Magellan

Yesterday, Nickos was asking about how to enter waypoints into his Magellan GPS. I checked with my Garmin and found it worked similar. So he asked me to help today with setting the positions. We had people for lunch, so I couldn't come down and race, but decided to print out the Portsmouth Yardstick info and also help Nickos with the setting of the buoys.

Almost no wind - sunbathing on a sailboat weather! I did spend some time talking with Nickos about the GPS and the Portsmouth Yardstick, but since there was so little wind almost nobody had turned up to sail. Neil and Paula eventually came down and because of the light winds James asked to take out a Laser 4.7, which is the next step up from the Optimist.

We then talked about radio channels for tomorrow. Nickos thought it would be 21 and 72. Strange 21 is duplex and needs to work a land station to work, so he is sure it will be 72 in that case. So I set our radios to 72 in preparation. Tomorrow is the main regatta of the year.

14 June 2008 - Racing?

estimate 8 nautical miles

Today was supposed to be the day of races for the club. Unfortunately I had not been able to find a crew for the day, but when I arrived at the club, Paula swapped from being crew on Blue to being my crew and Neil single-handed Blue.

The winds were very light and the GPS batteries ran flat so I have no map of the sailing. With Paula who is also a helm we spend about an hour on the water trying different positions for the genoa sheets. Nothing conclusive though... the new place for the fairleads on the forward seat didn't seem to set the genoa much better. Our conclusion really was we needed about 3/4 totally different fairlead positions to get a get setting at all points of sail.

We kept going back to see if they were ready to race as James was supposed to be racing and they had another commitment later in the day. Eventually the other boats came out and Nickos set the buoys for the race. We all gathered around the race boat. Instructions were shouted in Greek, which meant I understood one word in one hundred. Our hope was to follow the 470 which Christos was helming as we knew he had best idea for the race.

'Five minutes' and a blast on the horn. I sailed off for a couple of minutes, my plan was to be sailing back at speed to pass the start buoy at the start of the race... 'Three minutes' and a blast on the horn... we turn and begin to sail back... 'One minute'... we are well positioned I think, but half the fleet are sailing one direction and half the other. A total muddle of boats... '10..9..8....7..6..5..4..3..2..1..GO!'

Then multiple blasts on the horn to abort. So we sail off again and get ready again. Great, we are positioned next to Christos [who I thought was called Mike at that stage] and confirm the course with him. After the abortive start - I don't know why but the boats were all in a total muddle at the first start - five minutes laterwe were off again.

It was three laps round two buoys. There were Lasers, 470s, one Lasers 16 [Neil single handed], one Wayfarer [us] and one Optimist [James]. Christos was helming one of the 470s and had an experienced crew and was flying off with trapeze on the tacks and spinnaker on the downwind runs.

The first lap I didn't get the tacking turns great on the upwind run, so had to tack 4 or 5 times. Then got confused as to whether to bear off or gybe [bear off was correct] into the downwind run... and we got our whisker pole out and goosewinged all the way down to the next buoy. A smart gybe round that and we tacked back again upwind. Better this time, but still not as good as the others to get to the buoy. But beared off at the buoy correctly now and the downwind goosewing went well.

Final lap... tack changes perfect this time and caught up James [so we lapped him, but he was sailing an Optimist!] and did a photo shoot as we went by and were closing on the buoy. Quickly get the camera away, bear off round the buoy [nearly touched, but missed by half a metre - I guess that's pretty tight on the turn] and up with the whisker pole for the final downwind run.

Ooops... I forgot to mention... it was Paula on Blue who took the fabulous pictures of Galini on May 29th. She was telling me about the problems while crewing for me. Because there is a delay on pressing the shutter and the picture taking on her digital camera, trying to get us cresting a wave as a knack... press the button before we crest the wave to get the picture of us on the wave!

So... who won? Well... nobody was counting so I have no idea and back on shore people were asking is there is a way to calculate with different types of boats. I had the Portsmouth Yardstick spreadsheets on my computer so I will bring them down tomorrow.

8 June 2008 - choppy waves

estimate 6 nautical miles

Today was force 5/6 dropping to 4/5 while we were sailing, and one of the 470 helms warned us before we went out that the waves were approx 1 metre and choppy.

