pre planing for month long trip

My wife Tina has her long service leave up and we are going to use 4 weeks of leave to visit the spencer gulf area particulary the Sir Joseph Banks group of islands ,Port Lincoln and a port i promised myself as a 9 year old that i would visit , Port Broughton which was our family summer holiday destination but i digress,this trip has been planned for over 2 years as we counted down till my wifes 10 years of long service finally wound down and here we are in just over a month till we leave and i have been busy with last minute fixes and purchases,Firstly last month i anti fouled our hulls, i fitted a wedge to the outboard motor to level out the motor in the water, i turned fifty and part of my presents were all the charts of KI and spencer gulf !and my latest project is fitting 4x rope janmmers to our cabin top which should make life alot easier especially when handling our latest purchase ,a spinnaker which should increase our rate of knots well hopefully !i will try to add some photos of our tri and if we get a good signal we will be posting regulary on our trip thats it, cheers for now

My first solo voyage

On Wednesday the 14Th of September after allot of planning and acquiring of provisions I left my mooring in Garden Island and set sail for maybe up to 2 weeks of exploring St Vincent's gulf, mostly the upper gulf as I had never been there before. It was 7.44 am when I left, I had to motor as usual down Barker Inlet but as soon as I was abeam of the StKilda entrance beacon I set all sail which included my new second hand fully battened main sail. I was excited about the trip mostly as i was sailing solo for the first time and i did have a few butter fly s kicking around as well .The weather forecast called for n/nw winds 10-15 kts and that is exactly what i had and once i rounded the black pole i set course for my first destination which was Black Point the run across was about 40 n/m and it was a beam reach across ,there was a half to a metre of swell and we made 6,5 kts sailing at times it got a bit lumpy but nothing to write home about and the auto pilot didn't mind either .Since this was the first time at Black Point i was reading up on the bay in my pilot book and as with most ports in this Gulf holding is only marginal with sand over a limestone base and the bay it self hasn't that much protection from winds of any quarter except East of course .I anchored about 250m off shore and in 3m of water i put out 40 m of chain and by this time 3.40 pm the wind had dropped to 5 kts and for the rest of the day i kicked back and fished for squid of which i caught 2! .After having some tea and sitting on deck star gazing i felt tired after a full day of sailing and so i retired to my bunk where i slept like a log .
Thursday 15 September
It was with some reluctance i crawled out of bed but i wanted to be moving because as nice as Black Point is, it has no facilities and not much in the way of protection and i needed some fuel so at 7.40 am, i am making my way to Ardrossan another port i have never been and as with Black Point it offers little in the way of protection from winds from almost any quarter but the forecast is for light winds from the n/e for the next 24 hrs and that is the reason that i have no sail set ,the wind which is almost non existent is on the nose so iam motoring at 5kts and i was rewarded for trailing my snook line with a nice snook about 6oomm long -yum at around 10 o'clock an escort of dolphins stayed with me for half an hour entertaining me with there antics -amazing creatures! i finally arrived at Ardrossan at 12.30 and because of the poor holding i set two anchors 45 degrees of the bow and reversed well to dig them in as best as i could.After having a bite to eat i lowered the dingy and motored over to the boat ramp with my jerry cans ,it was around this time i realised that i had left my sack truck in the car shit !or something like that i said ,now i would have to carry 2x jerry cans half a kilometre full of fuel back to the boat ramp .These were the thoughts that were running threw my mind as i motored over to the pontoon ,after tying up and locking the dingy i was walking up the ramp when i met i bloke at the top of the ramp he said, '' g;day mate nice looking tri you got there are ya going to the servo want a lift'' ? i excepted and thanked him, he could only take me there not come back that's fine i said and i thanked him again as he drove off .I only filled the jerry cans 3/4 each because my back is stuffed already i don't need to make it worse and bugger me i had only just left the servo and a couple in a ute stopped and asked if that was my boat in the harbour and did i need a lift back to the boat ramp to say i was blown away by country hospitality would be an understatement how nice to see that there are still honest ,nice people out there .After returning to the boat i spent the day relaxing and reading a novel and just kicking back
Friday the 16 th September
I woke at 3.13 am to a change in the boats motion an unpredicted wind change swept threw the anchorage it amazes me how you get attuned to your boat and all the little sounds she makes i got up and we had swung around facing e/ne both anchors were holding well and after a while i felt confident that we weren't going anywhere so i went back to bed (i always set the anchor drag alarm on my GPS when ever i anchor).I woke at 7am and after a shower and breakfast i pulled both anchors and made my way to a fishing spot given to my wife Tina by her manager at work ,as this spot was on the way to Port Clinton my objective today i gave it a try ,This fishing spot was for snapper and as the water was 16m deep i thought i might be lucky ,but as is usual with me and fishing i caught nothing but in my defence there were 3 snapper long line boat raping the area and i heard when i got back that they took 200 tonnes of snapper in one week alone!,any way after an hour or so a nice s/e breeze came up so i gave fishing a miss and took advantage of the breeze and soon enough i was cruising along