Into the murk

 

I had planned an overnighter in company with Chris down the Bellarine peninsula. Best weather window Tuesday Wednesday. Anne had a specialist appointment which is usually punctual and over in half an hour  so the plan was I would launch at Portarlington and meet Chris there. But the appointment was late, Anne had to get X-rays, come back for another consultation later in the day. I had to cancel. 

I felt this was a bit poor so to try and find some redemption I got up early and headed out to meet Chris returning to Werribee South. It was grey and foggy but eventually I spotted his sail and we met up, only for the wind to die away.  We rowed for a while, then Chris offered me a tow with his Torqeedo. 

It was good to get out. I really enjoyed the first bit, solo, in the gloom, with flocks of seabirds circling round, and a bit of wind. 

Scamp plans turned up today. If this one gets built it will be #645  ... seems like a nice number to me. 

Shelter

 

Talk is ongoing for a couple of nights away down to Portarlington and Swan Bay next week. I saw a really nifty boat tent on a Scamp down in Hobart which I have drawn on for this set up. Frame is a hoop of fibreglass tent poles. Two bent bits of aluminium tube fit into the rowlock fitting, which means the curve on the poles is a bit less severe. T joints connect a longitudinal.

Of fibreglass poles,tightened by a loop of cord. It makes a robust structure connected onto the dodger,which already provides a bit of shelter. Nice thick canvas tarp fits over that. A bit funky but I've seen worse. And I think I can enhance it a bit with some fiddling. 

If I can get some energy I would like to test before next week.

With the mast up I can open out that rear section which makes it feel a lot more spacious.

Easy

We took Derry the Skerry to Walkerville a few weeks back. I just rowed. It is such an easy boat to handle, and such good fun.

 

Jess's feet visible off the starboard beam.  

You never know ... or maybe, I never learn

 Rob, who I met at the Wooden Boat Festival down in Hobart, suggested a sail from Altona Sunday. He has built a very beautifully finished Storer Kombi canoe, and wanted an inaugural sail. The Bom was predicting a 32 degree day with Northerlies. I know these are seldom good sailing days - the Bom often underestimates Northerlies here. But the revised forecast was showing 10-12 knots, and against my inner warning voice, I didn't try to put him off.

Rob was late getting down, and rigging a boat for the first time always takes a while. It was nearly 12, and getting hot, by the time we got on the water, and the wind was gusting and building. Rob wisely decided that a first sail with a strong off shore wind was not a great idea. I had the Skerry in and sail up, so I went for a sail up and down staying reasonably close in. Good practice for heavy weather sailing. Rob came out again for paddle for a while. It wasn't that pleasant, and when I saw him heading back to the beach I dropped started to head in as well under oars. I was almost to the beach when I spotted two heads in the water a hundred metres or so south of the safe harbour wall. Two paddle boarders, a dad and his son, maybe 11, were slowly swimming back towards shore. I let the boat blow back out and asked if they needed help. The father said they would keep swimming but asked if I could stay close by till they were safe, just in case. This proved to be a challenge as the wind was,by now gusting at round 30 knots.

The nose kept blowing off and we would do a big loop downwind to get back on course. I managed to keep a boat length away from them and offered encouraging commentary till they got back to shore. 

I am not sure how much help I could have been. I was actually worried I was going to wind up being blown off shore in those winds.

On reflection, and should a similar situation arise, a better way to have handled this would have been to get directly upwind, drop anchor and let rode out till I was near them. I was too busy rowing to hold station to be able to do much else. With an anchor out I could have got a throw rope ready, taken down the mast to reduce windage, and generally have had more options. Oh well, live and learn.

I was a bit dehydrated and heat struck afterwards I think, and I am stuffed today.

On the bright side, Living Boat Trust have put a nice link to my Tawe Nunnugah video.  https://livingboattrust.org.au/2023/03/03/missed-the-2023-tawe-nunnugah/

And I have finished my written account over the raid and sent it off. If Small Boats don't want it I hope some other platform might take some version, or I can blog it!

