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.