at 5kts and made Port Clinton at 2.30 pm .I anchored about 300m off shore in 2.5m of water i put out 40 m of chain and backed down on it to set it and once that was done i fished for a while but didn't catch any thing .I sat on deck reading a book and just taking in that i was finally near the top of St Vincents Gulf i could see the entrance beacon to Port Wakefield from where i was and i could also see the entrance to Price these were my destinations in the next few days ,i stayed on deck and watched the sun set and the sunset was all purple and orange and it was truly beautiful.After the sun had set i had dinner and went on the lap top to check on what the weather was up to and the weather service was predicting a n/e wind change later the next day 20-25kts ,i thought that tomorrow i will get up early and go into Port Wakefield and tie up at the wharf out of the wind .At 10.30 i went to bed and slept well
Saturday 17th September
I woke with a start at 3.20 am one of my halyards was tapping away and the boat was moving up &down slightly i tried to go back to sleep but the tapping was getting louder so i got dressed and went on deck and the wind was blowing from the n/e at about 8-12kts i retied the halyard and with the breeze blowing in my face i felt the first feeling of dread uncoiling in my stomach is the change coming early? will it hold off till daylight when i can make for Port Wakefield ? i went back inside and put the kettle on and made a cup of tea .I sat by the steering position and drank my tea the wind had increased a little but seemed to be holding i waited another 15minutes and decided to go lay back in bed i took one step down the set of steps and the dreaded anchor drag alarm went off SHIT i said i turned the key on the outboard and she fired first pop i pulled on my balaclava and turned off the anchor drag alarm and i watched the numbers from the long &lat and the numbers were changing as i watched i was waiting to see if the anchor would re-set itself but no the numbers kept changing ,i went outside to lift the anchor and to get the second one ready as well .With my foot on the deck switch the anchor winch pulled up its load and i also noticed now that the wind had increased substantially was this the change coming threw early ? Finally the anchor appeared in the darkness a huge mound of ribbon weed and sand i quickly cleaned off the weed and released the main anchor as we went back wards with the wind i threw the second anchor over as well both anchors bit and i rushed inside to check the GPS DAM we were still dragging i pulled both anchors up to find they were both covered with a huge mound of weed and sand ,i cleaned them off and tried again by this time the wind had really picked up and i was in no doubt that this was indeed the predicted weather change i tried cleaning and resetting the anchor time and time again but to no avail and all through this was the persistent banging of the dingy which i had left down the previous night there was nothing i could do about it at the moment .After the last attempt to set the anchor i gave up and considered my options do i make a run for Port Wakefield or Price or do i run with the storm? i decided to try and make for wakefield i checked the tides there would be enough to get in there so i went for it ,the waves were almost head on and in the space of 35 minutes they had grown considerately,they were a metre and a half tall and very close together ,remembering how shallow it was, explained the size of these waves poor TRI_N_ESCAPE bucked and pounded her way through the waves they were hitting the front windows with a lot of force ,an event that had never happened before, sure we have had spry hit our windows but never wave tops .The outboard cavitated when the propeller lost its bite in the water and roared its anger at the storm that had now engulfed us ,pots and pans flew from the galley a kettle half full took off from the stove top and landed in the saloon something that has never happened in 8years of sailing her ,food burst out of the pantry and landed on the floor ,a bigger wave than normal burst on deck blotting out my visibility ,that was the last straw, i turned and ran with the storm ,immediately the ride improved we were still rocking around but at least we weren't beating our brains out i put on the auto pilot and watched it for a few minutes to make sure it could handle the conditions ,i took my wind speed indicator on deck and it registered 30 kts sustained ,i expected more wind speed than that from the previous ride i had but i put it down to the shallow water .It was with a big relief that i noticed pre dawn on the eastern sky line and as i watched the new day be born , it was such a relief to see that golden orb light the sky, funny how things don't seem that bad in the light of a new day ! Now that things had settled down i looked at the chart and decided that Ardrossan was out of the question as it is too exposed for these conditions so i decided on Black Point as my destination Port Vincent was the best choice but it was along way and i didnt feel up to such a long sail as my back had started to give me grief .As i had a following sea i set my head sail and shut down the outboard we were actually going faster under sail 7kts and while the auto pilot sailed me further south i released the dingy from the side of Tri-n-Escape and set it on a 6m painter where it couldn't bash any more paint of the top sides ,i made a vowel to myself that stormy night to never leave a dingy in the water over night again -ever.With the dingy riding along on its painter i watched it rise over the waves and then surf down the face looking that at any minute that it was about to crash into the stern of Tri-N-Escape before being plucked forward as if by a great hand ,i watched the dingy ride of ups and downs for a while to make sure all was ok it was then i put the galley and saloon back into some semblance of order and what else do you do in a crisis.....why have a cup of tea naturally !! .The wind didnt let up for a few hours and then it