A relaxing moment

The best seat in the house!

Antifouling

As promised - our baby's bottom, in all her glory!


Pleased to report all work now finished and we have splashed back into the ocean.

After a longish silence

I know, but I've been busy!
Last Sunday Sirocco participated (not raced, please note) in a Jib and Main event, with all the racing keel boats.
There was one other cruiser in our division.
We completed a course of about 12 nautical miles in competition (but not racing) with the other boat.
The most wonderful thing about it for me was experiencing surfing down a wave - very exhilarating!
We certainly went faster, and were heeled over, and tacked and gybed more than I have ever experienced before in a single sail.
Sirocco was awarded a pennant which says "1st", which means that had we been racing (which we were not) we could be described as having won.....
Unfortunately our insurance does not cover us for racing :-)))))
Sirocco is coming out of the water on Monday for anti-fouling. Stand by for photos of her bottom

A busy few weeks

Sirocco is back home, complete with shiny new davits and Freddie hanging off them. The whole system was given a good work out last weekend when we sailed to Stark Bay, Rottnest Island with others from Cruising in Company.
It was my turn to co-ordinate the cruise this time, and I kept everyone on their toes with puzzles to do on the way, a sandsculpting competition on the beach prior to the sundowner, and an early morning dinghy based scavenger hunt before leaving to return to Hillarys!
All most enjoyable, but perhaps the highlight for me was seeing a whale on the trip home - admittedly it was a way off, but the shape of the tail was clearly visible on the horizon and the huge splash of water as it breached, unmistakable. Sadly, by the time I got to my camera, it was all over.
Here is a picture of Sirocco and friends moored at Stark, and one of the group enjoying a BBQ on Saturday evening.

Exam Results

The wait is over - the postman came yesterday with our VHF radio operators licenses!
It seems I am not as thick as I thought, as I achieved a staggering (for me) 96%!
Oddly enough, Mike scored the same, which is exactly what happened when we both sat for our RST earlier this year. Synchronicity?

Back in Freo

UPDATE:
Sirocco is back in Fremantle having davits made and fitted.
We were so impressed by the work that Keith Scott (Scotty) did initially (dodger and bimini) so he is making davits for us. Mike and I took Sirocco to Freo last Friday, and she is now on the Fremantle Sailing Club work jetty. Scotty has almost finished the steel work, so hopefully, I will be able to sail her home one day next week. How exciting! Stay tuned for photos :-)

Mini-cruise to Fremantle

October 10th saw us cruising to Freo, with Phil and Tina as our guests. We went down to attend an inter-club cruising in company dinner, hosted by Fremantle Sailing Club, and stayed overnight on their collector jetty.

For the first time, our section mascot, Nigel, came with us. I think he enjoyed it. He didn't say otherwise.

A few weeks ago our club had a quiz night, where one had to come dressed as something beginning with P, Mike was a Pheasant Plucker, and Nigel his pheasant. (Yes, I know it looks like a duck, but please, work with me here and use your imagination!) to cut a long story short, Mike won best-dressed on the night and rather than throw Nigel out, I donated him to Cruising in Company as a mascot. Why is he called Nigel? Aha......ask Kevin Bloody Wilson about that one...

Open Day

HYC had Open Day on 5th October, and the theme for the sail-past was "Musicals".
Sirocco (as you can see above) looked fab dressed up as 'The Boy From Oz'.
We dressed up ourselves, trying to look as Peter Allen like as possible, with hawaiian shirts knotted at the waist, and sparkly spandex cumberbunds, and stood on deck waving Ozzie flags, all to the strains of 'I go to Rio' . Great fun!

Tick that one off my list

I finally got to do something today that I've been wanting to do for ages - get winched up the mast in a bosuns' chair! We needed to fix a pully and some rope to put our burgees on for Open Day this Sunday, so, with the advice and guidance of Graham (who you may remember from earlier posts as being something of a hero) up I went, only to the lower spreaders I'm afraid, but next time I plan on going right to the top. Mike did a sterling job on the winch, good job he had his Weetbix that morning!

Whale watching

Monday saw us sailing in light but lovely conditions for a few hours, tracking down whales.
We'd heard that some were about, way out past the 30 meter contour to the south, so off we went in search the migrating Southern Rights.
I'd really like to report that we saw a mum with two calves frolicking in the sunlit waters, eyeing us with curiosity and venturing close to get a good look at us.....and let's face it, if I did write that, you wouldn't know any different, would you? But, I cannot tell a lie - we saw zero, zilch, nada....
We had a great sail though!!!

