Monday 26 September 2016

Fam fun


Airlie 27/9/2016

The party’s over – we had a blast.

Ten glorious days of perfect weather cruising the Whitsundays with daughter Misha.  We went to all the best spots at the best times. We swam, we sang, we danced, we drank, we ate, we laughed a lot, shared some memorable happy hours with Ray and Di on "All that Jazz".
Highlights were climbing to the top of Whitsunday Peak from Cid Harbour, a 5 km trek that took 3 hours and tested our fitness.  The views from the top were well worth it.
 


 
 
 
 



Another highlight was the unexpected surprise discovery at Tongue Bay: a magnificent white sandy cay - dotted with about a million sightseers who fortunately didn't stay too long.



Me, Di, Misha
 
 
Misha certainly got the lion's share of it all.  She had a one day overlap with youngest daughter Shoni and family before sailing back to catch her flight out of Hamilton Island. Ray and Di very generously took us all out for a sail on their (much bigger) yacht to snorkel at Langford reef.  After that it was shorter visits with the others who were staying on the land in a caravan park. (Will post some more photos of that as they come in.)  Needless to say a wonderful time was had by all.  And now it's back to sailing. Yay!!
 
 
 

Monday 12 September 2016

Ruminations on summer 16.


Bauer Bay, South Molle Island, Whitsundays, 12/9/2016

 
“When you live like a turtle with your home on your back there are many options.” (John McK)

Option 1:  Sail Shanti across the Tasman to NZ for the summer months

Option 2:  Sail back down south to ?? (not too far, in readiness to begin sailing north again next year)

Option 3: Park Shanti somewhere safe and fly back down south.


The first option is certainly attractive – possibly too attractive (I might never leave!) 
The Bay of Islands is one of my favourite places, having cruised there before on “Soulmate”. 
However, the Tasman sea is a treacherous patch of water, notorious for its gales.  In a way I feel that this would be a good test to see if Shanti and I are ocean-ready.

Also there is my ageing father in Auckland, whom it would be good to be near.  He will be turning 99 next January.

As far as having a good cruising ground to sail in for the summer months, NZ could not be beaten.  I can’t think of anywhere else down the east coast of Australia comparable.

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Option 2 is to sail south to some safe port where I can leave Shanti to fly back to Melbourne for Christmas and then across to NZ in January for my father’s birthday.

This option was my first thought when it became obvious that I wasn’t going to make it to Darwin this year.

In October/November, when the northerlies blow, most cruisers will head back down the coast to get out of the cyclone belt.  Most will go back to their home base or where they came from.  I certainly won’t be sailing all the way back down to Melbourne, perhaps to Bundaberg, Brisbane or Southport.


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A third option is to leave Shanti somewhere relatively inexpensive and safe.  I was in Bowen recently, where someone told me they kept their yacht there between two piles for a year at only $10 a week.  However, cheap as it may be, it is still a cyclone prone area.

This option has least appeal to me as I don’t want to leave Shanti alone for too long.  One of the benefits of not pushing north this year was to give me more time to get to know the boat better, to iron out all the glitches, to do more of a “shake-down” cruise. 

To park and run defeats this purpose.

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I am still in the “information-gathering/ rumination” stage, with no great rush to make a decision.
My daughter Michelle flies into Hamilton Island tomorrow to sail around the Whitsunday Islands with me for the next 10 days. Youngest daughter, Shoni & Pierre & Felix are camping in Airlie for a week.  It will be wonderful to see them all again.

 
Meanwhile I see that Webb Chiles has arrived in Durbin. I quote him here on “fear”:

“Mostly we are afraid of the unknown.  I do not claim to have courage.  Courage is doing something you are afraid to do.  What I do have is nerve, which is the willingness, after making the best plans and preparations possible within the limits of your resources, to go ahead with an endeavour whose outcome is uncertain and may be fatal.”

His advice to others is to “sail enough so that the confidence in your own ability and your boat’s to cope with extreme conditions grows and becomes near certainty.”


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Webb Chiles had no self-steering windvane on his Moore 24 and relied on a sheet-to-tiller rig for over 90% of his Indian Ocean crossing.

I have watched a few UTube clips on this system and been interested to try it out.

This afternoon I sailed from Airlie beach to South Molle Island and made a new discovery:  Shanti sails herself beautifully to weather with only a headsail.

It was blowing around 15 knots from ESE; my heading was as high as I could point into it, doing around 5.5 knots under headsail alone.  I haven’t done much windward sailing so far, with practically all of the passage north having the wind dead behind or off the aft quarter.

Normally I would attach the tiller pilot arm if I needed to leave the helm for a moment, to go below to check the course or whatever.  Today I let it go and was amazed to see the tiller just gently moving back and forth by itself. The course fluctuated only slightly, keeping the wind angle between around 40 – 50 degrees off the bow.  Shanti felt perfectly balanced.  I was absolutely thrilled!

These are the things I need to play around with more.


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Thursday 1 September 2016

Shaggers



28/8/2016 - 2/9/2016. 

Rendezvous 2016
Shag Islet Cruising Yacht Club, Shag Islet, Gloucester Passage. 

Everyone who joins this virtual yacht club is automatically a Vice Commodore of some original location, in my case, my childhood home of Bucklands Beach – though I’m not sure that the prestigious BBYC that hosted the Louis Vuitton Americas Cup series would acknowledge me as their new 2IC.

Notwithstanding, the SICYC exists primarily to increase awareness of Prostate Cancer.  Having personally known of at least 5 friends and family members with this disease, it seemed like a worthwhile cause to support.  Also a good place to stop a while and have some fun.

Ray & Di Newton were here on “All That Jazz”, as were Jeff & Leigh Benson, with son and friends on their new cat “Tru Blu”.


 

For a largely volunteer run club, it was remarkably well organised, with live music and dancing, food & drinks, crab racing, kite-flying & BBQ on Shag Islet, plus many other fund raising activities; all generously supported by the hundreds of cruisers who come from everywhere to join in this annual event. 
The weather was overcast, sprinkling showers and threatening rain, but fortunately held off for most of the activities.
 
 
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Perhaps the trickiest bit to organise was the “hands across the water” with dozens of dinghies joined up to form an aerial view of the ribbon “P” logo, but even that went off with better precision than many a band practice or staff meeting. 
 
For the first time, Ch 7 provided media coverage, which will help further early detection of the disease that claims more lives each year than breast cancer does in women.

I joined up to become a “virgin shagger”, got my blue Vice Commodore  T-shirt, met some great people, lost a bucket, my Prada sunnies and a few other things, which indicates how good a time I was having.  Here I am enjoying a plastic of wine with Leigh.

 
 
On Monday a mass exodus left me sitting on my lonesome without a dinghy, so I decided to follow newfound friends across to Bowen and continue the party for another day or two. 

Then it will be back to meet up with older friends and family in Whitsundays.