moderated slightly down to 20-25 kts and i made Black Point soon after, as i furled the head sail and started the outboard and i made my way into the anchorage the waves were still quite big and i questioned my decision on comming here but i was exhausted and i needed to anchor and rest i positioned myself about 250 offshore and the waves were .5 metre- i put her in the wind and dropped anchor i let 20m out and as the boat was being driven back towards shore i braked the anchor winch to slow the flow of chain overboard at 30 m i stopped the chain and the bow swung into the wind but something wasn't right incredibly we were dragging again!!!in disbelief i pulled up the anchor and as before it had a great ball of weed and sand on it after cleaning it off i had drifted too close to shore for my liking so i motored out a bit and tried again this time the anchor didnt bite at all and we dragged and the boats bow swung down wind i started pulling up the anchor chain again but we were still racing towards the beach the chain arcing under the starboard float all of a sudden the chain stalled out and i heard the outboard stall oh no it didn;t did it? i raced to the stern and hit the tilt button on the out board and there coiled like a great serpent was my anchor bouy marker line coiled tightly around the propellor i stared at it with disbeliefe before i sprung into action i raced to the galley and grabbed the biggest carving knife in the galley set and i attacked the tightly wound rope in a frenzy knowing that we were on a head long collision with the beach which could be only seconds away ,the nylon rope came away slowly at first then bigger pieces came away then it was clear i hit the trim button to lower the outboard leg and ran to the helm position i hit the starter and bless that motor she fired first pop i swung the wheel hard to port and slammed the throttle lever to the stops Tri-N -Escape leapt up and seemed to know the urgency she shouldered the next wave away like a wrestler topples a lesser aponante and pointed her bows to the open sea i reduced the throttle as i was still dragging 20 m of chain ,as i went to the anchor winch i glanced over the side and saw that we were in very shallow water how close we came to disaster made me shudder.i managed to recover the remaining chain and decided then and there that Black Point could go to hell and i set a course for Port Vincent but first i had to bash back through the same seas that i rode in on to go around the spit marker on Point Alfred ,20 minutes of bashing into seas till i could round the marker and set a course for Vincent.Once around on this new course i reset the head sail and shut off the engine.I finally arrived at Port Vincent at 3.30 pm almost 12 hours at sea and i was exhausted i motored into the bay to see a large sailing cat on the beach but my concern was in picking up a mooring which i found, and was able to grab it on my second attempt i shut down the engine and let out a huge sigh of relief that night i slept like a baby
Sunday 17 th September
I woke to sun light streaming in through the over head hatch in our cabin i boiled the kettle and made a cuppa i was going to have a lazy day today but i did need to go into town so i grabed the jerry cans to top up with and jumped in the dingy and motored over to the warf area as i was motoring across i saw the owner of the cat see me and jump in his car and he met me at the warf he helped me tie up to the warf he introduced himself as Kevin Lane and then i saw his cats name Tearaway and it rung a bell he turned out to be a writer for multihull world and what a top bloke,he offered me the use of his car but i declined so he offered to drive me to the servo i said that first that i needed to go to an ATM to get some cash but the pub where the ATM was wasn;t open yet thats ok says kevin i;ll pay for it and you can fix me up later but as it turned out the servo was closed so kevin says lets get a coffee! i said i cant as i have no cash he says no worries my shout what a bloke how generous! we had a good chin wag and when we went back to the servo they did cash out any way!.Later that day Kevin said he was doing some painting on his cat and i offered to help so after lunch i went back to the beach in the dingy and we painted two stripes on the top sides of Kevins cat .Later that afternoon i retired to my boat for a siesta and following that i had an early tea and an early night.
Monday 18th September
Monday mornings dawn brought strong wind and thick rainy squally weather i ventured on deck with my wind gauge and measured 32kts across the deck the mooring line was like a tight rope walkers line and my thoughts turned to i wonder how good this mooring really is ?.A little after 10 Kevin from Tearaway came over for a visit and a look through Tri-N-Escape and a few cups of tea i explained to Kevin that i might head back tomorrow he said that it will be very rough and it might pay to wait i said i would wait for the forecast in the morning .Later after Kevin had left i cooked an early tea and watched a DVD and had an early night.
Tuesday 19th September
Last night a neighbour of mine rang to say that he thought that there was an intruder in our yard i immediately rang my son and with my wife they checked it out but there was no one there so after saying good night to my wife i set my alarm for 5.15am so i could get the latest weather forecast for the metro waters so next thing i know my alarm is going off and i stumble out of bed and i boot up my lap top and the forecast is not to bad it will be lumpy but i am ready to go home .I put the kettle on for my cuppa and its not long before iam motoring ,i went past kevins boat but it was still early so i set course for home there was a fairly big swell running and we surfed down the wave fronts and i made the Orontes beacon by 7.37am and the rest of the crossing was a breeze i finally tied up at my mooring at 2.45 pm it was a first for me going solo and i would do it again no worries but it is much better with your first and best mate with you cheers andy