Freddie 'n stuff

Guess what, we now have a lovely Quicksilver inflatable tender with 4hp Mercury engine! We got a great deal from Challenge Marine who gave us the special Boat Show price without us even having to go to the boat show!
As Quicksilver are made by Mercury, and the motor, there really was only one name we could give it: Freddie. As in Freddie Mercury. Late of Queen. Bohemian Rhapsody? Oh come on, you know.
Having realised that at 2.75m it's too big to inflate on deck, we are now getting quotes for davits (or deviates as Mike insists on calling them).
We spent last Sunday zooming up and down the channels in the marina in Freddie, great fun!

That sinking feeling

Ever thought something was a really good idea until you tried it? I am studying for the VHF radio ops exam: in my creative but not technical mind, I imagined it would be all about phonetics (at which I'm really good), correct and courteous radio proceedure (at which I'm really good) and channel selection (of which I have a good working knowledge).
How wrong can you be!?! Now I have to remember things like the specific gravity of battery acid, on-load terminal voltage and all sorts of stuff that I have no clue about....
At least I can define the word Megahertz: it's a description of the headache you get when you realise you're probably too thick to even attempt the exam!

HY37

Here's a photo of Sirocco showing off her new sail number...doesn't it suit her? :)

Safety First

Latest EBay win - a Raymarine LifeTag system, complete and unused - thanks to EBay-er Ashley from Tasmania :) Yay, now I can fall off the boat safely......!

Stand by

OK, stand by for the latest:
Sirocco is moving pens!
You'll find us on P Jetty! :-)
*Jan is busy splicing ropes in readiness*

Progressive dinner

In July, Cruising in Company held a progressive dinner - which, for some reason, I volunteered to organise....in a nutshell, 12 yachts participated, divided into three groups: entree, main and dessert....so, each boat hosted two other couples for a course. The theme was 'Heroes and Villains'.....I have to say, despite losing a shoe and spilling half a glass of a rather nice red because I was barefoot by the end of the night, it was GREAT fun!
Here are some photos that Phil and Tina (our esteemed Cruise Captains) took.......hmmmmm.....Just to explain - Mike was Mr Incredible - I was Cruella DeVille.....

Why winter is wonderful (sometimes)

Just love winter days like today. Blue sky, bit of a breeze, not too cold, perfect.
One of the things about sailing is that it's ok not to have a destination - just head on out and have a sail, which is exactly what we did today! Was shown that it is in fact perfectly ok to head North inside the reef - not only is it ok, but it's also deeper and therefore WAY less frought. Always a good thing, not being frought....
And, guess what - nothing broke or leaked - again, always a good thing!

Poor Sirocco

Mikes technical bit update....
It is said “Buy a second hand yacht and you inherit other people’s problems, buy new and get peace of mind”.....Do you??
On our return from Mindarie with Phil & Tina, we noticed that one of the clips from the main sail to the mast had come off the slide. Investigation showed that the mast slider had split and allowed the sail attach clip to come out. Once we were safely tied up in the pen I checked the others to find that 2 more had split and several more were about to!! The implication of this failure happening out at sea in our fresh Easterly winds could have resulted in a shredded sail and big dollars!! This problem has now been partly fixed under warranty by the replacement of the 3 broken ones. As our confidence is not high with the plastic sliders holding, we aim to upgrade to metal sliders before the summer season starts.
The hatch water leak has been investigated. It looks like it has been there for some time as the headlining backing ply is rotten and has the consistency of paper from where the water was coming in! I have tried in vain to seal it with silicon sealant, this problem is also in the hands of the brokers for fixing as a warranty job.
I have noticed that the swim steps cover off the stern has cracked. I feel it is a design fault as the cover is only supported at its side, thus standing on it to get in or out bends and flexed it and caused it to crack the gel coat, this will be a warranty claim and will be done when the window is fixed.
After 7 months of waiting, we at last have the correctly ordered blue salon covers to replace the striped covers she came with, they look much better now.
The wire loom, Ammeter and stop switch for the wind generator are all fitted. With all the rain & winds we are having right now, I have decided to fit the mast and supports when things improve. We also have a small 300 Watt 12 Volt heater for those cooler evenings we will spend on Sirocco away from the Marinas mains power.

Lunch this time!

On Monday Mike, Phil, Tina and myself sailed again to Mindarie - this time for lunch!

It certainly was an interesting trip; going we had about 20-25 knot winds on the nose, white caps on the ocean and probably should have had a reef in the main. However, we all quite like being heeled over :)

After lunch we reefed the sail in ready for the onslaught as it was even windy inside the harbour, but lo and behold, we got out into the ocean and it was as flat and calm as can be!

We saw a couple of seals, but no dolphins this time.

A great sail, with great company, weather/commitment permitting, we shall do it again soon.

Music to sail by

Due to the lack of sailing (trip to Adelaide and crappy weather on return) I thought I'd share my list of favourite songs to listen to whilst sailing. The list is by no means exhaustive, nor is it an indication of my musical preferences as I believe, quite passionately actually, that ALL music is valid - anyway, enough of that - here's what's in my iPod under the heading 'sailing songs' I'd love to upload them as mp3s so you can hear them too, but, alas, I haven't worked out how to do that yet!

