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.

Christmas 2022

 

Christmas eve, nice weather, Chris S was getting Ysolde out for a quick sail from Werribee South so I got over there with the Skerry. On the water by 9. Wind West South West.

The wind kicked up a bit and we put in a reef. I could just about keep up with Ysolde unreefed, but after we each put in a reef, i was much slower.

We sailed in quite close to shore and anchored. Mike's 1 kg Cooper anchor holds the boat in those conditions, somewhat to my surprise.

I sailed back in, and for once did a nice approach to the jetty, dropped sail a couple of boat lengths off, and coasted up nicely to a stop. Two blokes hanging about were very impressed, nice to have an audience when things go right. Usually there are only audiences for disasters.

De-rigging was not quite so pleasant. A couple of truly obnoxious blokes pulled up beside me, but at least I was not encouraged to dawdle. Home by 1 and into tidying up for the Christmas day celebrations.

The family gave me a 360 camera for Christmas Birthday. It needs a faster sd card than I possess, so a brief hiatus till one is acquired. In the modern way, no user manual, which I find annoying, but hopefully I can puzzle it out.

A very pleasant Christmas day tho. Lovely weather, lovely family, lots of feasting and good humour. I feel extremely lucky.

Dumb Joe almost

 

Jim and Chris who are doing the TN launched their Lugger at Altona with Penny this morning. I got down with the Skerry.  A beautiful sailing day with a steady 10 knots Southerly. We sailed over to Point Cook. I was a head and headed for the beach there but the sea birds looked so peaceful and the water was shallow which I knew the Lugger wouldn't like, so I headed back out again almost running over a big banjo shark. We drifted and had lunch, then made an attempt to get round Dumb Joe cardinal mark.

It was directly up wind though, and we got discouraged and ran back for home. 13.4 NM for the day.

The good news is that the Skerry performed very creditably relative to the Lugger, faster on all points of sail and pointing about as well. So I might not be the TN lantern rouge.

A good day, my kind of sailing.

Testing testing

Sea trials of Toqeedo bracket on the Skerry were successful in so far as we did not capsize, sink or do any damage to the boat or engine or crew. There is a distinct list to Port, the engine side, but I can counteract that with my weight once I am in the boat. There was a fair old chop and a bit of wind, and the rudder is not sufficient to steer into a choppy headwind. I had to row to keep our heading. But we could move along about 2.4 knots bang into the wind. I anchored, and took battery and engine off. Not much buoyancy back there and it was tricky getting them off ... I don't think I could put the engine on in any sort of seaway. So, on balance, I think I might leave the engine out of the equation. Even with electric,life is much simpler without engines. 

I guess I should give it another go, and tidy up the bracket so it is not such an eyesore. The wind at Laverton was gusting 18-19 knots while I was out so I guess we were doing pretty well to be moving at over 2 knots. Golly I am tired tonight tho! I will have to be careful to conserve energy on the Tawe Nunnugah... minimum possible rowing.

Collie Nose's last sail

 Since the sailing day on the Lake, Ozzie has been diagnosed with "Collie Nose", DLE, a congenital,  abnormal reaction to sunlight. It manifests as a crusty nose, with a lot of congestion, and discolouration around the nostrils. Poor boy has been sneezing and snoring something awful. He is taking cortisone and antibiotics and it is clearing up, but we have to keep him out of the sun. So he is retiring as sea dog. I will miss him.

The slippery slope

 

It was the regular WBA sailing day at Albert Park Lake today.  Anne was heading off to visit a friend, so I took Oz rather than leave him home alone.  He was ok getting back in the boat, first time since our capsize.  He looks fairly relaxed, but perhaps he is just shutting his eyes trying to make it all go away.

Peter was there in his lovely cat ketch, reminding me how good cat ketches can be.  

Jim was there in his row boat.  A couple of chaps I have not met before were launching a lovingly restored clinker built boat.

I was trying to prevent Pitthirrit banging into the trailer when it came time to retrieve, and managed to slip and land in the not too pristine waters of the lake. up to my armpits.  Oh well, someone has to provide the free entertainment.  I was glad to get home and get a shower.  

I made a few tweaks in the balanced lug, which seem to help a bit.  I need to push on with new centre board and engine mount this week.

I got a heads up regarding a Welsford Navigator for sale at an extremely reasonable price over in Mornington. But somehow,I am just not interested. Something has changed in me. Perhaps I amon another slippery slope. But it could also be a glimmering of something like sense.