I have sailed in these conditions before about 2 or 3 times in the last couple of years. When I say choppy the distance between waves is between 7 and 10 metres and the waves are steep. It's fun sailing as the Wayfarer crashes over the waves. Yesterday Raed, my crew, spent his time laughing and enjoying the water splashing up over the foredeck like a white water ride at a water park.

The 7 to 10 metres between waves may be longer than that, it's difficult for me to estimate when I am sailing. But it's probably not very much more as you feel like you only have a second or two before the next wave is upon you. We sail in Larnaka bay and these conditions occur when we have waves rolling in from the south then hitting the shallow water of the bay and steepening up. Closer in to the land itself they seem to flatten again, so there is a patch from about 1 nautical mile from land out to the edge of the bay which is about 5 nautical miles out where we get these steep waves under certain conditions [but rarely, thank goodness].

But... sometimes when going about the next wave knocks you back before you have time to actually go about. So you end up not tacking but staying on the same tack. Sometimes it takes 2 or 3 attempts to go about. I should say that the GPS is telling is we're doing about 5-6 knots when we try to go about, so we're not sailing too slowly I think.

I'm sure there must be a knack for going about in these conditions...

31 May 2008 - racing 470's... they win!

7 nautical miles

Afternoon sail with Raed as crew. We went round the buoys a few times and chased the other boats. When sailing alongside the 470 we were neck and neck... till they started trapezing and then it was like they switched on afterburner! Gybed around one of the buoys and got a 'Bravo' from Nicos [sailing instructor].

Then sailed out with the trimaran from the club. I thought multi-hull boats were supposed to be fast, but we were much faster... I did everything I could think of to de-power the boat - let the mainsheet traveller out, flattened the main sail with the outhaul, spilled wind... but we were still faster. Eventually chatted with Tim [skipper of the trimaran] when we got back and he said it was slow. However, he is interested in cruising so maybe some longer trips in the future.

29 May 2008 - beautiful evening sail

9 nautical miles

Evening sail... starting at about 4:30pm till the wind dropped. Sailing with Neil and Paula and James was my crew. You can just see his head poking up over the fore deck. The wind was kind of strange in some ways, but the surfing was great.

When I got out on water and suddenly realised that the rear buoyancy tank was not secured. Must remember this in the future.

Also I found a twist in the main sheet. This was strange. I had noticed this with Daniel and we re-threaded it. Then suddenly realised that the block on the end of the boom is not secured and can twist round the boom and so that is why it happens. When it happens the main sheet doesn't run as freely as it should.

Tried goose-winging with the whisker pole, since the wind was still up but the waves dropping. Worked well except there wasn't really a place to secure the foot of the whisker pole. Ended up clipping it into a loop from the masthead buoyancy halyard. Now sometime I must try a spinnaker...

It was a lovely, gentle and very enjoyable sail this evening.

24 May 2008 - towards cape Pila

17 nautical miles

A wonderful sail today, the wind was great and we headed off towards Cape Pyla. We sailed alongside Blue. In the lighter winds going outward Galini sailed slightly faster, but as the winds picked up on the return trip Blue was faster than us, tending to plane more. Galini being the Wayfarer and Blue a Laser 16. We got to within 4 nautical miles of the cape before turning back for lunch. The total trip was 13 nautical miles [24 kilometres].

In the afternoon we went out for an hour, just sailing around after the Lasers [not shown on the map].

17 May 2008 - towards Dheklia Sailing Club

12.5 nautical miles

Took Matt and Joe out today. Morning [cyan track] was very gentle winds. Went back and forth taking photos of Blue. The sailed off down the bay... we got to within 1 nautical mile of Dhekelia sailing club, but there were no dingies out today. Let Matt and Joe have a go sailing her. Sailed past a couple of yachts. First one was smallish and gorgeous, second [which we got very close to and I took over helm for that reason] was large and fabulous.

Then went in for lunch and helped Neil and Paula put Blue on her side so they could do some gellcoat repairs to the centreboard case.

After lunch [yellow track] we chased the lasers around a little then went in to help Neil and Paul put Blue back in the water and take Matt back to the theatre for a show he was running.