easter getaway

This easter we thought we would just hang around locally as the forecast was for very light northerly winds and since the ban on anchoring in the Port river had been lifted we thought we would anchor at one of our old haunts the quarantine anchorage.This anchorage is in the port river out of the main shipping channel and protected from waves from strong winds ,we used to anchor here alot when we lived aboard just to have a break from our marina-any way we left our club at 2.30pm and motored against the tide to the cutting (a narrow channel which seperates the Port river from Barker inlet)and as this channel can only be crossed at high tide which for us was at 5.30pm but because we only draw .5 of a metre we thought we would give it a go ,if we bottomed out it was a making tide anyway so we would float off anyhow, but i needent have worried we made it thru with less than 100mm under our keel ,the bottom was sand so it wouldnt have done any damage if we had of touched bottom anyway we motored over to our anchorage which was only a mile or so away .We first anchored next to the jetty and unfortunately the bottom here was slushy mud and because we didnt back down on the anchor hard enough we dragged,so we upped anchor and we moved a few hundred metres away and in 4m of water i let out 30m of chain and we reverse and set the anchor properly as usual i set the anchor drag on the GPS but we didnt have a problem and we spent the next 2 nights there reading ,fishing watching the odd dvd and playing cards ,i have to mention it as it has never happened before i won the coverated champion of cards honour for the week end !all in all it was a really relaxing weekend break i still would like to cut our mooring lines and sail off into the sunset but its not possible with our current situation but little adventures like this one keep me going-thats it for now fair winds &smooth seas

