disaster!

At the briefing on Tuesday night we learnt about cyclones, how late ones are worst, and how the water temperature is 26degrees, perfect breeding conditions for the buggers, how to get three days warning by looking on the internet site that we cannot access unless we are within range of a phone tower. But not what to do except then worry for three days and apply Buy-Ballots law.
Then we had the medical news. Malaria, Dengue, Rabies. And that was the good news! Rope burns, seasickness, class one drugs and lockable cabinets, it goes on and on. How to call Freo emergency on the sat Phone. What are they gunna do? Because then the man from AMSA, the maritime search and rescue authority, told us they can't use helicopter if we are more than 100km away or at night. As it takes five hours to pinpoint a distress beacon and then 50 mins to mobilise the aircraft the 'window of opportunity' for having a disaster is between dawn and about mod-day. Did I miss something? Oh, practise emergency drills.
So after a rather nice twilight race last night we threw a few things overboard as a Person overboard drill. We got most of the things back. We consider this a success.
And at least we can spell Fremantle.

finding Sandale

Great sailing last night, including party pies, fish and chips, a few beers and conversation. What a mix! Onboard we had everyone from the unemployed to Kenyan wildlife rangers and antarctic bottleshop attendants.
We have activated the FIND ME SPOT device that will track our location continually. Just click on the link to the right to open the page. You might notice that last night, after several beers, we tracked from Kailis to FSC via the unconventional overland route. None of us noticed the bump.

Daysailing to Pig Trough Bay



Pig Trough Bay

 There are lots of great things about living in Perth, but few as good as a day trip to one of our close by offshore islands on a beautiful summers day.

Whether travelling by sea kayak or sail, you quickly leave behind the hustle, bustle and heat of the city, and become immersed in the beautiful blue world owned by the dolphins, seals and sea birds who welcome us to their home.

Yesterday Sandale had one of those classic day sails to Pig Trough Bay, on the North Eastern end of Garden Island.  We poked our way up into an early, light sea breeze before mooring at our destination amongst a clutch of other boaties who'd decided on the same sheltered lunch location.

It was an easy induction for our 'sailing virgin' guests Jo and Greg, who also contributed to our slap up lunch (well done also to Holly!). Unfortunately the resident Osprey must have been out for lunch, not being at home on his nest for us to say hello, but the crystal clear water (clear of stingers!) and pristine beach nonetheless made for a very pleasant lunch stop.

We then flew home on a strengthening sea breeze, goosewinging the whole way under Mikes expert helming, surging to more than 8 knots as we defied the death rolls!

As Marty said, '....we could sail to Bali like this', and you get the feeling Sandale is ready to go!

A Maffett

Sandale sitting pretty

Beautiful beaches

Goosewinging....or am I confused, and it was goosenecking?!!

Master helmsman Mike

Happy couple

Steering Committee

clean bottoms

All long distance travellers know the importance of keeping fresh and healthy and at no time is this more important than in the confined space of a cruising yacht. Cleanliness is important and extends to everyone and everything regardless of rank or position; the more zen aware will agree that this includes both the inner and outer 'shells'. Failure to adhere to a few simple rules can lead to all sorts of problems from simply bad smells to lack of performance.
Because of this importance we chose to use professionals who use high pressure water to give the bottom a good scrub and clean, leaving the surface smooth and ready to coat with a product that will maintain looks and performance for a longer life.    

The photos and videos show the benefits of this, we sailed up to and past the Leuuwin yesterday. The benefit of a clean bottom! Picture is from my phone, sorry about the quality.

Who should we happen into...

It’s a splendid day off the West Australian coast and the annual whale cull is in full swing, or should I say ‘fling’.

Flinging Frisbee size silicon plugs of the blow holes of the migrating herd really has struck a chord with the locals and they’ve even designated a special zone out to sea beyond the tourist island Rottnest marked with Fish Aggregating Devices to swell the fish stocks so that the decomposing carcasses are gobbled up rather than drift ashore amongst the sentimentalists.

Many of the local ‘Have Yachts’ are out here and only yesterday the flotilla launched a cacophony of blasts and sirens as the announcement came over the World Service that the Japanese are calling it quits. Even though the tree hugging lefty greenie sexually indeterminate yachtless vegetarians had obstructed their catch to a fraction of the good ol’ days, it bodes well for our numbers as we can frisbee till our hearts content. There’s even a chap from the Royal at Freshwater arrived to join in yesterday saying he was ‘converting’ over from Marlin. Fancy boat too. And an interesting technique using the Marlin Poles for accurate placement. Reminds me of those chaps riding on the Landrover bonnet with a pole and lasso ready to pop over the head of giraffe. Made good sleeping bags  for the natives – three from a large male, but the meat bloody awful. Had to throw the rest away.

Mind you, a chap can have quite enough of anything in his diet. Frankly it’s the lips and earlobes of the whale now, and the rest is or the fish.

These Sandale chaps have way with it though. Balsamic, olive oil and a lime wedge served on a bed of cous cous – like an mermaid crying on your tongue. What a delight to find them out here again this season.

Jolly good then,

Sir Walter Bard-arse III

Editor, Royal Mega Club and Sailing

The Fort, Cowes, England.

all at sea

Position lat 32 0404 long 115 38 335 or for the more landlubberly inclined, at the saloon table with a beer.

Light winds and warm twilight as we head out south passage on a voyage to test a few things. Man overboard drills, night watchkeeping, the perfect muffins at sea and of course, this blog. We have an extension aerial for the phone and laptop and we will sail  west until we lose signal, hopefully we will achieve a range of about 50 miles. Other thing to test is typing on the laptop keyboard, hard for big fingered at the best of times, not too rough now but will be interesting to see how we go in windier comditions.  Have to go now, the captain wants to do a person over board drill. I wonder if  Captain Blight did those?

muffin man

We have just spent the last two days on a test voyage, here is a video of us sailing past another yacht in the fleet, on way to unrecognised line honours. The photo is of muffins Geoff cooked on the outward voyage, but he neglacted to use a muffin tray. Oh, well, it is all a practice to get these things down pat- an unfortunate word that as the muffins did look a bit, well, cow pat. The return journey effort was much better.