Living Contentedly

Old lifecest, 11' open dinghy, fishing snapper is. In windy cold conditions. Whales "really putting on a show" Pulling anchor_overhead wave_boat swamped x rocks = danger, decided to drift  Oars, bucket, hope wife calls when he doesn't cone in at dark.  Mate knew where hed be fishing. Few hours, helicopter light, boat arrives, <5 hrs. Delirious, at first thinking of FAM, things tet to do, unfinished, but hypothermia took over, not fully conscious.  

Early on I watched a video by Sven Yrvind. In this he described his attitude to building high latitude sail boats as "like a sea kayak". That is, he builds in preparation of being knocked down, or capsized. Some of the key elements are:- short masts sealed hatches ventilation to exclude water everything is securely stowed hatches by the masts, to avoid going on deck seat belt water tight sections everything stored has a secure place and is kept there.  He said that most high latitude sailors fear and avoid capsize, yet many do. His boats are built to capsize.  Well, such obvious design goals made me rethink many things. I am rethinking my thinking!   -----     -----     -----     -----     ----- Triking came to mind overnight. I have been dreaming of rotovelo, so perhaps I realized that I have the next best thing at the foot of my bed. I pumped tires, brushed off dust, and went for a ride on Summer hill Road. I r...

I get in a knot using too much social media. I've already shut down unnecessary apps and deactivated all i can, but phase chook and the red arrow channel are letting me. They say it's an addiction right?  So i get the notion to buy a dumb phone that has no social media ... It said it could hotspot so i assume i can still do the bad things occasionally on my tablet.  I buy it, take it out of the box and at first i find it's primitive style amusing. But after talking through the same long sequences many times to perform a function that the phone doesn't do, you kind of start losing your will to live. And, it doesn't hotspot.

In short its 9pm & just home with a coffee after sailing all day.  The launch was a bit sticky. The centreboard wasn't fully up. I'd been attempting to replace the uplift cord & hadn't reset it properly. No problems, I think.  Just after peak Low tide, I motor out the Lemon Tree Passage & have trouble lowering centreboard. It won't budge!  Light winds forecast are not light. Its blustering 10-12kn SWer. This increased slightly through the day. Going through the channel west of Soldiers Point, there are heaps of dolphins & I get great movie footage of them playing on the bow that I cannot post here.     Here we are exiting the channel, the wind is shoving us along mightily so I put in a reef & worry about centreboard.  Too early for the 2pm sailors, it barely noon. I skim the west shore of Middle Island & sail dead downwind along the north shore. Off the entrance to Myall River, I gybe S in the channel. This puts is ...

As I reflect uneasily on events from yesterday, I am thinking how sailing is like a game of chess. Its also not like chess; you cannot die if you lose a game of chess.  What I take from this analogy are: realise the importance of the game, pay attention to details, a frailty you knowingly carry into the game will be your undoing, errors compound and it matters.  Something to ponder; as I was lashed to the wharf, eating rice, beans and tuna with coffee Port Stephens rescue called all stations to alert, a solo fisherman in a 3.5m dinghy had not logged off and was not in contact with base. (* See below) Lessons:  Your centreboard needs to be deployable at all times.  A wobbly outboard bracket can look unsightly, dump your outboard on the water and cause you to lose your craft.  Always have a deployable anchor ready. If you're going to sail through a narrow passage into difficult conditions, you want to have everything working and be on top of your game.  If th...

Technically a day late, but I had a nice soak in the ocean to celebrate winter.  I had a little jog beforehand to warm up a little.  I did seecteo other swimmers a Dicko, and we outnumbered the surfers.