier Today. I suspect wind keeps obnoxious pests - like mosquitoes and dickhead stink boaters - away. 

I got down reasonably early, and was on the water 45 minutes later. Would have been faster but I got the dreaded Error 20 message on my Torqeedo and it took repeated cleaning and spraying with wd40 to get it to go away. But I should have been a bit slower and carefully checked the halyard lazy jacks arrangement... there was a snafu when we raised sail. 

Chris as usual was early, and we were heading out about 9.45.  It was grey and choppy first off, but pretty soon the cloud cleared and we got a sparkling morning with a good breeze eventually, about as good as it gets. 

I tried the 360 camera on the spar buoy again. First try, it ran down the side of the boat and hooked itself under the Torqeedo. I rescued it, and launched again over the transom this time, but managed to switch it off as I put it in the water. 

So all Chris's well judged buoy overboard manoeuvres went unrecorded. We sailed over to Altona Pier then back to the ramp to collect Roman just on midday. He has just bought wood, plans and parts from John, a builder up in Nowra whose build had run into ill health. There but for the grace of God... the possibility that I would not be able to finish my SCAMP really motivated me to get it done as fast as I could. 

Roman is an interesting guy, he has built a big, steel yacht and a dinghy, so I rekon he is a good prospect to finish #653. 

Thanks to the wind, retrieving was no hassle, and the boat slid onto the trailer without protest or getting its bunks and skegs crossed. Not feeling pressured helps a lot I think.

All in all, it was a really nice messing about in boats day, the sort of day I had in mind building the boat.

One still from the video illustrates my next SCAMP project btw.  You can see the cleat on the mast, that is intended to secure the lazy jacks, is right in the way of the main halyard heading down to the block on the cuddy top.   It seemed like a good idea at the time, but in practice it is awkward.  I am going to put a block on the mast partner at the rear of the mast, and lead the lazy jack halyard back to a cam cleat on a raised bit on the cuddy, dead amidships. 

Squeaking in

Forecast light South South Easterlies, and a 0.8m high tide round 11, it seemed like as good a day as any to try getting the SCAMP into Kororoit Creek.   The water was nice and clear so we could see the nice formations of potentially bottom gouging rocks that scatter the sand bars leading in.

The SCAMP with centre board and rudder up draws 180 mm, which was enough to squeak over the top of them, though we did scrape on some sand bar with the skegs at one point.  There are sticks with helpful signs saying "Keep left" scattered seemingly randomly around, but by following the track on the GPS from my last attempt in the Skerry, we got in ok.

Though I did nearly collect the row of submerged tyres that stretch out from the current spit location.  I was talking to Andrew G who came out with me, and stopped following the track and the clearly marked flag on my GPS from the last time I bumped into them.  

But we managed to miss and get into the nice stretch of deep water that stretches about a kilometer up the creek.  It is a really lovely spot, one of the hidden gems of the Bay.  

There were flocks of waders (Godwits maybe?), cormorants popping up next to us, formations of pelicans flying over head, and lots of birdsong from the mangroves on either side.  I really like river sailing - there is something very stately about gliding along in totally flat water, while the landscape slips past on either side. 

The SCAMP was very steerable downwind and on a reach with centreboard up and just a sliver of rudder in the water.  Getting back out into the Bay was not quite so elegant - the centreboard uphaul was under Andrew's legs, and I didn't quite clip it in adequately. It released, we pivoted to starboard, went out of the channel, and I rowed for quite a while not getting very far until I realised what the problem was.  When we got to deeper water, I think I hit one of those rocks with the centreboard too, better have a good look at the cb today. 

Once we were in deeper water, we had a nice sail over to off Altona Pier and back. A great day, except for getting back into Altona Harbour.  A combination of jetski morons and large stink boat morons put a bit of a dampner on the end of the day.  I will have to develop some alternative strategies for boat retrieval in Snapper season ... seems like the mornings are fairly mellow and you can pick your time, but the afternoons, with impatient dickheads wanting to get their boats out, and impatient dickheads wanting to get their boats in, is a fraught time. 

I suspect too that I am primarily a solo and solitary sailor - I really like pottering at my own pace.  Having company on the boat, however congenial, takes energy, and by golly I was completely stuffed last night!

Whatever, it was a good day, and sailing into the creek was something I have wanted to do for a long time. It means that I could overnight up there if I got the tides right.