Fair weather sailing with the Irish.
Wednesday, 19th December 2007.
I picked up Carol and Chris, visiting from the UK, from Drummoyne wharf around midday. We put up the sails and headed down the harbour. It took a while for my new crew to get the knack of tacking and trimming the head sail. There was a gentle Easterly breeze around 8 knots. The day was overcast and mild.
We sailed and chatted and made our way over to Vaucluse. We picked up a vacant mooring near Hermit Beach and stopped for beers and lunch. Both Carol and Chris are Irish and we had a great chat about all sorts of things including family and relatives, the Catholic church, Irish beer and Ireland. On the beach a guy frolicked naked in the water along with his dog.
We sailed on a run back up the harbour. As we passed Sydney Cove five ferries appeared to be heading for us coming from all directions – coming into and leaving Sydney Cove. It was peak hour. Once we sailed into the western side of the harbour bridge I had expected to be out of that water traffic chaos. Instead, as we sailed past the wharfs at Walsh Bay we saw a huge P&O cruise ship coming around Millers Point.
We pulled down the sails in “Humbug”, the mouth of the Lane Cove river, and proceeded to motor back to the mooring. The Greenwich Flying Squadron twilight race was starting. The first division were already making there way down Humbug. As we rounded Onion Point the next division was starting. I should have steered us along the eastern side of the river to avoid running into the fleet. Instead the fleet was approaching Onion Point as we came around it. We were in the way of one boat so I stayed on the edge of the moorings to keep out of the way. As we came up on one boat the skipper got quite agitated and demanded we give way. Of course he had right of way. I had already put the boat into neutral well before we got close. He was now right up against the moored boats as we were. He was delaying putting in a tack until the last minute. The skipper of the boat (under sail) was not happy. I explained to him, using colourful language, that he would need to tack as there was nowhere for me to go. I could not go closer to the shore because of the moorings. If I turned to starboard he would inevitably tack onto me and I would only be in his way. Furthermore I would be putting myself amongst more boats in the race. By slowing down and staying out of his way I was doing him a favour giving him free room once he tacked. Some skippers need to apply a bit more common sense.
We made it back to the mooring around 6pm. After packing up and paddling to shore I drove straight to a Christmas party.
