Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Maggie goes for a sail - it's been a while!!

The planets must have been aligned on Monday, as it was a day off work with fine weather and no other commitments. So I took the opportunity to go for a sail - YEAH!!!

It was an ideal autumnal day on Western Port, the cooler weather had ensured the crowds had long since gone and only a handful of other boats were on the water and it looked a lot like this...


Before too long, I let the crew take control and I sat back and enjoyed the ride...


The autohelm does a marvellous job and I would definitely recommend one to anybody that does a bit of solo sailing. It is particularly good when you need to reef sails and do any other boatly duties and even gives you the freedom to wander about the boat and attempt to take artistic photos...



...or not...it was worth a try!

Well, the wind began to blow and we saw some good speed out of Maggie...


4.1 kts...not to bad, c'mon we can do better...



4.5 kts...now we're getting better...


4.8 kts...not a bad job, maybe I should take over from the autohelm just to see how quick this old thing will go...


5.5 kts...now we're talking...

At about this stage, I was holding the tiller with my foot, the mainsheet traveller line with one hand and the camera with the other and I could feel that Maggie wanted to accelerate...so unfortunately I had to ditch the camera...we got to 6.2 kts close hauled (well as close as a Jedda gets) in about 10-12 kts of breeze, which to my way of thinking isn't too bad for a heavy, slow, old yacht...

...a quick look behind still shows nobody about...


...and not too long after it began, it all ended...




 ...and we headed back into the marina...where we discovered...


...water...BUGGER...obviously the leak isn't fixed!!

And once again thanks to Mr Google...here's where we went...


So as you can see, it was a quick sail but a good sail...

1 comment:

  1. Hi Tim , didn't find you out on the water and after readding your blog can understand why . Iam interested in how you showed your course then able to print it to photo . so perhaps you could send me details either e-mail or through my blog
    " y-kickatinalong.blogspot.com " or just give me a ring . Catch up soon . Bob

    ReplyDelete