Fiji Pics for Sheryl and Tony.

Some More Pics from the Fiji Holiday

Fiji Holiday

Here is a selection of pics from our recent holiday at Safari Lodge on the island of Nananu-I-ra.

A Full Weekend

Friday: We launched Baby Doll on the Pond at Ratline Shipyards. Official guests included Flight Captain Laurie, Master Shipwright Clive (Ratty) Gilbert, the good Lady Sponsor Eddie, Gaye and me. With the Flight Captains urging I got a bit excited during the first run and flipped the boat. I tried to claim a rogue wave, then wardrobe malfunction but it was plain to all, it was operator error. After the flip, all the Flight Captain and I could do was fall over in the mud laughing. Not so for the Shipwright. Having been intimately involved in the build of Baby Doll, all he could see was 100's of dollars of electronics getting drowned and took off at a sprint across the pond to retrieve the still revving, upside down boat. The flight Captain regained his composure shortly before me and luckily before the Shipwright retrieved the boat and reminded me to de-throttle the engine. It is well I did otherwise we might have had to add lacerations to the injury the Shipwright sustained during his retrieval dash - namely a corked thigh muscle and a pulled Achilles.

After a quick inspection for water damage, we set Baby Doll back on the lake for further sea trials. I must say she looked a beauty and finely balanced when sitting up on her planing surfaces at 10 knots. All went well until she determined to investigate more closely dry land on the other side of the lake and promptly settled there for a little rest. It was obvious that she was not going to find the water again with out assistance, as it was also obvious that a little walk would do the Shipwrights injuries the world of good. So as the assembled guests settled into afternoon tea of fresh baked sticky date scones and tea, the Shipwright made his way around the lake on his injury healing journey to set baby Doll free of her muddy shackles.

The rest of the day was thankfully incident and injury free.


Saturday: The stars, the moon, the sun and the planets, along with the wind and water conditions all aligned for me today and I got three PB's out on the lake windsurfing.
Top Speed 36.5 k; 5 x 10sec Average: 33.5k; Nautical Mile: 27.5l

A couple of days before Red and Jacques also had a great sail at Conawarree Lake scoring a bunch of PB's. Here are their results at GPS Tema Challenge site. http://gpsteamchallenge.com.au/sailor_session/show?date=2010-01-02&team=29


Sunday: Surf in the morning followed up by and abusive conversation with a fellow motorist who had parked her car in the middle of the road to make a phone call to her Mom. It appears momsie was involved in a car accident and needed to urgently talk to her daughter about it. I suggested that the likely cause of the accident was that momsie was likely on the phone at the time. In the afternoon I attempted to do 100klms on the windsurfer but fell way short. Anyway a hearty chuckle at someone elses expense always makes for a good day.

Monday: A promising weather forecast had Red and me up early for the 4 hour drive to Sandy Point for more windsurfing. It was magic sailing, but the wind was too far south for any descent speeds.

Long Weekend

I was feeling a little tired and stiff this morning and didn't realise why until after I wrote this email to Vic:
Had Friday off; a one hour run, a surf on some nice clean 1 m waves at Torquay in the morning with a coffee to follow then did a couple of buckets of balls on the range in the afternoon. Ran for an hour on Saturday, Sailed on Peregrine in a gusty 10 to 32 k rain squally NorWester in the afternoon – lots of hard work on the winches, it not like helming. Could only manage one hours brisk walk on Sunday, but got 2 hours windsurfing in on a sweet 20 knot SouWester in the afternoon. I’ve still got it - cracked a PB of 27.01 knots for the nautical mile. I sooked on getting a decent bike ride in. Life is good.

Some Pics of Spotty's Sunday

Spotty starting his 50.1 knot run..

Looking down the course from behind the sand dune.



Tonster getting started..

More here:::: http://www.whitecapsphotography.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=7137781

Mission Nautical Mile

The weekend mission was to get a couple of good nautical mile runs in to try and bring us up the Team Challenge Ladder before the end of the month. Saturday there was little wind so no one made the effort to go out, however Sunday presented us with a great 20-25 Kt Westerly. The first for the season. Pat was injured and out for the day, but Red, Andrew and Jacques made it down. Red's session was cut short with a broken foot strap screw, but not before he managed to get in a good 25.88 Kts nautical mile in despite a high tide and pretty choppy conditions.

Jacques was putting in some great runs and I was in fear of him beating me when he reported a 30K+ on the dial. Wasn't to be though just had it over him with a 24.9 to his 23.6.