 

Made it

 

Derry the Skerry and I are just back home safely from a truly epic Tassie expedition participating in the 9 day Tawe Nunnugah raid. We sailed and rowed the whole way from Moss Glen on Recerche Bay in SE Tassie up the D'Entrecasteaux Channel to Hobart under our own steam, a goal i had set myself. It is a rugged wild place with plenty of 2 + metre swell, 30+ knot winds,  storms, fantastic wilderness. There was a capsize and a near sinking in the fleet but Derry the Skerry stayed mast up and handled the challenging conditions brilliantly. A couple of times I was leading the fleet and hove to to let some boats that knew where they were going pass us. Derry and got to be the messiest boat in the Australian Wooden Boat Festival at the end of the Tawe Nunnugah.

Here's my spot tracker map. A couple of days I was well down the track before I remembered to turn the darn thing on, but it gives some idea of the trip.

o

 I will write up a fuller account from my log when I get a chance to download photos and video, and to process the whole thing.

I  think I am still recovering from covid ... I seem to run out of energy and go into the red zone where I cannot be stuffed doing anything. Hopefully a few low key days will fix me up. Unpacking and sorting all the stuff will take a while. 

My video record is here: 

Uh oh

 

Anne tested positive for covid a few days back, so I have been waiting for the other shoe to drop. Felt pretty average yesterday, very poorly last night, positive this morning.

I am hoping that I bounce back ok and can be in good shape by the 29th,when I am booked to catch the ferry down to Tassie for Tawe Nunnugah. At the moment I barely have the energy to get from the bedroom to the kitchen so I had better start making a Lazarus like recovery.  But, I see 140 of my fellow Victorians died from Covid last week. So, I need to keep perspective on this. Whenever we bounce back ok I will be profoundly grateful.

Skeleton Creek

Mars and Derry headed out from Altona boat ramp Monday. "Fair winds and following seas" Andrew said when he invited me. Wind was predicted to be SSw so we headed for Skeleton Creek mouth, which was a beat for me all the way. Andrew anchored there, I rafted up, and we had a bumpy lunch as the wind and chop started to build. Lunch was cut short when Andrew's anchor rope untied itself, and we started drifting backwards fast.

Luckily, I put a reef in while getting sorted, because the wind really picked up on the reach back. 25 knots at Fawkner beacon. Hmmm, that wasn't in the forecast.the beam on sea made it all rather exciting - I thought we were going over to windward a few times when hit by a gust - steep wave combo.

The wind was so strong I didn't fancy the close quarters of the harbour so I landed on the beach. I helped Andrew get his boat back on the trailer then drove round to Ayc and packed my boat up. I was seriously tired after that! 

After a recovery day, and prompted by some AYC Cruisers who said they might be getting out, I got Derry out again to sail back and see if I could find the anchor. I put a waypoint on the gps at the spot where we were anchored  to head for. Andrew came in Derry, his friend Murph came in his Hobi Tri, and Andrew G came over in his Laser. Al nice sail over. There was a bit wave action on the sand bar where we'd anchored and the water was turbines. There were dark, sting ray or banjo shark shapes moving in the murk. The search party headed off for shallow clear water where the anchor certainly wasn't, but where they had less chance of stepping on a marine creature. So we didn't find the anchor, but we didn't get stung by a sting ray either.

My new fisherman's anchor got a good workout, holding both Derry and Murp's Trimaran in the chop. My waterproof case for the 360 camera was not so good - it degrades the quality of the images and for some reason  would only let me take still images. Oh well. 

We had a good fast reach back. Campbell, Mary and Duncan met us and brought my trolley out. A nice welcoming committee.  All in all a very nice day. I will be returning with a mask and snorkel on a calmer day.

I hope! 

The not so good news is, Anne has Covid. She is not too bad so far and we have antivirals for her.  I will probably get it as well. I too have a script for antivirals, so hopefully it won't knock me round too much and I will still be able to get to Tassie at the end of the month. But for now, I feel ok apart from  galloping hypochondria.