Southern Cross - Crosby,Stills and Nash

Wooden Ships - Crosby, Stills and Nash

Errol - Australian Crawl

Sloop JohnB - Beach Boys

Sailing - Christopher Cross

Orinoco Flow - Enya
Great Southern Land - Icehouse
Sailing - Rod Stewart
6months in a leaky boat - Split Enz
Beautiful Day - U2
Ship of Fools - World Party
Songs You Know by Heart - Jimmy Buffet (compulsory for sailing and quite good fun)
cheeseburger in paradise
son of a son of a sailor
a pirate looks at forty
changes in latitudes
why don't we get drunk
boat drinks
Love Shack - B52's (nothing to do with sailing but I like it)
A Case Of You - Joni Mitchell (again, not a sailing song but I love it to death and hey, it's my blog)
Carmina Burana - Carl Orff (just coz it's great LOUD)
The entire cd Nouveau Flamenco - Ottmar Liebert (because I am the only person I know who doesn't hate it - my family have frisbee'd two copies but I always manage to replace it)
Sailing By - Band of the Welsh Guards
Sea Shanties - Band of HM Royal Marines


Those last two? Ha.....didn't know I used to play principle trombone in a brass band, did you? Anyway, IF I ever work out how to upload music I shall, just for your enjoyment.
Meanwhile, let's hope the weather improves soon!
'Til then, fair winds and all that :)

Just popping out for a coffee......

Today Phil (of Phil and Tina (Mardi) fame) and I took Sirocco north to Mindarie. It's a lovely little trip, only an hour or so away and the easterlies did us proud, so it was a delightful sail. We could have decided to drive there, but with petrol at over $1.60 a litre, I think sailing there was much more environmentally friendly - in fact, I think I'll call it my "offset" against my flight to Adelaide next week!
We arrived at the little Marina, came alongside, hopped off, had a super cup of coffee at the 'Dome' then sailed home. What fun! Talk about arriving in style :) Here's the photographic evidence

Sundowner - a Cruising in Company Tradition

CiC members - doing what we do best :)

Mikes techie corner

Latest on Sirocco…

Bavaria locates the sea water strainer for the engine cooling water on the rear engine compartment bulkhead. To check it involves stretching over the engine, not an easy task for either of us, so I have relocated it onto the forward bulkhead, now as the cover is lifted it is right there, easy. No new pipes are needed for this mod as it is a simple case of swapping the inlet and outlet pipe lengths over.

We have been suffering gear selection problems, especially reverse gear, the gear engagement went in with a healthy clunk and things felt very stiff at the throttle lever. Volvo Penta have now sorted this out, firstly by installing 2 new cables from throttle to engine and secondly setting the idle speed down from almost 1000RPM to the correct 825RPM, the gears now engage with a click not a clonk and the whole feel is much better, Sirocco is a transformed yacht ! :-)

It is still a bit too warm to go crawling below decks to fit the wind generator; I will do that next month when things will be a bit cooler. We unfortunately have a slightly leaking sky light window, it’s very annoying to be dripped on while eating, so that is on the list of ‘To Do’ for next time.

Mike.

Sirocco under sail

Thanks to Phil and Tina from Mardi !

On the way to Rotto

At anchor, Longreach Bay, Rottnest Island

Cruising in Company to Rotto

Anzac Day weekend saw us cruising in company to Rottnest Island, our first real cruise!
We followed Chris and Sue (Vaya Con Dios, a 40ft Bavaria) through the gap in the reef - very exciting stuff, plus of course we were able to program some invaluable waypoints into our chartplotter!
We anchored up in Longreach Bay, perfect conditions, lovely and warm, I even went for a swim with a huge manta ray beneath me - not the Steve Irwin kind, don't worry :)
We hosted the sundowner aboard Sirocco, joined by Chris and Sue (as above), Phil and Tina from Mardi, and Kay and Garth from Heartbeat, another Bavaria.
After a fun sundowner and a hearty dinner, we retired, only to be awoken at 1am by howling winds, a choppy swell and lots of banging and crashing of waves from the nearby reef....I was in my element and thought it was the best thing since sliced bread, but unfortunately a few of our party got rather green around the gills...next morning we hitched a lift in Mardis' tender to the beach, and walked to the tea rooms for a substantial breakfast - yum - then battled the swell back to our respective boats. As the conditions were really getting worse, we decided to all go home - we motor sailed from Longreach to the marker at centaur reef then switched to both sails for a speedy and smooth return to Hillarys, followed by a BBQ.
Great fun was had by all - thanks to everyone from the Cruising in Company division of HYC, and of course to Bob :) Here's some photos of Mardi and Vaya Con Dios, hopefully I will get some photos of Sirocco on the water soon to post up here.

