A Hectic Week

Where Next?
Bob Williams
Sun 19 Mar 2023 19:18

Position: Alongside RSAYS, Outer Harbor, Adelaide
Weather: mostly sunny, mild

It has been a busy week with ongoing maintenance, fitting the new sail, some serious racing and, in between it all, not a little socialising.

On the maintenance side, the anchor winch has been overhauled and refitted, the rust spots have been dealt with and need only one more coat of paint, and the fore hatch has been re-varnished. Also, the soft hanks on the new 'Code Zero' headsail have been modified to my requirements and a new bag is currently being made so the sail can be stowed on deck when I want to keep it in standby mode. So, with all those jobs pretty much in hand we will be ready to get underway again later this week.

On the racing side, I am very pleased to report that our Navy team won the inaugural Hobart Cup, though it was a near run thing with Army in particular giving us a real run for our money and the result remaining in the balance until the very last race. If it was a conventional fleet race the results would have been Army boat one first (Candice Cushway), Navy boat one second (Mark Sinclair), Navy boat two third (Me), Army boat two fourth (Mark Watters), and Air Force boats fifth and sixth (Darrel Greig & Kaitlin Millar). However, because it was a team race the cup went to Navy and I have to acknowledge that Mark Sinclair sailed superbly, keeping Army and Air Force off my back to allow my boat to perhaps score better than we otherwise would have.

Thank you to my crew: Kirsty, Patrick, and Aaron, and our coach, Lesley. Lesley, in particular is a fantastic sailor and was a great inspiration to us all. There is just no way we could have achieved the result we did without her guidance. I also need to mention our team manager, Ken Holbert, of course for all the essential behind the scenes work but also for his unfortunate back injury without which I would not have had the fortuitous opportunity to participate in the regatta. It is indeed an ill wind that blows nobody any good. Overall, it was a great event and I enjoyed the sailing and the general camaraderie immensely, though I have to say that I won't be giving up ocean sailing in Sylph for round the cans racing in small boats anytime soon.

To which end I am looking forward to getting back out to sea in Sylph. As mention in my last blog entry, our next destination is Melbourne to celebrate my youngest brother's fiftieth birthday in May. Unfortunately the winds later this week are mostly fresh from the SE so it is unlikely that we will be getting very far initially. Consequently my plan is to dawdle down to Kangaroo Island where we will wait for a more favourable weather pattern before sticking our nose out of Backstairs Passage and heading for Bass Strait.

All is well.