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: