Busselton feeder

The winds were a little shifty and fickle at the start causing a delay while the start boat tried in vain to set a line that would allow a start in the right direction. We chose a port end start, more by default than good planning as we weren't on the ball with the restart time. We picked the shifts quite well with Next factor first around the top mark and us close behind. Kites up and along until the wind died and back to head sails until the early seabreeze kicked in from the south. Down the channel we managed to go under Next factor and were first out the channel towards Coventrys with OP close behind. A sea breeze in from the South West and now it was just a question of what would happen as the day went on. Would it strengthen, would it hold, would it go back south. Should we go inside the reef chasing flatter water or should we go out. We had a drag race down behind garden Island with OP. They looked to have a bigger heady so when the wind pocked up we had the advantage, but when it dropped they did. In the end their sea miles showed taking us by 20 minutes but we learnt alot in our first ocean race on Charlotte. We learned that it is difficult to cook pizzas in the microwave oven when on starboard tack as they tend to jump out when you open the door. That the glass rotating plate from the microwave should be under the item being cooked not on top. We found all sorts of strange creatures during the night, one in particular that was often found foragging for food in the dark and was quite often found looking for mars bars on his hands and knees in the dark, but tends to growl and snap when woken from a nap. We found once again that the nav computer will without fail when you are in the middle of bouvard reef yet will work perfectly when in open water. And we decided that next time we may need to bring a kettle for coffee as it really doesn't weigh that much and caffiene is good. Best of all though is that we we discovered Charlotte is a dry boat even when bashing into it. It will be nice to get into a dry bunk on longer races. It turned out to be southwester until just before bunbury when it kicked left and to the south then kept bending to southeast to the finish just before 1am. OP first with us around 20 minutes behind just before 1 am then KD. Good racing with OP taking the overall win from us in second. Technically we should have won it easilly as our log kept saying we were doing between 11-25 knots ( I think it needs some calibrating) and our wind said it didn't get over 18 knots. Looks to be a good start for the lead up to race week and plans are well afoot for some serious on and offshore activities in the coming weeks. Stay tuned. Nav out

We're Back

Charlotte in her pen at Freo today.

After many months on the hard Charlotte was finally repaired. So have my ribs that were broken during the impact. The keel was sent back to sydney and rebuilt and centrecase replaced with a new one. Mast went back in this morning. She looks and feels brand new again and what a fantastic job by the guys who did the work.

The area around Fremantle has been resurveyed and our understanding is that the previously uncharted rock will become a new feature in the next chart update.

Today we went for a motor sail and tested the keel mechanism and instrumentation, then did the radio checks. All good. Safety review was completed back in the pen and all is in order for the Busselton feeder race on Saturday morning. Can't wait.

Charlotte will have the sail wardrobe refitted tomorrow and a test sail late afternoon with the boys planning a night on board to get accustomed again ready for Saturday morning.

See you on the water.

Naviguessor