epic adventure

Tina had two weeks holiday booked a week and a half for our epic boat trip !and as it was our 25 Th wedding anniversary, so we spent the night in a city hotel and went out for a meal and went and had a play at the Adelaide casino. We came home the next day and whilst Tina went shopping i started packing up all the extra gear and rigging fishing rods, we decided to stay one more night at home before going to the boat .The next morning with Tina ticking off the gear from our extensive list as i loaded it into my car we were soon ready to head off on our trip, we said our good byes to our two children who were looking forward to having the house to themselves (i did say no parties please !!!)we arrived at the boat club around lunchtime and while Tina went into Port Adelaide for some more last minute supplies i finished packing our tri and filled up our 450 litre water tanks +2x 20Lr Jerry cans of water as well ,i also loaded 100 litres of petrol for our outboard which is a 40 hp four stroke mercury big foot and a 4hp Suzuki for the dingy, by the time we were ready it was late in the day so we decided on a early start tomorrow as the tide would be in our favour.Our alarm woke us at 7am and after listening to the weather forecast which wasn't the best, 12-15kts s-SW with an afternoon breeze 18 -20 kts sw we cast off our lines at 8.00 am and caught the out going tide.We motored thru barker inlet and off St kilda i raised our main and unfurled our head sail in these sheltered waters, we were sailing at 6 kts but once we rounded the black pole and hardened up onto our new course to stansbury some 40 odd nautical miles across Gulf St Vincent the breeze was 15kts gusting to 18 kts and we were hard on the wind and with the sea state of 1.0 m waves with a secondary wave pattern as well of .5 of a metre it made for a rough ride and to keep us going i elected to have the motor ticking over to help us maintain 6kts, but the motion was terrible and with frequent wave crests washing our deck and hitting our windscreen it wasn't the most pleasant trip in fact its the first time i felt queasy and i did wonder about turning back as my back was taking a pounding and beginning to ache Tina kept me supplied with cups of tea and she too felt a bit crook .It took 9 hours to cover 44 nm and we were both exhausted when we finally picked up a mooring at Stansbury we had an early tea and watched a DVD and before going to bed i put on our anchor light and set the anchor drag alarm on the chart plotter.Next morning we woke to the wind whistling in our rigging and the whurr of our newly installed air x wind generator which is brilliant since it was over cast our solar panels 2x40 watt were not producing squat but the wind Genny was keeping our 200 amp house bank fully charged even though we were running a 12v freezer ,12v frig ,12v water pressure system a 12v toilet plus all the other systems auto pilot ,chart plotters ,depth sounder lights etc to say that iam proud of that wind genny is an understatement we spent the day recovering, it felt good knowing that we had a week + ahead of us and it did us good to veg out and relax ,after tea we watched a DVD and had an early night next morning there was a north easterly blowing about 7-10 kts so we took advantage of this wind direction and we motored to the south spit light ,which marks the end of a sand spit that even at high tide i wouldn't cross due to the large number of oyster leases along it .We motored out to the beacon which is about 3n/m from Stansbury and we hoisted all sail and changed course to head to Edithburgh some 15 n/m away and straight away on the horizon you can make out lots of wind generators which appear to be out in the water .While sailing along we ticked off the little settlements that dot the shore line and as this was our first time along this part of the coast we both found it very interesting to tick off the towns on our chart as we drifted by on the now dying breeze which had dropped off to 4kts so the iron sail was cranked up so we could maintain 5 kts ,after 4 hours we took all sail in and motored into Edithburgh and as our cruising guide warned us of shoaling sand areas and areas of foul ground we made our way in slowly and pretty soon we picked a rsays mooring and with a sigh of relief we were here i always love the feeling of sailing somewhere new it gives me a real buzz i often think how Matthew flinders felt when he did the same -not that i am putting myself in his class they did it the hard way ,no charts no chart-plotters just a lead line and a sextant now they were sailors ! but neverlese i still felt like i had accomplished something .Edithburgh was to be a stepping stone on our way to kangaroo island but after lowering the dingy into the water from our davits i bring the dinghy along side the lee of our vessel and always fit the 4hp outboard but while placing said outboard into position ,i don't know if it was wake from another vessel or just me but the dingy rocked i almost dropped the motor in the drink and i didn't want that so i yanked it back i fell over backwards the outboard fell on me, my leg went under the dingy seat and i wrenched my knee quite badly i yelled out to Tina who helped me up and together we put the motor on the back of the dingy -what a drama !!half an hour later we motored over to the dingy wharf with our Jerry cans and we filled them up at the local servo and the owner was kind enough for us to look after them while we explored Edithburgh as neither Tina or myself had ever been here before .It took us about an hour to wander around and we bought some supplies and returned to the servo and wandered back to the dingy wharf as by now my knee was swollen and giving me a bit of grief .On arrival at the wharf we had to laugh as the tide was low and even though the dingy wasn't high and dry ,still we weren't going anywhere in a hurry and it was about an hour later that we managed to get her into deeper water where i did my impression of a cross country skier with the dingy oars as ski poles we both had a good laugh ! the rest of the day was spent relaxing, reading ,watching a DVD or two ,playing cards where Tina retained her coverted grand champion title and fishing -i had better mention this Tina asked about fishing for whiting here and i said,'' nah you wont catch them here its too shallow'' famous last words Tina caught two very nice legal whiting of 34cm and then we were plagued by trumpeters or as they are known locally ''shitties'' we gave up after these fish moved in and went back to some serious relaxing .At about 10o;clock that night i went on deck and it was a balmy still night, the night sky was cloud free not a breath of wind and the stars were so bright ,i was captivated the milky way was just there, i felt like i could put my hand up and grab a star it was hypnotic and i just couldn't tear my eyes from it ,i called out to Tina to come and have a look at this and it took her breath away as well after a half an hour of star gazing we went to bed feeling quite relaxed and content.The next few days were spent just relaxing and fishing we went ashore one more time for a garbage run and to pick up some more supplies we planned to head out to Troubridge Island and we left about 8 am the following day and as the island is only 3 or so n/m offshore it didn't take long to get there ,we fished a deep hole 13m deep and didn't even get a nibble we moved over next to the island in 2.5m of water and we caught 1/2 dozen plump whiting yum and in the afternoon when the sea breeze kicked in we motored back to the mooring in the blind channel,where we spent the remainder of the day reading .The next morning we cast of our mooring and sailed back to Stansbury as we had been away for a week now and i wanted Tina to have a few days at home before she had to go back to work ,as we left the edithburgh mooring there was a 10-12 kt northerly blowing which as we were heading north was to be a head wind with 1-1.5m seas which made for a bumpy ride but i have learnt from experience that if we motor at 3200 rpm instead of my usual 1900 rpm the ride is much better the downside is that we use double the fuel but i know which i prefer,it took us 5 hours to motor back to Stansbury and once we rounded that spit we were almost running with the waves which felt great compared with the previous 5 hours ! we tried fishing from our mooring but caught nothing and decided that an afternoon cat nap might be in order !,we both woke up around 4pm and i went on deck for a stroll to stretch my back and when i got to where we were fishing i looked over the side and around our berley bucket there were a school of tommies and they were big ,i called Tina and we both started fishing we ended up with 13 fish Tina caught 8 and i caught 5 what a way to finish the day and trip as we were heading home the next day- in fact after tea that night we had an early night and crashed.The next morning we set off early about 8.00am the winds were still northerly but there was a predicted s-SW wind change due this morning and one look at the sky and it was very evident that this was happening as we looked ,i raised all sail and the change hit us as we rounded the southern spit light beacon and the wind did a 180 and blew from the south at 14kts the waves quickly built but as we were on a broad reach the ride wasn't to bad,the trip home took 7 hours and our best top speed was 8 kts sailing the wind in the afternoon picked up even further and we got bounced around a bit but not as bad as the trip over when we got back to our mooring we flushed the outboard and washed all the salt off our boat and cleaned her up for next time ; foot note a few days later i went down to the boat and while checking our rudder i found that the bottom pivot of our stern hung rudder was broken, how lucky were we that it didn't break right off ! until next time

