Journal Entries

June 2006

June 1- The past month just went by so quickly and I haven't had much chance for updates. I have been busy getting the boat ready for a long trip I am hoping to take at the end of the year to Tasmania. One topic in particular I have been doing some research on is anchoring. I currently have a 45lb CQR as my primary anchor and it has held me exceptionally well in some nasty weather. My secondary anchor is a 35lb bruce, which I have never used and personally I don't see the point of having a lighter anchor as a backup since this is the anchor I will probably have to rely on if things go bad and if I lose my primary.

It's surprising how many people don't know how to properly anchor. I have watched many boats drop their anchors with no apparent consideration to technique and when the weather picks up they are the first to have problems.

After researching the subject I have decided to upgrade my 35lb bruce to a spade anchor, which is a popular new generation design. There have been many tests and the spade appears to outperform the CQR and most others.

For more information on the spade anchor click here.

I will also be upgrading my existing non rated 9mm chain to 100 metres of rated 9mm chain with a working load of 4000kg. Here is a useful link explaining chain rating and sizing.

http://www.bwsailing.com/01articles/issue/0704/specialsection.htm

I will provide more details and photos of my new anchoring setup once I get it all organised.

10 June - This was the start of the long weekend I had been looking forward to. The weather for the past month has been beautiful and wouldn't you know it, just as the long weekend arrives the weather turns foul. I was determined to head out anyway and was originally planning to head out and around the outside of Moreton Island and down to the Gold Coast. Below is a picture of the gloomy weather as I headed down the river. There were strong winds forecast for the rest of the weekend.

This is the weather as I entered Moreton Bay. The wind was reasonable at about 10 knots, but there were occasional showers.

I sailed across the bay and then back over to the Queensland Cruising Yacht Club for the classic yacht regatta which I attended last year. I arrived pretty late and there wasn't much room to pull up to the dock. Peter from Deagon Slipways (who worked on my boat last year) called out to me and directed me to raft up next to his and another boat. I wasn't really interested in racing in the regatta but thought it was a good way to get a free stay at the marina for the night.

After I settled in and everyone went up to the club house to get on the booze I made some dinner and looked at my charts to plan my trip tomorrow. The weather is getting pretty cold now and I made use of my diesel furnace and oil lamps. You can see by the photo below that the boat has such a cozy atmosphere with the fire and oil lamps going.

I figured I was going to have a long day of solo sailing tomorrow so some high energy snacks were in order. I recently bought one of these new silicone baking trays for muffins. I always have trouble getting the muffins not to stick to the normal metal muffin tray. This was hopefully going to be an improvement. I also like these silicone baking dishes because you can fold them up for really compact storage. Below is the tray with muffin mix ready to go in the oven.

and the final product. Double chocolate chip muffins! and no sticking to the tray. I have to say the silicone trays are fantastic.

11 June - The regatta officially starts at 1pm so I made the most of the morning and wandered around the club marina checking out all the classic boats. You can see from the photo below that there were small classic dinghies to much larger yachts including a couple of 50+ footers.

Here is 'El Viajero' on the outside rafted up to the other two boats. The inside boat is Peter's yacht 'Pagan'. The boat in the middle is another classic currently receiving some of Peter's treatment.

The little boat below was my favourite of the regatta. It is a small Bristol Channel Cutter. It was in pristine condition and is a truly capable ocean boat. This is the type of yacht that Lyn and Larry Pardey circumnavigated in and have lived aboard for more than 20 years. Everything about these boats is practical and uncomplicated.

The yacht below is 'Westward wind' and is a beautiful Hereschoff design. This was my second favourite of the regatta. If I was going to buy another boat, then this would be the design I would like.

I left the marina at about midday to avoid the mass exodus of boats going out to race. There were strong winds forecast, up to 30 knots but at this stage there was a good breeze of about 10 knots blowing in the exact direction I wanted to go. I didn't bother putting up the mainsail since the breeze was pushing me along nicely at 5.5 knots with the genoa alone.

As soon as I got out onto the bay a bit further the wind picked up considerably. I needed to reduce the genoa. You can see the white caps forming on the water as the wind increases.

Ok, about an hour later the wind was really picking up. It was blowing at least 30 knots out here. You can see from the photo below that I was travelling pretty quickly with a following sea. The water was getting pretty foamy and this was the strongest wind I've been out sailing in.

I'd reduced the genoa to about half and was pushing along at 6.5 knots. This was great sailing.

I didn't think that towing the dinghy would be a problem, but I had never been sailing in such strong conditions. I have been anchored in stronger winds and the dinghy was flipped with the outboard attached. I had learned from that experience to always remove the outboard from the dinghy. Fortunately I had put the outboard away because the dinghy started flipping. You can see from the photos below that the dinghy was just being picked up and blown around.

There wasn't much I could do to stop the dinghy flipping since I was stuck on the tiller (auto pilot still not working) and it must have flipped 100 times. By the time I had reached my destination at Manly the rope to the dinghy was so twisted that the dinghy was jammed hard up against the back of the boat. I did manage to get some video footage of the dinghy being blown around and it shows just how strong the wind was. The new video is in my "videos" section.

I only saw 1 other boat out on the bay, which was probably a good indication that the weather was not the best. It was excellent practice for me though and I figure that there isn't much point to only sailing in fine weather because one day I will be stuck in the rough stuff.

There were a couple of things I probably did wrong. As I was heading south I had a choice of going to the east or west of St Helena Island. I figured the wind had swung around to the south/west and I had a good run to pass the island on the east side. This was the shortest route, but I didn't realise how narrow the channel was on the east side and I really had to work to keep away from the lee shore. What I also didn't realise was that the motor would not help me in conditions like this since the waves were very choppy and would only push the boat back onto the beach. I did have visions at one point of being stuck and quickly having to deploy the anchor to hold me off the beach, but I persisted with the sails and came out at the other end a better sailor (I think). Next time I have to choose a route with a lee shore I will give consideration to the width of the channel and conditions.

After several hours of beating to windward (and nervously eating those double choc chip muffins) I ended up at Manly marina. I pulled up to the dock, had a nice hot shower and settled in for the night. I realised again how much I love sailing. This was a great day!

12 June - One of the things I love about living on my boat is that I can wake up in the same place, but be in a different place. That sounds a bit odd, but it's a great feeling being able to be in my home and step up on deck and have totally different surroundings. I can only imagine what it must feel like cruising full time and sailing to exotic places in the pacific.

The weather today was much nicer. The wind had died down to 12-15 knots and the sun was shining. I headed out of Manly harbour and back toward St Helena Island. The wind had shifted to a South/East which was perfect for my trip home. I was once again travelling under full genoa and gliding along at a leisurely 6.5 knots. At one point on the GPS I was moving at 6.8 knots. Not bad for an old slug!

There is St Helena island in the distance and I was planning to make a stop over for a little exploration of the island. When I arrived at the anchorage I didn't feel comfortable dropping the anchor and leaving the boat and not having anchored there before I wasn't happy taking the risk of leaving the boat in those conditions. So homeward bound it was. I decided to try and make it back home for the slack tide at 5.30pm which meant pushing up the river against the outgoing tide. I normally never do this since the tide runs at 3knots however since I had a good breeze from the east it would be easy going under sail.

So Manly was now behind me and the best part of the long weekend was gone. I really need to do this more often. I will be spending the next few months preparing for the trip to Tasmania. I have lots to do if I'm going to get there this year.