26 April 2008

17 nautical miles

The wind was really really nice today and had a very enjoyable sail with a friend of mine Alec. Alec comes from the islands north of Scotland and boats are part of the lifestyle up there. But they normally have outboards, so as we sailed off from the coast he remarked 'It's so quiet sailing!' Yes, it is and that's one of the things I like about it. I'm not sufficient of a purist to say I would never have a motor - in fact a motor would allow longer trips so that if necessary could motor back - but I do enjoy the quiet of the sailing.

I'm not sure my sailing was the best I sailed, but it was just great to be out on the water and enjoy God's creation and chat with Alec. Actually I suspect the chatting had more to do with my lack of sailing standard, but then this is 'cruising' and I was happy that my confidence is such that I am comfortable sailing and chatting without worrying about whether I am luffing all the time.

In the morning [cyan track] we sailed up towards Dhekelia and in the afternoon [yellow track] we sailed around a moored tanker and the buoys for the tankers. I did have to concentrate a little more on the sailing later in the afternoon as the buoys are made of metal and between a fibreglass boat and a metal buoy the buoy wins! Seriously though there is one floating pipeline in the water that is not buoyed and so you do have to look out for that. It appears as just a black floating log on the surface.

A nice final run in to the club. One thing to try next time is a line to hold the boat on the launching trolley as the boat tended to jump off and was therefore slightly difficult to get up on the slipway... hampered too as we were using my 4-wheel drive to pull it up as there was nobody from the club about so we couldn't use the electric winch.

19 April 2008

12.5 nautical miles

Today was Daniel's last sail with me as he leaves on Tuesday for the UK. He was he helming all morning and half the afternoon [yellow track morning, cyan track afternoon]. I discovered something... it's much more difficult to describe to someone else how to do something than try do do it yourself in sailing.

Neil and Paula wanted us to take pictures of Blue. I had our camera with waterproof case plus theirs, which at that stage I didn't know was semi-waterproof. So I started on ours feeling any water coming over the bow would be no problem. Second photo... camera switches off and says 'change batteries now'. Changed over to their camera, and water coming over the bow worries me that it will wreck their camera.

So we try to hove to. I have done it a few times now, so said we will just go about, back the genoa and put the helm over. We didn't hove to at all, we just kept sailing at 4 knots with the genoa totally backed! Aiii... what on earth was happening? I couldn't figure out. We tried a couple of times and I eventually realised that the wind was so light that the backed genoa was making no difference and the main had to be almost way out and just not flapping before we would hove to.

Then tried to hail them on the radio... no response. OK, must remember to do radio check before we leave next time... turns out our radio was fine theirs was on a different channel and they hadn't noticed.

Anyway had good sail round the bay and very very enjoyable sail. Mid afternoon Daniel found the wind/sea a little confused and I took over the helm. I think the real difference was really just confidence, I sheeted in the main a lot more and she sailed much easier with almost no weight on the helm at all. I couldn't see this to tell him, it was purely a feel thing for me at the moment - yes, I could see he was luffing, but he didn't feel right to sheet in more. As I said, seeing and telling is much more difficult than doing. I was also more comfortable moving for'ard and using the extension for the tiller. Daniel normally helms a lifeboat from a ship and lifeboats are very much heavier [we calculated something like 8-10 times the weight without people in them] and so the helm is very different feel.

The wind was wonderful and it was a very enjoyable sail today. I was getting slightly cold by the end [water was coming over the bow and we don't have wetsuits etc - must remember cagoule even when its warm and sunny] but otherwise I would have loved to stay out longer. If you look at the wind report from windfinder.com, [BTW that link is for the current wind report, the one for 19 April is below] you'll see that unlike normal where the wind drops at 16:00-17:00 the wind kept up till 21:00 so we could have carried on but would have got cold doing so.


Great news is... almost no water coming in through through the bottom of the hull. We left her anchored over lunch and very little water at all in the bottom of the hull, so I think we have fixed the problem at last. In the past when we had her back on the hard and opened the self bailers, it looked like she was desperate for the toilet. Now, just a dribble came out.

Anchored... yes... I had a small grapnel for the Mirror, but everyone said I should have bigger for the Wayfarer. So I went to the chandler and he had almost no choice [this is Cyprus after all and we are an island and there are loads of fishing boats and...] anyhow I mis-read the Wayfarer manual and got something way too big [same weight in kilos as should have been in pounds]. Last season I carried this in the boat and never used it. Frank Dye in his book said roughly the same and so I took the chain off the big Danforth and moved it to the grapnel and it held like a dream. I think that having a significant weight of chain may be almost more important than the actual weight of the anchor. That's something to try out for this season.

6 Apr 08

Went back down to the club this afternoon - removed both self-bailers and used silicon sealant on the glands. The starboard one [the one that was leaking] seemed to seal easily and hopefully will be watertight. The port self-bailer was a bit of a mess sealing, so I hope it does now seal properly and that the leak has not been moved from starboard to port sides!

Anyway, as it sets I hope this will seal both self-bailers and we get a more watertight boat. In the process the starboard rear seat support came off, so that will have to be mended before sailing again.

Daniel moused the shackle on the genoa, as that came apart when we brought the boat up the slipway yesterday. I think all the shackles are now moused.

Daniel painting

Daniel has a package called ArtRage, and has done a painting of the Wayfarer on it, which he posted on his blog.

I like it a lot.

5 Apr 2008

4 nautical miles

Arrived a little late - slept in as the previous night I had only 2 hours sleep.

Daniel had repaired the centre-board. It felt as smooth as before so the water wouldn't notice even if visually it could be seen. After re-fixing it in the case [fun game - we had followed the Wayfarer book top of drawing lines from the centerboard pin hole so that when you find a line you can follow the line to the hole and line it up.

Anyway, after fixing the centreboard back in place we put some fresh water in the hull to see where it leaked from to try to find the leak inside. The water was leaking quite fast from the starboard self-bailer. It appears that the rubber gland around the self-bailer was not making a good seal and so possibly water cames in there.

After finding that we went out for a sail round the bay - the intention had been to hove-to and have lunch on the water, but the clouds came in [ie no sun] and the waves were sometimes steep and so we got wet and cold. We don't have wetsuits like one would have in the UK, so cold comes quickly.

As I mentioned some of the waves were steep and I was steering into them and then steering out after the wave crest. Daniel said that I was not steering out early enough. Because of the time taken on the turn you have to start turning back out before you actually get to the crest - at least that's what he'd found helming a lifeboat in steep waves.

29 March 2008

5 nautical miles

Windguru forecast didn't look good for the morning but we went down to the club anyhow. The waves looked better than last week, but James was not going to sail his Optimist and his parents were toing and froing about whether to sail. Since they are more experienced than me I would follow their decision, but the wind and waves looked interesting.

While we were waiting we looked at the tracks for the genoa sheets. They are very old and really we cannot move the cars at all - the locking nuts are made of brass and over the years have worn so that to tighten them enough to stop the car sliding its too tight to release and move the cars forward for broad reaches. We'll have to think about this.


They eventually decided on a quick hour round the bay (which turned into two). The conditions were good once you got past the surf and made for great sailing. No pix.

Good fun with the waves and wind. Got some pretty good tows off the waves. Daniel wondered if we could ride waves like surfers do... I'm not sure I would like to try those big Australian waves. A tow than surfed us up to 7 knots was pretty good fun.

The boat was sailing really well. She is so nice to sail this year. Last year she was heavy, now light and really fun.

Daniel wants us to put some of the grip tape that skate-boarders use on the middle thwart. The seat is painted and you slide on it. No problem if you are sitting on it and sliding back and forth, but he tends to sit on the side desk and likes to put his foot there. And then it slides. Obviously if we're hiking out his feet are under the toe strap, but for normal cruising this is un-necessary and so anti-slip on the thwart will be a help.

We haven't solved the water leak. I have no idea really where the water is coming from. Somewhere related to the centreboard case. My only guess is that there is a part of the case near the back of the cockpit which appears to have a double skin and that it might be between the two skins.

However, the self bailers are working very well this year. They empty the water pretty quickly and efficiently. One of my favourite sounds now is to hear the self-bailers sucking air out. The gurling reassures me we have taken out all the water. And they are relatively easy to open and close now. Closing is easier than opening.

But... coming in to the club at the end of the sail, when we brought the main sail down the boom caught in the centreboard uphaul. When I released it to release the boom I forgot to bring the centreboard right up again. Hmmm... and... the launching tolley caught a wheel on the ramp and we had problems with that. Didn't notice the centreboard down and it got a bit chewed up by the concrete ramp. Extra work before we can sail again.

So we had to take out the floorboards... well, shift them somewhat, taking them out would have necessitated taking out the seats and we didn't have the tools for that. Then take out the centreboard pin, and all the ropes for the uphaul/downhaul.

28 March 2008

13 nautical miles

Tuesday was a public holiday in Cyprus, but I was working so took Friday off instead.

Daniel and I sailed off from the club at about 10:00 - nobody about at all. Daniel was helming this time.

As we past a small tanker unloading fuel, we saw a couple of 'deckies' leaning over the rail. Daniel remarked that had been him in the past - looking out at sailing boats passing and wishing he were in one of them!

We stay well clear - their mooring lines are big and heavy and they are flying a red danger flag to warn other boats they are handling dangerous fuels. But there is no fast deploy lifeboat, so I would guess they have heavy fuel on board, not something highly volatile.

We sailed round the port and marina arriving at the end of Finikoudes by the old fort by about 12:30 where we stopped for lunch. We were cold so ate in the lea of the water sports centre. No water sports this early in the season.

Then after a quick lunch we sailed off for a while. We were picking Neil up at that same location at about 14:00. This time I was helming and forgot to check the kicking strap. We flew off the beach with the sail billowing and developing lots of power. So stopped and sorted out the kicking strap and then went down to look at the airport.

Sailed back with the wind, really gentle and then picked up Neil at about 14:00 and sailed back to the club. Arrived there about 16:00. A total of 13.5 nautical miles.