4 Sept: Jacob & Joseph

14 Nautical Miles

The weather forecast was for very light wind in the morning gusting to Bft 4 in the afternoon. This is just the weather for new sailors to try their hand and the sport.

I was taking out Jacob (who can sail well) and Joseph (first time) and so as soon as we were off the shore I allowed Joseph to try his hand at the helm.

Meanwhile Jacob is sunning himself on the foredeck. It really is very very calm and a great start to the day.

There is nobody about at the club as there are races in Limassol today. Galini is heavy and it took all our effort to get her in the water - the pebbles are piling up on the slipway again.

First time at the helm is not easy: To steer the boat left you move the tiller right and to steer the boat right you move the rudder left.

First attempts for everyone tend to be a bit of a zig-zag course, but in these light winds its great to try your hand:

'No, these are ripples not waves!'

We sailed past a gas tanker - keeping our distance - she was flying a red danger flag from her port mast yardarm.

Then some wally in a 'self-drive' power boat careers round the bow of the tanker. I didn't even know you could rent 'self-drive' boats. It was painted in big letters along the side advertising, I suppose its fair warning really. I really think they ought to teach them the 'rules of the road' before letting them lose on the high seas.

Jacob took over the helm - the two of them were having fun and I was relaxing. I worked about 70 hours this week I think so relaxing is what I needed.

We chase a MacGregor and quickly overhaul her. She is pottering along and luffing her genoa badly.

'Jacob, you're luffing too!' (That's luffing not laughing)

Joseph is much better disciplined than Jacob and me, remembering to drink water in the hot summer sun and to put extra suncream on. Though our suncream was double the strength of Joseph's.

But...  with no mirror to check his face, the suncream got into his eyes and we used up a couple of bottles of fresh water rinsing it out.

With the suncream gone  from his eyes Joseph is back to having fun as we goose wing down towards the coast.

On the way we pass one of the glass bottom boats with people hanging out all along the side with fishing rods. Almost no chance of catching anything as these waters are very overfished.

As we pass they stop fishing for a few seconds to wave at us.

Then we are passed and we hove to and eat our lunch.

The wind has picked up during lunch - there are white horses on the wave crests and there are yelps of joy as we race up to 5 knots. Well... racing at 5 knots is not really high speed sailing.

The final picture tells it all!

Rob, Annabella and Laura

3 Nautical miles

It was hot today... very hot. Here is the Heat Index statistics from http://www.cyprusmeteo.com/index.html for today. It shows that while we were out on the water it felt like 48.9 Celcius (in the shade) and we were in the sun. I still enjoyed it though.

Actually it was hot all day. Here is Cyprus Meteo graph for the last 24 hours:

We got to the club about 10:30 and we left about 2pm. What is slightly strange is that it actually got hotter around 5pm.

When we arrived I found that kids had removed the bungs from the the stern of Galini, which meant that last time I had sailed we had partially filled the buoyancy tank with water. Not a good idea. I looked round for something to block it up with, but since it was so calm thought I could get away with it for an hour or so. Wayfarers will float with the cockpit filled with water and the rear buoyancy tank also filled with water... but only just. It turned out that an hour or so was about all I could get away with.

Rob is a friend of a friend and I took him and his two daughters out for a sail. First time sailing for all of them.

Beautiful calm sea and blazing sun.

The helm moves left to go right and right to go left. Takes a bit of getting used to when someone is used to driving a car.

Because the sea was so calm I let Rob tack without first demonstrating. My mistake. We went round in a circle!

Didn't do his self confidence any good when Laura did it pretty perfectly after I had demonstrated.

Oh well... by the end he was helming fine.

However when Laura took over, the worried Dad was watching every move...

yep... she's doing fine.

What was good was that because the sea was so calm I could let Annabella have a go at helming too.

Too quick for me it was time to head back to the club. However I could feel the water in the buoyancy sloshing about (yes, I know its called the 'free surface effect' that makes the boat less easy to steer with a partially filled tank but this is a blog for normal people, well... relatively normal people) and decided we should not push it too much more.

