24 jun26: sailing a mixed bag
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 on a broad reach with the ebb still going on somehow & I'm really missing a centreboard. Up against the southern shore off Dutchies Beach (beautiful) I go hard on the wind. Trimming well & hiking, I make headway but its shitty sailing. I put #2 reef in,the racers are spread out hairing about & I carry good way with them back to S Pt. I christen my new foulie top & stow a few biscuits & a 'nana. Its bloody cold belting into this stuff.
I re-enter "dolphin channel" directly into the teeth of the wind. Without a "keel" we're eating shit & putting on the outboard to help us through the pinch point go badly. I go forward as the bow lunges to reef or un reef ? & the prop cavitates. I go back, the wind vs tide is standing waves, the keels not biting & nor is the outboard. Im nearing the rocky bloody island to the west as I hear the ob stall & catch it as it glugs into the wash. I haul it up & lash it down, noting the previously wobbly ob bracket has broken. Too close to island, no need to haul the CB cos its up! I retract the rudder, fli g the halyards & as we begin to bump, rocks with oysters, lucky me im wearing hiking sandals, so when I do a Spidey lunge off the boat to tack her over it works. The ladder had been dangling & acted as a bumper bar.
Gaining water, gathering my wits, I abort. We go off downwind, no not Soldiers its to choked with boats & I have shit maneuverability & no donk.
Wheel around, eye Fame Cove? No Lee shore.
Sail the main channel to the west. Its bloody cold now the adrenaline is wearing off.
Fast forward & I'm tacking 3 nm to the SE into Taylor's Beach. I run her up the sand to check anything obviously wrong with the CB but can't see shit & its too shallow & cold to swim under. The crosswind is too healthy, so I abort to sail the long way around Bull Island & re-enter LTP from the Tilligerry Creek end. Its dark of course, but I'm bitchin good on the helm, hit the lights & hunker down tacking into the creek. Before entering LTP I douse mizzen & head in with #1 reefed main. The port markers flashing red & calmer water relaxes me, but I still have to make the finger wharf under sail, on the dark.
Well, I did it! I tied her roughly to the wharf, sighed loudly, shed a dry tear for Honda & went below for lunch & coffee.
Just to confuse me further she loaded like an eel. Climbing under Clancy on the trailer to check the CB slot for debris or ?, I find nothing.
At home I rinse Honda & say a little prayer.
Results Are In:
Outboard bracket is repairable, but the design is questionable.
Honda's life is questionable. Im hoping a rinse off time to dry may be enough. The safety tether may have tripped her off. Hopefully.
I just checked the dolphin footage, & properly nourished & soaked with coffee, they look really great.
Centreboard?? Got to fix that before any more sailing.
