Our maiden voyage

Friday 1st October 2010

All aboard. We all gathered on Sirocco on Friday 1st October after dinner in Sorrento, at a little restaurant called The Beach Shack.

Saturday 2nd October 2010

Woke up to a howling wind, SW 20/25 knots with a confused sea. John and I went for a stroll out to the lighthouse to get a better look at the sea. We witnessed a few small power boats attempting to get out to sea but to no avail. After seeing them bobbing up and down in the ocean and then turning around to come back to harbour we realised that it was not worth going out. Rain was also forecast :(

The kids were mortified and told us to stop being "old wossies" and "lets get this adventure going". We decide to wait until lunch time.

12.00 pm - The wind dropped to 16 knots. The kids were champing at the bit!! We decide to throw caution to the wind and set sail. Off we went, through the channel markers and 10 minutes out to sea us poor ladies started turning green!! Then it started...."Mum, lets go back, tell Dad, we are still close enough". John told us that we were committed and there is no turning back. The sail out was pretty rough. I told the girls that there is life after sea sickness, but I got no response! Johnny very kindly defined sea sickness for us......when you are afraid that you are going to die and then you are afraid that you are not going to die!!

4.00 pm - we arrived at Rottnest Island. Once the anchor was down we all felt a little better. The dolphins came to greet us. John got the tender ready and the kids were off. We made tea and biscuits and got ready for our trip to the Island for dinner. The first thing Ellen and I did was to hound down the pharmacist for some sea sick tabs (we dragged the poor man out of bed!!). He was very helpful and we are forever in his debt. Dinner was lovely. The moon was out and John and I decided to walk along the beach to the yacht. Bradley and Rigby very kindly came and picked us up in the tender once we reached our bay.

Sunday morning - view from our cabin:-

Sunday morning was perfect. The weather was warm and still. The kids spent the morning fishing and doing burnouts in the tender! Johnny and I cooked up a yummy breakfast and it was well received by all. Our trip back home was wonderful. We encountered a baby hammerhead shark and loads of stingers. As we approached HYC we were greeted by all the boats coming of out of the yacht club for the Commodore's sail past. It therefore took awhile to get back into our mooring. A lovely first voyage and looking forward to the next one.

The Waters Family comes aboard.

So this is where we come in! The Waters Family. We have John the Captain, Maria the Helmsman, Courtney the Purser and Bog Man Brad (we use to call him Master Bates until he twigged on hehehe).

We promise to love and enjoy Sirocco as much as Jan and Mike have and take special care of her.

We have planned our first trip for Friday the 1st October, sailing out to Rottnest Island for the weekend.

Excitement reins in the Waters Family at the moment and we cannot wait. Watch this space for more details on our first sailing trip in 6/7 years since the Med.

Life Changes

Mike and I have made some huge decisions recently.
Sell the house, sell the boat, fly off, buy new boat, sail home. Nutshell version.
A lot of people can’t believe we would ever sell the magnificent Sirocco, but it is a means to an end and trust me, the adventures that lay ahead for us more than compensate for losing our baby.
Meanwhile, I would like to introduce Maria and John, Sirocco’s half-share owners, who will love her as much as we do and hopefully keep up this blog for Sirocco fans everywhere!
I’d also like to introduce the good ship “Fully Involved” a 2000 Island Packet 420. We will be meeting her in person for the first time in early November, you will be able to read all about her here.
On a personal note, I’d like to thank all our followers for putting up with my drivel over the past three years 
Fair Winds, and may your splices never unravel.

News!

To all those who contact us on a regular basis,

please note our new email address, current as of 03/08/2010

mdandjadrury@gmail.com

It doesn't get any better and floating objects

This photo was taken around 1am, about 50 miles offshore in between Port Denison and the Pelsaert Group. If you have never experienced sailing by moonlight I can tell you it is one of the most incredible things to do, gliding gently through the water under a full set of sails, a soft rushing noise of water to the side, phosphorous glowing behind, it is quite simply magical. A hot cup of coffee in one hand, rugged up in warm clothes, the love of your life, who is confident enough in your abilities to be able to drift off to sleep after a 3 hour watch below decks, you realise that you have never felt more content or happy. To quote a trendy phrase "....now THAT'S what I'm talkin' 'bout!"

This photo shows our rescued lump of wood, which we came across (luckily before hitting it) just floating in the middle of nowhere. Responsible sailors that we are, we performed a man overboard exercise and retrieved it. And took it all the way back to HYC, where we transferred it to the jetty to dry, thinking we could keep it as a rather unusual trophy....except that pretty soon it began to absolutely stink, and so it was committed to the bin.....just thought I'd share ....... hey it's my blog, I can write what I want :-D

What an adventure!

Sirocco, Mike and Jan have been to The Abrolhos Islands (well, one of them, anyway), Geraldton, Port Denison, Green Head and Jurien - all of which, for the benefit of our loyal overseas reader(s) are substantially NORTH of Perth!
We were away from our home port for almost three weeks, during which time we experienced several firsts - first time up North in Sirocco, first time overnight passage in Sirocco, first time provisioning, first time being on our own out of sight of land etc....we had a fabulous time even though we were beset by awful weather sometimes, but we learned from it and neither of us wanted to come home or get off Sirocco.
Also, another first for us was using our newly fitted auto-pilot, 'Otto' - have to say he did a wonderful job of steering for us and we can't believe how much easier things are with him! Although it must be said, Mike did a sterling job of getting us into strange harbours at night time (aided by me at the bow with a torch). A total of 574 nautical miles was recorded in our log books, with our best distance being 158nm in one 24 hour period.We both have the itchiest feet now and cannot wait until the end of this year for our next, even bigger adventure.....but more of that at a later date....meanwhile - a few photos....enjoy!

Mike at Port Denison

Sirocco at Port Denison

A lovely sunset

A lovely sunrise

Replica of Capt. Pelseart's longboat, Geraldton

Mikes Tech update.

Sirocco has just been out for her yearly antifouling and engine service. The new rudder we had fitted last year under warranty looked like the 'Great Barrier Reef' as there was that much growth on it! It looked very much like the primer did not take prior to top coating, so that was taken care of under warranty as were the 3 small blisters noted on the starboard side of the keel. Jan and I decided we would try our hand at the art of antifouling, it was an interesting experience and not too messy, for the money we saved it was well worth all the effort. While on the hard stand we got all the standing rigging checked over, to see the guy climb the rigging was a sight to behold, he shot up the mast, a true professional!

Once Sirocco was back in the water we took her for a sail only to notice the head sail had a 1 foot rip in the leach, after a closer inspection we decided to furl it back in and return to the pen. We took the sail to the local sail loft who easily diagnosed the problem; there was no UV protection strip and all was coming apart! After consultation with the agent a repair and addition of said strip was carried out under warranty.

Our wind turbine decided to stop producing power while we were down in Rockingham and had to be sent off for repair in Melbourne, the regulator board had a short and has to be changed, hopefully it will soon be back on Sirocco working as specified.