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