Chris came down again last night, and today we went out sailing once more. The weather was warmer than last week, although similar in terms of wind – perhaps slightly more southerly and consistent, but we still had the same problems – we’d just start moving, then try to turn across the wind, it’d die, and we’d end up sitting there slowly spinning in circles. Gah!
Still, this time we did a fair bit better than last… we’ve got a feel for the catamaran a bit now, and a better practical understanding of sailing, although it’s all still a rapid learning experience. Today we discovered that despite pop’s enthusiasm for sailing into the wind via the magic of the aerofoil, reality has a pretty strong disdain for this concept. :)
And it’s not like we didn’t have trouble still… we first sailed out and then back around, up almost to Mornington peer – we set out once again from Mills beach, and once again found it was populated entirely by housewives and their toddlers, as well as a busload of kids from Mornington High School – the same ones as last week, I think – which seems like such a crock… we never got to spend every Wednesday at the beach in high school… pfft…
Anyway, we came back down past pop and down to the other end of the beach, to the point. We then wanted to head out and around a boat, and back up towards the pier. Hah. We got stuck. The wind decided to take a lunch break, and we spent most of our time just trying to get a viable angle on what little did occasional grace us with it’s honoured presence. Grrr. The wind god’s such a pansy.
Curiously, I shouted out a less family-orientated version of that last line when we were sailing last time, and immediately the wind picked up… I didn’t try it again this time; don’t want to use up all my mystic reverse psychology too quickly. ;)
Anyway… we ended up drifting backwards towards the rocks. We ended up dangerously close – probably only ten metres or so – which for two inexperienced sailors is far closer than necessary. Luckily, however, I applied a bit of old fashioned grunt to the paddle, turned us about, and was complimented by a sudden strong breeze, which took us slowly but surely away from the rocks. Phew. :)
From there we tacked back and forth back up the beach towards pop. We made it eventually… the wind was actually fairly strong and steady at that point – once again we seemed to have picked the only part of the day where it died – so we didn’t have any real trouble after that. We cruised back in to pop quite lazily. It didn’t feel like we’d been out there long, but apparently it was at least a good hour or so…. time flies, I guess.
I didn’t take my camera this time… I really wish I had a waterproof camera… anyway, I’m sure we’ll sail again in the next few weeks or so – Chris thinks he’ll be coming down again next week – so hopefully the timing – and weather – will be convenient for someone else to come along and join us, and get some photos and/or film.
Having said that, pop insists most of our handling problems arose from the fact that there were two of us onboard, of at least reasonable weight, whereas it’s really a one-person thing. So next time perhaps we’ll each try going solo on it, and the other can document the experience from the beach. I guess we’re now both at the point where we could actually manage that, although I can just see it happening – a sudden gust, an unexpectedly large swell, and the one sole occupant gets knocked off, and the boat goes sailing off to Geelong. :D
There weren’t any jellyfish this time, luckily – apparently they all turned into dense clumps of seaweed, curiously. ;)
But, as today was more or less my surrogate weekend, given I worked most of the last one, it’s back to the code-mines for another week or so. :)
