Sunshine,jellyfish

After the cloud burned off Friday was a beautiful sunny day, with wind around 10 knots steady South Westerly.  Too good to miss, as the forecast for the coming week has strong winds every day. I've learned that if a good day comes along and I can make it, then get on out there.

Notwithstanding it took me most of the morning to get out of bed and get organized.  But when I got out there, it was well worth it, enough wind to move us along 3.5 to 4 knots, but no chop.  The boat sails itself pretty much, thanks to the Huntingford Helm impeder, and I could stretch out in the sun and take it easy.  Ozzie was pretty relaxed too.

It was a very low tide, so low that there was a guy riding his bicycle along the sand bars which are usually covered in water.  We sailed over to the mouth of Kororoit Creek, working on the Riddle of the Sands approach that you suss out the channels best at low tide.  Thankyou Davies, I think I can see the way into the creek now, something to try next high tide.

I experimented with wearing gum boots, on the basis that my feet got really cold last time.   It was good launching but when we landed at the creek mouth, of course, I misjudged the depth at a sandbar, and got both water over the tops of both boots.  So much for warm dry feet.

On the way home we didn't want to stop. and we sailed on past the Red Stick and over towards Point Cook.  There were an extraordinary number of Blue Blubber (Catostylus mosaicus) jelly fish out there.  Inevitably the centre board hits some of them, which is sort of distressing for me and must be much worse for them.  So after a number of jellyfish-centre board collisions, we turned round and headed for home.

The water is getting cold - 12.5 degrees at the moment.  I have been reading up on survival in cold water - I think I will definitely wear my wet suit and thermals from now on, just in case.

By the time I had packed up the boat, my feet had largely lost sensation.  A really memorably good day on the water though, one I think I will remember.

Maribyrnong River with the WBA

Despite an apocalyptic weather forecast it was a lovely day for the WBA river trip up the Maribrynong today.  After Ozzie's Agility training I got the kayak launched near Footscray Park by 11.30.

There seemed to be lots of floating bits of crap along they way, old bottles, polystyrene foam, plastic. I loaded up the front and rear of the kayak with whatever came within reach. Gave me a good excuse to have a break from paddling too.

It wasvery pleasant gathering of wooden boatey type people, lunch made nicer by the unexpected sunshine.

Heading back down river, I paced along with Graham in his pedal driven canoe. He cycles everywhere and is super fit, so it was a workout to keep up with him. Lucky i was only going a few miles, as I don't think I had much left in the energy bank when I got back to my launch spot.

Way cool

The weather has taken a distinctly wintery turn.  Every day for the last week or so has had gale or strong wind warnings, plus rain and thunder storms. Today was an ok forecast, nothing better coming up either, so I got the Mirror out. 

We sailed down towards the mouth of Kororoit Creek, half thinking that we might try to navigate through the maze of sticks and sand bars at the entrance, but when we got there the waves seemed to be breaking right across the whole area with no obvious deeper water.  And it was mighty cold.  I'd forgotten to re-rig the topping lift so rowing would have been a right pain as well.  Enough excuses, we turned round and beat back home.  It was a bit choppy but probably less than 10 knots.  A few cup fulls of spray over the decks though, much to Ozzie's disgust.  One ear up, one ear down, is an eloquent sign of disapproval.

It was good to get out though, and I always seem to bump into nice people while I am rigging up or down.   So all in all it was worth the effort.  I definitely need a few more layers now - the water and air temperatures are way down, and I was cold

Drifting away

Today the forecast was for very light wind, dropping to under 5 knots at midday. Anne wanted the car, hence no launching the big boat. I thought I would wheel the Bolger Pirogue down for a sail or paddle. I took the old inflatable Tahiti canoe along too, as Kate has been wanting to try it out since I lent her Audrey Sunderland's Paddling North.

It was a lovely morning, and we  paddled a bit out to the reef to check out the sea birds, rafted up and drifted for a while,  then landed on the dog beach for morning tea and a reinflation of a leaking chamber on the Tahiti.

Ozzie was very disappointed there were no dogs around to see him make a dramatic seaborne arrival.

It was all very relaxing and pleasant. After we returned to our launch spot, I  ran the Pirogue onto the sand, then carried the Tahiti up onto the grass. I unlocked the club door, opened the air valves on the boat to let the air out, and generally pottered round, till I suddenly noticed the Pirogue quite some distance offshore, drifting slowly away. The sand bars shelve out quite a way, so i ran after it, but couldn't get to it before the water level was too deep to stand. My swimming seemed to be about the rate of drift of the boat, and I was beginning to think I would have to let it go, when a nice chap in a kayak saw my predicament, caught the errant boat, and towed it back to shore. A happy lucky ending to what could have been a bad situation.

I knew the tide was coming in, and the wind off shore. Hard to fathom why I let that happen. Just stupid I guess.

Under the heading "Weird coincidences", I noticed tonight that the AYC web cam has  become stuck and is showing an image from some days ago,  capturing me rigging up the Core Sound.

Half way

The wind forecast looked like it was a good day to sail over to Sandringham - a Westerly in the morning to run over, changing to a South Easterly in the afternoon for a reach run back. On the water it was a lot more flukey, but we made reasonable progress till we reached the shipping channel,  which is just over half way there. We bobbed round in the swell, sails slatting, centreboard banging, for what seemed an interminable time. Tried the engine but the noise quickly drove us crazy. Irrational I know, and against most experience, but the prospect that the wind had packed up for the day made us turn round and start what looked like a long slow trip back. I rowed for a bit, with the sails up and whatever breeze there was, enough to move us in the right direction at 2.5 knots. Then a light but steady breeze kicked up and the sun came out, a wonderful peaceful sail home. Oz found it very relaxing.

Back on the water

Just coming to the end of a project to replace the luff sleeve arrangement on the Core Sound 17's two masts. This project turned out to be much longer and more expensive than I anticipated, but it is almost finished.

Although the luff sleeve arrangement had the great virtue of simplicity - it was quick to set up and visually uncluttered - I found it had several downsides.  I mostly sail with just me and Ozzie the dog, and when the wind kicked up I found keeping the Core Sound sailing flat challenging.  And I really like being able to just drop the sails completely and motor into the boat harbour, without 115 square feet of windage producing sail cloth waiting to push me in some unexpected direction.

I am still refining the set up, and it is certainly taking me a lot longer than it used to, but I can keep practicing and experimenting with leaving as much in place as I can.

Yesterday was a splendid sailing day, despite a rather gloomy forecast.  Andrew who has been a regular at our midweek sailing days came out with me and we pottered around for a couple of hours.  I dropped him back at the beach in front of the yacht club, then headed back out for a bit more tweaking and attaching fittings.  Andrew took a great photo of me heading back out to Kirsty Ann.  You can see me carrying Oz in the extreme left of the picture.

I have a few more projects lined up for the boat.  Next in queue is to make a platform so Oz has a more comfortable space to spread out and sleep. If we are to make some longer voyages, the crew have to be comfortable.

Heading for the top mark

This week I received a newsletter from the lovely people down at South Gippsland Yacht Club, a wrap up of the Inverloch Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta which is held each year on Australia Day at the end of January. And what do you know, there on page one, was a photo of Jess and I, in Peregrina the trusty Mirror, heading towards the top mark. 

Jess is smiling but also looking a bit worried, as she thought I might be going to T-bone the crash boat before I tacked away.  A great photo to have and I am very grateful to Tim Wilson who took it and Trilby Parise who sent it through.