Twilight sails begin

Yesterday afternoon/evening, we participated in the first Twilight Sail for the year. It seemed almost everyone with a yacht was on the water, and it was a wonderful sight to see so many sails up. We were joined by Claire and Darryl again, plus Jane and Gail (also from a sail course) and Sue and Den, our old neighbours.

In what can only be described as delightful conditions, we sailed into the sunset, covering just over 5 nautical miles. Sheer Bliss – can't wait until next Friday for the next one!

Fremantle

Once again, Cruising in Company sailed en masse to Fremantle Sailing Club. This time, Mike and I were joined by Claire and Darryl, who had previously completed a HYC Sailing course aboard Sirocco. Six HYC yachts tied up at FSC Collector jetty. Much eating and drinking ensued, and I have to admit I suffered a slight mishap whilst trying to get off one of the other boats (after way too much wine, followed by Baileys). Bruised ego, backside and ribs – thank God no-one was sober enough to operate a camera by then - here's a photo of the bunch taken earlier in the day :-)

Technical talk from Mike

I have now added 2 more 120 Amp Hr deep cycle batteries to the house bank to give us 360 Amp Hour plus the standard start battery. The batteries are correctly connected in Parallel (there are 3 different ways in case you were wondering!) to get the best results. I constructed a bus bar arrangement to allow me to connect the wind generator, alternator and external 12 Volt power socket to and still allow space for further additions as required.

As previously mentioned by Jan the davits are on. The design has been very well thought out and executed. They incorporate a removable extension for the wind generator as well as 2 cross braces between the lifting arms for future solar panels if needed. The wind generator works like a dream. In 15-20 Kts of wind I see 5-6 amps and 18 Amps in 24 Kts of wind on the ammeter.

Sirocco has just been on the hard stand for her yearly antifouling. During this time I replaced the hull and sail drive anodes as well as changing engine oil & filters as well as both fuel filters. Bavaria had a recall on the rudders fitted to some yachts and ours was one, so this was replaced free of charge during this time.

I have replaced the inverter with a 3000 Watt unit now that we have a decent set of house batteries, this will allow Jan her toast in the mornings when we are over at Rotto !

We were thinking of having the dining table in the saloon cut to give us another drop leaf, this would have cost quite a lot to do, so instead we have moved it over to Starboard 3 ½ inches, not a great distance but it does make a difference walking thru to the front cabin, no more sore & bruised legs now.

Mike.

Rockingham

The day after Boxing Day, Mike and I sailed Sirocco south to Rockingham. By the time we got to Fremantle, the waves were breaking over our bow and reaching the cockpit - we had planned on following another yacht, who had left before us, but they called to say conditions were too rough for them, and headed off to Rottnest instead: we decided that there is nothing to fear but fear itself and carried on.....and were rewarded by seeing the tallship "Leuwin" under sail.

The shipping channel out of/into Freo is great - really well marked and deep, we followed it down no problems at at, motor sailing. Here's an artistic photo of one of the markers (just because I can)

Apart from the fact that this was new territory for us, what freaked us out most was looking for the mussel beds marked on the chart and making sure we were well clear of them - which is fine if you actually know what a mussel bed looks like (which we didn't!)

We picked up a mooring in the bay and chilled out for an hour or so.

Then it was into the dinghy, down to the old clubhouse to join Graham and Elaine (Eaglehearts) for a drink to celebrate Grahams birthday!

Next day, Eaglehearts reversed up to us, collected Mike and I and together we sailed to Pig Trough Bay, Garden Island. Our first time on a catamaran, and a generous (or mad!) Graham let us both have a go helming. Oh, I DO like autopilot....! Here's Mike on the wheel.

Once there, Elaine once again astounded us by producing a fabulous lunch, spare bathers, towels and liquid refreshments - she's so organised! We came completely unprepared, as we thought we'd just be going for a quick joy-ride to empty the dunny. Definately hosts with the most.

Tuesday morning, Mike and I left for the sail back to HYC and had one of the most perfect sails we've had on Sirocco to date - we were averaging 6-7 knots in 12-15 knot ESE winds, didn't have to tack once and made it back to Hillarys in just under 5 hours. Perfect.

A great way to celebrate a new year.