Mardi

Vaya Con Dios in the distance

Cousin Ann

Cousin Ann is here from UK: she's very experienced, she sails out of Cowes, IOW, UK and has sailed in the Carribean - her partner, Geoff, has a Hunter which he races, so you can imagine, Mike and I were trying to do everything right with her onboard - harder than you might imagine! Anyway, today (Monday 14th April) we had a lovely sail, great conditions, and when Ann stripped down to her bikini we just knew it was a Kodak moment :)

The Intrepid Graham

This post is dedicated to the intrepid Graham - just happened to be there at the right time with my camera when he was going up the mast - what a guy! I am beside myself with envy - my short term ambition is to ascend our mast, but we don't as yet have a bosuns chair :(

Meanwhile, here's Captain Couragous Graham in all his glory....

Really cool sail

Steve and Miriam (Hollandaise) and Bob (my pet yacht rat) joined Mike and I for a really lovely sail today (Sunday).

We bumbled around for a few nautical miles, had awesome bacon sandwiches (which, incidentally, always taste so much better on Sunday morning sails) and a good time was had by all. AT LAST I managed to get a picture of Bob at the helm - slippery character, that Bob.

Steve and Miriam have invited us for a sail on Hollandaise - can't wait! Here's the photographic evidence of our little adventure.

Steve and Miriam cuddle up on Sirocco - what a sweet couple!

Here's Captain Bob and Mike:

Here we are!

I thought it might be fun for those readers with Google Earth to find Sirocco, however this blogsite won't allow me to post the placemark, so here are the co-ordinates:
31°49'20.40"S
115°44'8.52"E
Enjoy!

Siroccos 1st storm

Yesterday Perth had a months worth of rain in 12 hours, the first significant precipitation in months. You could almost hear the garden breathing a sigh of relief.
Overnight we had very strong winds, thunder and lightening.
As I lay in bed listening to it all, my thoughts obviously turned to Sirocco, and the temptation to leap out of bed and race to the marina so as to check on her well being was very strong.
However.
I rationalised - was she tied up securely?
Yes
Was anything that moves secured?
Yes
Were the fenders in place?
Yes
Did I want to get out of bed?
No
Common sense prevailed! This morning, we have returned to sunny conditions. Sirocco fared just fine, one tip I will pass on though is those smart little hatch covers look fabulous and do a great job keeping the sun out, but in a lot of rain they do compromise the water-tight seal, and, of course, by the order of Murphy's Law, there is a hatch right over the forward berth, the mattress of which is now drying in the sun.
So, Sirocco weathered her first storm. I would like to regale you with tales of derring-do on the high seas with me lashed to the wheel for safety, but the truth is, it wasn't like that.
As for my previous posting, I am happy to report that the lack of confidence has turned into an acceptance that I did, indeed, do the right thing for me at the time, and feeling all down about it is so five minutes ago :)

doh

Another first for me.
Had a morning sail planned with Pam, Steve and Paul.
From the minute I got down to the marina, I didn't feel right about things - there was a strong gusty SSE crosswind, I knew it would be challenging straight away because it was hard getting on the boat; at that time of day, even with normal windy conditions, it's usually easy. But, I was determined to give it a go, as people had come especially and I felt obligated (and to be honest, I didn't want to appear incompetent).
I started the engine, everything was prepared, and I was about to say 'cast off' but....I realised that I would have to back out pretty fast in order to stop the bow being taken by the wind and smashed into the rocks beside us, and I don't do fast - I am the original sailing-Miss-Daisy kind of skipper.
So, reluctantly, I made the call not to go.....
A more experienced skipper would have probably ignored the cross wind and just done it - but for me, knowing how Sirocco responds, I didn't feel that I would have been comfortable doing so.
For what it's worth, not many people went out either. We did watch one come out and he was caught out - you could see the wind just take the bow - he got out of it ok, but to be fair, he didn't have any rocks around him and had a lot more room to manoeuvre than I do.
Well there you have it. Am I a wimp or am I sensible. I don't know.
All I know is, sitting at home typing this and drinking my coffee, I feel pretty silly and the bloody wind has dropped right off, damn it!