The wind? Well, when we started it was very low (Bft 2) and was just creeping up to Bft 3 when we finished, which was making it more exciting for the girls. Sorry, without bungs I don't want to risk too much. (Thanks to Windfinder for the info.)

7 August

5 nautical miles

Chris, Daniel & Becky

8 nautical miles

I wasn't feeling too good (for me to miss a sail it means I really wasn't feeling too good) so Chris took Becky and Daniel out in Galini. In the process he demonstrated the difference between end sheeting and centre sheeting... in that the centre sheeting block fell off!

Galini really needs some maintenance, she is looking slightly sad, but until King Malu is ready to sail, the yacht takes precedence!

Sailing with Chris - 25 June

6 nautical miles

The week had been really windy and today was the first day with lower winds. Chris had burnt his knees quite a lot on the long sail on Monday (and his ankles as he forgot to suncream them when he took his socks off) so having a few days without sailing was kind of OK. 

Today we went out for a short trip round the bay, but as Chris reminded me my 'short trip round the bay' is longer than he normally sails in Sutton Park at his sailing club!

Trip to Potomas with Chris

31 nautical miles

My friend Chris from the UK came out to sail on King Malu, however avid readers of the King Malu blog will know we are still waiting for the new electric drive.

Hence...  we took out Galini.

Actually the Wayfarer is a nice boat for day sailing and we sailed all the way to Potomas and back.

We went up the Potomas creek and sat under the shade of a tree to eat our lunch. Sadly even that break from the sun was not enough for Chris' legs and ankles, which are somewhat sunburnt.

There was only one thing missing from lunch... a really nice coffee. We had forgotten to take any money and so despite the fact we were sitting beside a cafe, we couldn't avail ourselves.

On the way back Chris remarked 'You know when we get back we will have done the equivalent of a channel crossing'.

Looking at the GPS I realised that in fact we had already done the equivalent of a Dover to Calais crossing as we had, by that point, sailed more than 22 nautical miles.

The interesting thing is that sea miles in a Wayfarer don't count towards sea miles for you RYA certification. So... if a Wayfarer sails across the channel as part of a flotilla of yachts, the yachts can count the miles, but the Wayfarer cannot.

One of the hazards of Potomas is the fish farm just outside the creek.

Not very obvious - there are buoys visible from one side but not the other.

All in all a very good day's sailing.

When we got home we told Sue about the lack of money for the coffee and she said 'What about your emergency money?' and then retrieved more than five euros which would have provided us with coffee!

Sailing - 20 June

4 nautical miles

This sail was really just to check out Galini before Chris arrives tomorrow. 

Sailing - 22 May

7 nautical miles

Daniel and I were sailing Galini while Tim and Jacob took the new inflatable dinghy round the same route to King Malu. The same route? Well, not exactly, with an outboard motor they took a more direct route, but they also stayed close to land to avoid being blown around too much.

When we got close to the entrance to the marina we called them up on the radio and then decided not to actually go into the marina, but head for home. We had been trying to raise them most of the way, but they had put the hand held mobile in the front of the inflatable and because of the engine noise had not heard us calling!

First sail of the season

8 nautical miles

OK, so we can only take it so long, we need to get out and sail. (see King Malu blog). When we got to the club there was nobody there. How come on a glorious sailing day was nobody sailing... except us?

Today we put Galini back in the water and took her out for a sail. It was Bft 2 south easterly most of the day and glorious sailing waather. So we tacked down towards the marina, and checked the engine was still working (it was, but the throttle kept slipping, must be grease somewhere it shouldn't be).

We headed towards the visitor berths at the marina and contemplated dropping the main sail, flaking it and motoring in to look at King Malu from the water, however the thought of flaking the sail and then raising it again was too much so we turned and headed for the club.

We had a nice downwind run with the sails goose winged, then a broad reach and another run. All in all a great little sail.

Oh... and the new sail cover for my genoa looks great too.