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.

Mikes First look and sail!

After what seemed an age, Mike finally arrived home from Angola to get his first look at Sirocco in person! He was, of course very impressed, and I think this picture says it all :)

Mike being Mike, he started finding out exactly what was what, finding out how and why things work, looking in every nook and cranny - an aircraft engineer by trade, it's in his nature to 'poke around' as I call it!

We still have an issue with the pen - we are still in our temporary one, until the building work is finished, which entails waiting for the builders to finish for the day and open the bridge so we can get in and out - at the moment the bridge is closed from 7am until 4.30pm, Monday to Friday, so mid week sailing is out of the question mostly, due to offshore strong winds in the afternoon - but we did manage to get a sail in last Wednesday, as there was very little wind at 6pm - so Mike finally got to helm - what a happy person he was after that!

Peter came with us too and he absolutely loved it!

Next post will feature our weekend sail with our friends, John and Jill

Launch and sea trial

Standing and watching breathlessly as they put slings under Sirocco, drive an enormous lifter up to her, and slowly lift her off the supports, I can hardly believe it's happening.

We walk behind the lifter at a snails' pace, full of awe - like a wedding party following a bride to the altar! We walk past a line of 68ft clippers, all in Fremantle for a stopover during their round the world race.

Now we are at the slipway, and Tom opens a bottle of champagne, instructing me to pour some over the bow just before she touches the water, and say a few words. Well, I poured ok but couldn't say anything as tears were rolling down my face! Tom took photos which I haven't got yet, sorry. However, here is one of her in the water:

At last - in her element. We filled up with fuel and set off to the northeast out of the marina.

We raise the main, then un-furl the headsail, switch off the motor and she glides effortlessly and silently through the clear, blue water. She handles like a dream, I don't think I have ever felt quite this blissfully happy - just one thing wrong, Mike isn't here to share my joy. We play around for an hour or so, then slip back into the marina, find a pen and tidy her up a bit, then secure her for the night. What a day - what a yacht - what a blast!

Oh, and by the way - we finished the champagne :)