Furler update

All fixed. I am now an expert on how to disassemble and reassemble a furler. Armed with a trusty Allen key, I took the thing apart and sorted out the mess of line inside (caused, I suspect, by not enough tension being kept on the sheet whilst furling in) then set about putting everything back together again. It was going so well until I dropped a small bolt and it went straight into the anchor locker, about six inches deeper than my arms are long.
Now, over the years, at various times, I've been told off for using kitchen implements as tools - tips of knives work really well in place of a screwdriver etc; personally I believe most things have more than one use and I don't see the problem - if you need to unscrew something and you can't be arsed going out into the cold to get a screwdriver out of the toolbox, hell, use a knife! Anyway, I digress. Kitchen tongs to the rescue! Grabbed that little sucker no worries at all.
Luckily Rob Sweet was on hand to help reattach the sail, I really could not have done that alone, so many thanks to Rob and another gentleman who just happened to be passing and lent a hand too (sorry, I can't remember your name but I do appreciate your help).
So now Sirocco can go sailing again tomorrow - and I've learned how to take a furler apart - it's all good :)

Good Friday twilight

This evening we started earlier, which was a good plan and gave us longer on the water! Jeff and Dawn joined me and my trio of tame yacht rats (it's ok, they told me that's what they are) and we had a lovely sail in a southerly, jib only as it was a little brisk to begin with. Jeff has to be congratulated as he normally suffers horribly from sea sickness, but he did so well, and even helmed for a while (very well too, I must say), what a sterling effort - well done Jeff! I bullied Dawn into having a go on the helm too - and I think she did very well, but seemed quite relieved when someone else took over.

Yay! The chartplotter is back online - works perfectly - however, the latest problem is that the jib furler jammed on the way back - the sail is laying on the deck, tied to the life lines. I shall have to get down to the club early tomorrow and see if I can find someone to help fix it as I have a sail planned for Sunday morning.....time to find all those people who have said in the past "if you ever need a hand....."

A special coo-ee to Alan, who is flying home to Ireland on Sunday - thanks for all your help, company and anecdotes - bon voyage and you're welcome to crew on Sirocco anytime!

Here's a couple of photos of Dawn and Jeff - they look good, don't they? Obviously naturals at this sailing lark.....

Awesome!

Had a full complement of crew last night! Bob, Alan and Andy again, Kevin Stacey, who is a special friend, being the person who helped us join the yacht club and is a very, very experienced sailor, plus two friends of his, Ray and his daughter, Tanya.
With a 3.5m swell and a brisk wind, it was a very exciting few nautical miles, lots of speed and heeling over (more about the speed later).
Sirocco was put through her paces well and truly, and surprised us all by gaining significantly on the faster, bigger yachts - not that it was a race at all - and I discovered, much to my amazement that I have a little competitive streak; I've never considered racing before but I realised last night that I would probably rather enjoy it......!
I took the helm once again to put her back into the pen and I must say I did it rather well, better than the week before, in fact. Practice, practice, practice I guess.
Very civilised apres-sailing nibbles and wine, followed by spending the night aboard, so much better than the other side of the bridge - quiet and peaceful.
Oh yes, about the speed - the consensus was that we were doing about 7 knots most of the time; I'd like to report with a little more accuracy, but can't due to the fact that the chartplotter is in the workshop to be 'looked at' as it doesn't work, and without it, none of the other instruments function - sailing by the seat of our pants! Good eh?

Pretty damn proud of myself :)

Well, this evening I finally bit my own personal bullet and took Sirocco out of the pen myself, went for a twilight sail, then put her back in the pen ! AND I didn't even hit anything - very slightly glanced off one of the poles coming back in, but so gently no one spilled their drink. Oh Yeah, felt pretty good.....the rocks were still there, and still scary, but I realised there's nothing to fear but fear itself.
Thanks to Bob, Alan and Andy for their encouragement and crewing and especially to Graham who had to virtually catch me when I jumped off to leave: there was a really high tide and my legs just a little too short to step off as I normally can - see, I told you the yacht club was full of nice, friendly, helpful people!

Twilight - again!

Another twilight sail, this time aboard Sirocco. Steve skippered in and out of the pen (thank God! those rocks...scary - but now I've seen how easy it is, I am determined to do it myself next time) We had a sail under jib only as it was a fairly brisk sea breeze and pretty choppy seas. Kim is a natural sailor and I believe she enjoyed herself very much. Blue I think enjoyed it, but I have a sneaky feeling he'd rather have had a big motor running as he was a little hesitant about steering, rope work etc. Nevertheless, we all had fun, and Steve was the STAR of the evening for his manouvering under power skills. Thanks to you all for a lovely evening!

Steve - skipper extraordinaire!

Blue trying not to smile

Captain Kim!

Hollandaise and Cruising in Company

Last night Mike and I attended our first meeting of the cruising in company section of the yacht club and met some really nice people, I was invited onboard Hollandaise, a magnificent 30ft Holland, for a twilight sail on Friday by a lovely couple, Steve and Miriam, who made me feel very welcome and comfortable. I LIKE this twilight sailing thing - it's run by the yacht club and basically anyone can turn up at 6pm and hop on a yacht for a couple of hours of sailing with the setting sun. Steve and Miriam handled Hollandaise with enviable relaxed skill - I am so impressed with their auto-pilot and think Sirocco would love to have one too!
The three of us finished the evening aboard Sirocco, sharing a bottle of wine and chatting away like old friends. That's what I've noticed about yacht club people - they all seem genuinely lovely people who would lend a hand if needed without a second thought and I certainly feel a sense of belonging already.
A big thank you to Steve and Miriam, and to everyone at Thursdays meeting who made us feel so welcome.

A New Home

Sirocco is now in her new home at Hillarys Yacht Club! Although it's only for three months we are hopeful that another, permanant pen will become available within the timeframe. Our new home means no more bridge, no more negative water under the keel, the ability to sail when we want to and no more gawping public....WHOO-HOO!

Learning curve

I thought long and hard about this post, as the events which occured make us look like total prats, but then, it may serve others who read it as a timely reminder....
We had two sails today - one this morning which was delightful, then again this evening, with Hanna and Nathan aboard.
We decided for a change to go North from the marina, dropped the anchor and the kids went for a swim off the back.
We laid a ratio of 5:1 in 3.4m of water.
The kids were swimming, all was good.
I noticed that the depth changed to 2.3, so I told Mike and he said it's ok, just swinging around a bit.
Then I heard a little voice from off the starboard side saying "Jan, you're dragging the anchor and we can't swim fast enough against the tide to get back on" *GULP* Then, the depth alarm started going off, we're in 1.7........1.5........1.2.....and the beach is getting closer and closer....
Mike threw our safety line to the kids, I started the motor, then......the motor stopped working, and we're drifting towards the beach still. Not happy Jan....
Cut a long story short - we'd picked up a length of hose from the sea floor which had fouled the anchor, and the folding prop had folded and wouldn't open out. Nathan and Mike cut the hose away, the motor started, and we were then out of danger, but boy, were our hearts pounding.
Bottom line is: we anchored way too close to the beach to begin with and didn't take in to account the prevailing current in that area, plus we anchored in sea grass. In retrospect, it's easy to see what we did wrong. I'm not too proud to admit we stuffed up, but, no harm was done and we learned from it.
One little gem that I have to end this tale with is a classic Hanna quote: "Did you know theres a big triangle thing on a stick hanging off the back of your boat under the water?"
Gotta love her, don't you :)

Picture posts

Derrick and Jan

Captain Jill


Griffo (and hat)


Very Nautical


You're supposed to be fixing up the sail dear...

Mike's tech. bulletin

I have been quite busy this last week on Sirocco.The TV/DVD had been put up on the forward starboard bulkhead after I moved the reading light over; both tasks were quite simple as I was able to hide all the wires behind the headlining. We have installed a fan in the forward cabin to aid air flow on these warm nights we are experiencing at the moment. The two winch handle pockets and two rope bags have also now been fitted.
A few months ago I won from Ebay a 1200 Watt Australian made inverter. This is now installed beside the starter battery and will provide the power to the TV/DVD and to a socket beside the nav table. The inverter input power has been given an isolator switch of it’s own and this sits under the nav desk beside the two original factory fitted ones for engine and house power.

On a safety issue, we decided to fit a smoke detector in each of the cabins. Bavaria provides 3 big fire extinguishers as standard, one in the nav table seat and on each in the cockpit lockers. We have decided fit a fourth fire extinguisher in the forward cabin as well.When we went out for a sail on Sunday we had no speed or distance readings all day. So Monday Jan & I carefully removed from under the forward cabin bed the transmitter replacing it with the supplied blanking plug, only a cup full of water came in but we were prepared for more. Sure enough in just a short time growth had stopped the 4 small paddles turning, so we cleaned these off and reinstalled it. We have now added this cleaning check to the monthly maintenance schedule.As time goes on I am enjoying finding out what makes Sirocco tick. One criticism I have always read in yachting magazines on the Bavaria range with the single helm wheel is the fact that it is so large and hard to get past when using the swim platform. What they don’t add is that Bavaria provide a basic winch style handle to remove said wheel, it’s about a 30 second job and bingo, the cockpit is transformed. The same handle also adjusts the clutch tension on the windlass. Talking of things anchor. Jan has been busy splicing recently and has made us a rope with a hook on one end to go on the chain and a loop on the other to go round one of the forward cleats, this then takes the strain off the windlass when at anchor, neat !Till next time....Mike

Excuse me, but you can call me SKIPPER

Today Mike and I both passed both the theoretical and practical elements of our RST. This new rule comes into force on April 1st, so we thought we'd get it over and done with before the rush. We think the RST is a very good idea, as up until April 1st this year, there is no requirement for anyone to have prior knowledge before skippering any kind of vessel and taking off. Think about that for a moment - say, for example, you managed to get out of the harbour safely, then came across a marker with two black triangles pointing down and, not knowing what it means, navigated to the North of it.....or, not knowing the rules of the 'road' or having no knowledge of radio proceedures...disaster, right? (and trust me, it has happened). At last, West Australia has come into line with the rest of the country and made the RST compulsory. Not before time. OK, I'll hop off my soapbox now and go and open a bottle to celebrate our skipperhood.
Oh by the way, it's ok, you don't have to salute as we go past :-)

