'Straya day

We took Cheshire Cat to get blessed on Australia Day. The ASCC had organsed for the Sisters Of Perpetual Indulgence to bless the fleet at Store Beach near Manly. So Julie, Karina, Roger and Davey joined me for a lovely big day out. On the way down the harbour we nearly ran onto the Ferry Race coming towards us. But a nice maritime services man suggested we go round the back of the ginormous P&O liner parked off Athol Bay. We saw Mathilde all decked out in yellow and green balloons but they didn't see us. Just after that we looked up to see first a huge Australian flag towed by a helicopter, and then a skywriter writing "sorry" in the clear blue sky. That is sorry to the stolen aboriginal generation. It was great to see on what has also been called "Invasion Day".

When we arrived at Store Beach there was only one other club boat there, the newly aquired Quest, Laine's replacement for Topknot. There were two hire boats full of gay boys also in the vicinity which was the reason for the choice of location. Later Wayne turned up in his new stink boat.

After some trouble anchoring for which I blame helmsman Roger (not really) we had lunch (sushi courtesy of Karina and Julie) and then went ashore for the blessing.
The usual farting about and a swim while we waited and then a nice blessing although the obvious hand of Neil in our one referring to main sheets and fan belts.

And then a lovely cruise home downwind with just the jib out and doing 4 knots in 10 knots of breeze. Noice. But neither different nor unusual.

The pics are from Karina but they're very low res so they're little.

Another Day Another Fan Belt

Karina and Jenni brought Cheshire Cat round from Phoebe Street and collected Mal, Lea and me from the Club for another perfect Balmain race day. Not the best start but we were well in the field as we headed north and then east south east to round Goat Island. Again we were keeeping close to Amon Re, our bench mark these days, and ahead of several other boats. Having elected to take the executive crew role I stayed forward a lot unless we needed to furl the head sail which was my job. I had a great time being ballast on the rail and enjoying the scenery.

One round of Goat and two rounds of Cockatoo, Spectacle and Snapper Islands in winds between 10 and 14 knots. And the crew were pumping with the winches. A well sailed race.

We finished 30 seconds from Amon Re but behind her unfortunately. If she hadn't fouled our start maybe we would have been in front.

Then Jenni started the motor. Lea commented about the odd smell, I noticed a strange whining sound, opened the engine hatch and saw the fan belt had shredded. We were very close to the police mooring so picked it up and switched off the motor. Since we are now quite familiar with this we had a spare on board. We also knew our mechanic was near by so called him to help. He was happy to oblige and we were soon fixed. What we did forget is to check the radiator. So after sending the crew off with Alan in the tender Jenni and I headed for our new mooring round the corner. Before we had got half way the heating guage was over the top again. Bugger. So we pulled out the head sail to sail on to the mooring. After a few go arounds, a bit of extra sail and a lot of running around and adrenalin use, plus a short burst on the motor for the last few metres, we were secure.

I had planned for Karina to help Jenni with the mooring so I could step off at the club. Not to be. Maybe next time. We came 8th out of 18. Which puts us equal 5th over all. We are happy with that.

First Post-Christmas Race

Trying to see the tell tails
Julie and Dayna



Terina

New Boy Mal (below) Lea (r)



Light winds were predicted for the first race of the New Year. What we got was virtually no wind at all for the start. Just before the gun we were actually facing backwards. And we were not alone. But as the gun went off we were facing forwards and creeping across the line not long afterwards. One or two boats got away but the rest of us were virtually stalled with what wind there was veering all over the place. Then clever rookie Mally suggested we goose the sails and it gave us a huge boost and meant we left half the fleet in our wake. Of course they all quickly followed suit or hosited spinnakers but we did get the jump on many of the competition.
We had a very pleasant race with everyone working hard on the winches. We had Julie, Terina, Dayna, Mally and Lea on board plus me. The course was clockwise around Spectacle, Snapper, Cockatoo and Goat Islands and a second round of the three Balmain ones with a run to the finish outside the club. aain we were not last but we didn't manage to catch Amon Re after they got a big lift heading for the last mark.
In the end we came 8th (not as good as first [I put it down to a higher handicap of course and not to the skipper] but way better than last) and 12th on AMS which is a big improvement in that system of placing. Although that could just be the conditions and not the crew's competance.
We dropped the crew off at the club and took Cheshire Cat back to her new mooring round the corner in front of Jenni's before driving back to the cub for a drink and the results. Two sets of stairs is a bit of a disincentive but we will work that out next race.