All to no avail for the Ladder, other teams were also enjoying the good winds and we were unceremoniously dumped from 11th to 16th overall.

Twenty Nine Point Four...

... that's my average 10 sec x 5 ave for Saturday and Sunday at Point Henry. Both days were NNW but a little stronger on the Sunday. Sat rigged the SSR 6.6 and 5.6 for the Sunday. But both days same numbers. So what I gotta do if figure out why I am not doing 31's or 32's as previously achieved. I guess time on water has been low recently and a major contributor to form loss.

Sunday saw a great turnout with around 16 sailors on the water, made up of the crew from Inverloch on a road trip and a couple of guys from Torquay, not willing to risk the offshore northerly.

Drift put together a great little video: http://www.vimeo.com/6231954

And Pat took a couple of additional pics;

Weekend Update

Wow, a very full weekend. It started early with picking Vic up at Avalon Airport on Thursday evening. She had come down early to spend some quality time with her Mom - Ahhh. Isn't she a seeetie? had lunch on Torquay beach and Stev managed to coincide his lunch break with our travels and joined us. Post lunch, sans Steve we went to the Torquay Resort for coffee. It's great - the coffee costs the same as you would spend at the local cafe, but the views are great and you are treated as a guest by the delightful restaurant staff.
Had a break when Vic caught up with Anne for afternoon tea, then off to the airport to pick John up. Same 20:05 flight as Vic, but a day later. The reason for the trip was the Hume Highway Aubry bypass completion celebration scheduled for Saturday evening.
Some quality time with Vic and John on Saturday morning before they were off to the Hutchies for a 2nd birthday party before heading up to Melbourne for the work function.
Me, I was off to Swan Bay for some windsurfing where I caught up with Red, Pat and Jacques who had the same idea. Nice non gusty northerly treated us with some great sailing. Pat took a short video. and loaded it up to U Tube here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic7fZxbfRhQ
For Sunday, Gaye and I drove down to the waterfront to check out if there was any carnage from the 40-50 knot Northerly which had been blowing steadily since 23:00 Sat night. We weren't disappointed, a couple of yachts had dragged there moorings and were in various stages of retrieval.
Steve and Regan helped out by picking up the Mustang at the airport, where John and Vic had left it, allowing me to hook into the 30 knot Westerly which had blown thru at about midday.
A little overpowered on the SSR 5.6, but a great session. Red lent Pat his old Extreme Slalom. At the end of the session, Pat hit the beach even more excited than usual, (if you can believe that).
It was a good turnout. 8 guys on the water.
Sue had a full w/end too. Dim was down and she did the round of lunches and dinners with his rellos.

Weekend Sailing

Pat hooks into a nice gust on Saturday

On Friday night I could only say that in the last 4 months I have only sailed two times. Today I can say that in the last 4 months I have sailed four times. That's a 100% increase in sailing sessions.

Bay water temperature is at its lowest at 11 deg C. It will start improving now. Air temp a comfortable 15.

Saturday Pat, Jaques, Andrew and 2 guys I didn't know were out. A lot of dogging around between the gusts, but Sunday (only Jaques out) filled in nicely from the NW at a consistent 25 knots. The body was tired from the previous day, so was only out for an hour, but well worth it.

One peak at 31.2 knots and an average of 28.5 knots for the 5x10sec. Could have done a lot more had I stayed down at the weed beds for some speed runs.

Some Windsurfing after 4 Months Off

Last weekend I got out for a sail after not having done so for about 4 months. I blame the weather mainly. At this time of year it is calm and there is little wind. Last Saturday didn't make up for it, but it was a step in the right direction. I wasn't on my own, there were a lot of the crew hanging out for a sail. I counted 12 guys trying to get a sail in on the Northerly at Barwon Heads.

The pic is courtesy of Pat. More here http://www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=52902

Back of Connewarre Lake Expedition

After a few runs in a nice Souttherly Frant and I decided to explore the back of Connewarre Lake, where the Barwon River enters it from down stream. Its a kind of delta area, with broad areas of shallow 200 mm water cut thru with winding 2 m deep by 6 meter wide channels. It is very hard to work out where the bank is due to the murky color of the water. So, while very smooth in places, would be too dangerous for speed sailing.

Windsurfing

With trips to Adelaide to see the Tour Downunder, weddings and work the opportunity to get out for a sail has been limited. I was reminded of a good session some months back when Red sent me a couple of snaps he took from the beach at Point Henry. I recall I was trying to look cool and professional and in control on a rig that was far too big for the conditions at the time. Anyway - nice shots Red.