long time between posts

Hi guys its been a long time since my last post- too long we ,my wife Tina and myself have done a bit more work to tri-n-escape on our last haul out i repainted the topsides and also i repainted the non-slip on the deck i used a new product from formex and so far its been excellent and apart from anti fouling i serviced our outboard motor its done 200hundred hours now the last time it was due i had a so-called outboard mechanic come out and he charged me $350.00 for a full service and i don't mind paying any money [within reason] if the job is done right but this guy when he finished assembling the leg we ran the motor with muffs on and the volume of water coming out didn't look enough compared to normal but the mechanic assured me that was because of the lenght of hose we had because the slips tap was a long way off well he was the mechanic so i gave him the benefit of the doubt -silly me ,a week later we re-launched after i rebeded the skin fittings and replaced the sea cocks from gate to ball valves well i started the motor and i had mt son checking the motor water flow and he yelled out its pumping i waved the slip master off and we backed off the cradle and motored down the channel for a quick run my son joined me at the helm and i asked him to take over and i went aft to check out the motor-it was with a heavy heart that i looked at the piddly flow from the outlet -dam it i knew it wasn't right @#$%%^ i rang the mechanic straight away he said it may be a blockage and to give it a good run at high revs !!!and if that didn't work he said give me a ring ,well you have probably have guessed the out come- no difference i re- rang him and he said oh well you will have to pull her out the water again to which i said no problem the haul out fee is your cost though this induced a spluttering sound over the receiver to which he replied how about you back into the boat ramp and i will pull the leg of the outboard there ,Didn't have a problem with that [one of the benefits of a shallow draught]a time was arranged for the following day . two hours later than originally planned he rocked up and when he took the leg off the problem was immediately apparent when fitting the leg back on the water pick up tube instead of going in the housing it sat on the outside edge ! the offending pick up tube was put in its right place the leg re-fitted and the motor restarted and hey presto it was pumping like it was supposed to be and get this the mechanic had the front to say don't worry theres no charge for today !!cheeky prick, i kept my tongue in case i used his service again Since my last post we have been away a few times the last trip was at Easter this year we went to port Vincent and from there we sailed to stansbury it was a good trip the kids didn't come this time which felt strange for us never less the weather was nice would you believe we had the wind on the nose going over and no wind at all coming back i think that will do for now cheers Andy