Swimming off the back

Another perfect day, sailing almost to the Freo shipping lanes, then heading back and dropping the pick by North Beach for lunch and, for the first time, a swim off the platform (got a ladder, a shower and everything!)Took the opportunity to take some artistic shots whilst underway.John, Jill and Derrick came with us this time - I think everyone agreed it was a great day, and I do believe Derrick thoroughly enjoyed his first ever sail!Mike and I are planning an overnighter to Rottnest this week, now that we have fixed the lack of speed indication issue we had - the little spindlything that lives underneath had its paddles clogged - luckily it is reached via a plughole under the V-berth, so no-one needed to dive into the murky harbour water to fix it. By the way, we actually do have ducks in the marina, despite the assumption that they are freshwater birds - ours are obviously mutants as they definately are swimming in salt water. Speaking of ducks, to 'anon' who left such a witty comment, be very careful, it begins with just one, but left to their own devices they breed, you know. You'll open your bathroom door one morning to find it packed with plastic ducks, feral ones, no doubt, so watch your ankles.To the many visitors who have looked at then signed our guestbook (well, ONE actually, thanks Larry!) HINT HINT Will write about the Rotto trip in due course meanwhile here's some photos.

And now word from Mike.

To begin I would like to say a few things from my side on buying Sirocco.

When we were ready to buy the yacht (Name still undecided) we also decided to change our car from our MR2 to something that would happily transport all our sailing needs to the marina, we chose a Toyota Yaris YRS 3 door. Would you believe it took close to 7 hours, 2 visits over 2 days to the same yard and in excess of 12 signatures to secure the car we wanted…So when It came time to actually commit to the purchase of the yacht I was dreading the time it would take to complete this sale after our Yaris adventure !!!
It actually took 20 minutes with 1 guy and 1, yes one signature from Jan & I to secure over a quarter of a million Dollar yacht!!! So I wonder why does it take so much paperwork and you have to meet all those sales people who want to be ‘Life Long Friends’ to buy a car??? If you know the answer to that then please let me know….

The name…Sirocco….It’s a wind that blows out of the Sahara desert over the Mediterranean Sea. (Google search for more details. BTW we spell the name the English way, it can be spelt Scirocco like the VW car of that name, but that is the Arabic spelling) As I have spent a fair percentage of my working life in the deserts of the world, we thought it a very apt name for our yacht. Other names were short listed like ‘Comfortably numb’ and ‘Tora’ but these could be a bit of a mouth full on the radio said 3 times in an emergency, especially the last one !!!

My job takes me overseas and I work with people from all over the word, this comes is handy when it is time to get goodies that a modern yacht needs these days, and into the bargain saving a lot of $$$ ….So far we have got an Air X Marine wind generator and mounting kit from the USA and a Raymarine chart plotter & Raystar 125 GPS antenna from the UK.

Chart plotter…I decided for warranty purposes to get the local Raymarine technician to connect it up to the yacht, (well all the wiring identification is in German!) but I cut the hole for the display and bolted on the rail the fitting for the antenna, this I was told was the hard bit and did in fact save a lot of time.

We had a TV antenna installed before the mast was stepped and have now bought a 52 cm LCD TV with built in DVD. I am in the process of installing it in the saloon but before that is done I have to re-locate the starboard bulkhead reading light further into the corner under the radio speaker, this is an easy job that I will do it next week.

The wind generator is the next project to be fitted. As I said I have the fitting kit all I need is the stainless steel pipe work to hold it up with. As the fitting will involve crawling behind the rear bulkhead in the rear birth, I might just do that in April when things will be cooler and less humid in Perth.

Fremantle - almost

First sail on Sirocco with just Mike and I today. Almost 5 hours of sheer bliss, made it almost to the shipping channel at Freo, and really only came in because the wind died off, and we could see a front approaching (see, all that met. study we did during our gliding years DID come into play, after all!)

Today was an exercise in positive thinking - we set off telling each other "we can do this, we've done it before, we can do it now" and hey guess what, it worked - perfect sailing and we didn't even hit anything coming into our pen....all of which makes us sound like complete idiots, I know, but when it's your yacht and your investment and there are 50-odd people watching you come into the pen, what can I say, it all adds to the stress.

Ever wondered why your arms are always more tanned than your legs? Or is it just me? Got a really good chance to even the balance up today but all that's changed is I have arms the colour of tanned leather and pink knees...wonder if that fake tan stuff works...?