sailing try-outs

This week end we took some friends Chris &kathy and Steve &liz out for a sail, lucky for me both the boys are keen multi sailers and when they heard that trinescape hadnt really been tried out they were both keen to see what she would go like .Tina and myself have sailed her with only the head sail quite a few times and only once with all sails up but the wind was only about 5kts but she pointed very well but we were keen to see how our one off design would perform !. We left our mooring at about 10.00 o'clock and there was little or no wind but the forecast was for an afternoon sea breeze of 15kts ,we motored for about 3 hours and eventually we anchored for lunch and while there we threw over a few crab nets and we ended up with 10 blues yum! .After having lunch we packed everything up and prepared the sails ,while tina and i up anchored we slowly motored into the wind to allow the boys to set the main and also un furl the head sail by this time we had about 15 kts of wind gusting to 18 every now and then ,well as soon as i beared away the sails filled and we were off !the best i have had the boat up to was 6kts and that was with the tide behind me! well she blew that record in seconds and we were sitting on 8 kts and it was fantastic!, it was a bit later when we realized that we had forgotten to put the batterns in but we all thought bugger it -next time, all the girls were laughing at me because i was grinning like an idiot but i didnt care i was on cloud 9 all my fears about how our one off design would perform were laid to rest the boys were very impressed with her performance and how she handled the conditions as there was roughly a metre and a bit sea running and there was no bridge deck slamming at all even though we only have 700mm clearance they say 600mm is the minimum but we were ok . We sailed for about 3 hours and we enjoyed every minute of it i cant wait till next time untill then seeya later

quiet weekend away

My wife Tina and i had been planning our christmas get away for months it was just like a military operation all our lists were ticked off and after checking with the weather people it was all systems go for our 6 day get away. It was after lunch when we finally let go our mooring ropes and as usual we had to motor thru barker inlets twisting and turning channel but after clearing the Stkilda channel marker we unfurled our head sail and in 10-15 knots we took off our destination was Port Gawler river but because of the tides we would have to anchor off the mouth of the creek for the night and enter on the 7.00 am morning tide it is roughly 27 ks sailing to get where we wanted to go and the weather forcast called for the weather to moderate as the week went on well after clearing the black pole which was roughly the half way point the winds picked up a tad but with the weather supposed to be moderating we pushed on well we finally anchored at 4.30 pm the water depth was 3m so because of the conditions we put down 30 + m of chain and we reversed to set the anchor well which it did by this time it was just on dusk and apart from our mast head anchor light i also fitted a tempoary anchor light under our boom as a lot of pro fisherman come up this way and i wanted to be seen. Well the winds they started to pick up and up we had atleast 1.5-2.0 m waves i dont know how Tina did it but she cooked us tea and the conditions on board were terrible you could not stand up with out a hand on something and we both stumbled from time to time,the noise of the waves on the bows was quite scary and the best place to be was in bed and even in there we were thrown around . Before going to bed i went on deck to check the anchor nipper which done an amazing job considering ,i also set the anchor drag alarm on the chart plotter and i set the depth alarm on the depth sounder and then we both went to bed and slept on and off until the anchor drag alarm went of at 2.30 am the conditions had deteriated further and for the first time in my life i felt sea sick and i had to hang on to study the chart plotter to see how fast we were dragging but bless that anchor it re-set itself and after a half an hour or so of watching the screen i reset the anchor drag and went back to bed and tried to close my eyes to get some rest but i only managed some disturbed sleep . As pre-dawn filtered thru the over head hatch in our bunk we both got up and prepared to up anchor and enter Pt gawler river but that is another adventure for my next post suffice to say we went from bad to worse