I think Mike should contribute to this blog - I am sure some of you would love to read technical stuff, so I plan to build him a corner so he can interact also.

'Till next time - fair winds

Books

As we can't go sailing until the weekend, I thought I'd list some of our favourite reading matter! Mostly they are about sailing of course, but they also tell a damn good yarn too and I can recommend them.
So, in no particular order:
Murder or Mutiny by Pamela Stevenson
Treasure Islands by Pamela Stevenson
Illustrated Longitude by Dava Sobel
Lats and Atts Magazine - monthly publication
Recreational Skippers Workbook - need to complete by April!
First Lady by Kay Cottee
Personally, I have just finished two autobiographies (non-sailing) first was Clarissa Dickson Wright (one of the two fat ladies) then Humble Pie by Gordon Ramsey, both very compelling with a similar thread, and am two thirds the way through a great book called Stargazing - Memoirs of a young lighthouse keeper, by Peter Hill.
I'll try to think of something else to put here before the weekend :) Bear with me, I'm new at this blog-thingy, although I have to say it's a lot easier than the old html personal websites!

Dolphins today

A magical sail today, in perfect conditions. John and Dawn joined us today and a great time was had by all - saw a pod of about half a dozen dolphins - awesome! We experienced rather sudden wind changes but managed to keep on track with a few tacks thrown in expertly (yes, really!)

We had planned to anchor up for lunch but by then the wind was prohibitive with quite large whitecaps on the sea, so we headed back as everyone had had enough by then anyway.

John and Dawn kindly gave me permission to add a photo, so here they are above, enjoying the sail today. John did take a photo of Dawn and I, but somehow it came out as a blurry video! I also have to add that our 'parking' skills are improving - fenders didn't even get a workout today!

Also had a surprise at the marina, when Mike went to bring the communal hose over to wash Sirocco off - the hose was snagged on something and when he pulled it up, he found a cafe chair tangled up in the hose - obviously been there some time as it was covered in barnacles!

Australia Day

Headed out of the marina at 10am, but within 10 minutes encountered a howling southerly which was not as predicted, and since none of us enjoy being heeled over and getting wet (cruisers, not racers you see!) we came back after an hour and 15 minutes.....sorry dear readers, nothing much to report today, but at least we got the sails up unlike some who A: cleaned their yacht B: went for a motor for an hour C: returned and washed the yacht again in that precise order! (Not mentioning any names!)
Happy Australia Day :) Going out again tomorrow morning with our friends Dawn and John, stay posted!

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Thank You!

Firstly, thanks to everyone who indulged me by visiting this blog - it's great to know that you share our interest! I have done a little more work on the set-up, and now you should be able to leave comments if you wish.
Sirocco now has a fully functioning chartplotter with GPS! When we get to grips with it, I'll be able to post the co-ordinates of where we've sailed here, and people can 'visit' using Google Earth.
Another step forward: we now know what all of those buttons are for on the nav panel ;-)
AND - I sat down with a length of rope and remembered how to splice - something I haven't done since my Gliding Club days, when I used to make weak-links for the tow ropes. After a couple of passable splices using good old silver-poly rope, I got too cocky and tried with nylon......after an hour, I felt like tying a noose with the stupid stuff and hanging myself....absolutely horrid stuff....I'm sticking to poly rope in future!
Australia Day weekend starts tomorrow, so we will have access to the ocean through the open bridge from 4.30 this afternoon right through to 7am Tuesday morning - this is Delta Tango 096 logging off....

A perfect day with friends

On Sunday, our good friends Jill and John (Griffo) joined us for a sail. Our departure from Hillarys was delayed slightly as there was a very low tide (did I mention that because of all the building work at the marina, the bridge area has silted up and needs dredging already? As a result, even in the highest of tides, we register just 70cm of water below our keel coming through the bridge opening!!!)

John looked very nautical helming, and Jill had a huge smile on her face.
At one point, heading South towards Scarborough, Jill and I were sitting up at the bow when we spotted a turtle breaking the surface - it was brown and would have been at least a metre long. I've often seen seals and dolphins in that area, but never a turtle before.
Another first for us was 'dropping the pick', which we managed easily, then just sat and had some lunch for a while - very civilised and most enjoyable. I have to say picking the anchor up again seemed to take much longer, with lots of directions being shouted to me at the helm from the bow, but it came up in the end, and off we went back home to Hillarys.

The pen we use at the moment is right on the boardwalk, in front of the take-away food places, and there are always dozens of people milling around watching boats come and go - it is very nerve-wracking to have to manouver 37ft of fibre-glass into a pen with such an audience, and as we all know, things only ever go wrong when someone is watching - I won't go into too much detail, suffice to say that our fenders worked superbly and nothing was broken!
Thanks to John and Jill for allowing me to post their photos here.