Log Entry 12th October 2008

Today’s voyage was deliberately planned to be “shortish”. Each of the girl’s having recently been given a fishing rod and reel, we thought it would be fun spend some time fishing. However as all our previous attempts using handlines had not been successful, I wasn’t overly confident this time would be any different.

 Leaving the harbour around 11:00am under an overcast sky and a 10-15 knot north-easterly, we tacked in a northerly direction toward St Helena. I intended to anchor in the bay on the western side of the island, which would shelter us from the prevailing weather while we fished. Beating into the wind on a starboard tack, we passed the island jetty when I misjudged our lateral drift and under full sail we glanced off the bow of a large trawler anchored just off our port side. The sound of our fibreglass hull striking steel was horribly loud; enough to literally wake the dead. I have no idea where the crew of the trawler were, no one came on deck to investigate, it was quieter than the Mary Celeste. I couldn’t see any damage to trawler hull, naturally enough, not even a scratch, and I was too disgusted with myself to see if we had scratched Lara.

At least the fishing was successful; Johanna and I each caught a small whiting, whilst Helena also caught a small whiting (probably the same one) and three small bream. All of the fish were tiddlers and after being given pet names by the girls and amidst frequent pleadings to take them home as pets, we released them hopefully to grow into pan-size “big-uns”. 

Try as I might I couldn’t entice a fish onto Freya’s hook so that she could share the excitement of reeling one in, hopefully next time.

 After lunch we set course for home on a long port reach until reaching the harbour channel where we ran before the wind into the harbour. Along the way Yolande tactfully pointed out that we were sailing awfully near to a channel beacon, which I acknowledged seeing, but denied we were too close, when the boom and sail, which extended well out on our starboard beam, struck the pile with a resounding clang. For one horrible moment I thought the mainsail was going to catch on the triangular plate and rip itself to bits, but thankfully nothing caught and we sailed on.

 I resigned myself to having a crap day on the water, I mean hitting one thing on a trip is bad enough but two? I have no idea what was going on but determined to regain some pride decided to sail as far into the harbour as my nerve would allow me. We were well up the channel between the marina pontoons to our starboard and pile moorings to our port, before Yolande politely expressed a complete lack of confidence in my ability and requested that we start the motor. Looking ahead, I could see a large yacht using the entire channel to manoeuvre into its berth and decided that if he muffed it and baulked, we’d plough straight into his stern. Common sense prevailing, I dropped the sails and we motored slowly up to our pontoon where we tied Lara up for the night for the guys to rack the next morning.

Log Entry 30th September 2008

With the September school holidays in full swing I arranged to to take two days recreation leave from work so that we could enjoy a couple of family days on the water. We had talked for a long time previously about an overnight trip in Lara and decided we would sail to Peel Island on the Sunday, anchor overnight in Horseshoe Bay, and return on the Monday. We left Wynnum Manly harbour a little after 1pm in a 20-25 knot NE wind. After passing between Green and King Islands we steered south west on a running reach. The wind had whipped up up a few white caps and with it a half metre to a metre swell, which occasionally had Lara surfing gently down the face of a wave. Overall though, we were quite comfortable, despite the motion of the hull due to the swell rolling in under our stern quarter.

Horseshoe Bay on the southern side of Peel offers a safe and sheltered anchorage under these conditions and arriving there around 5pm saw us anchoring amongst the usual large flotilla a yachts and cruisers. The girls tried their hand unsuccessfully at fishing while Yolande prepared and cooked a very nice stew for dinner. Settling in for the evening, I was anxious that we were secure and had allowed sufficient room to swing on the tide without hitting any of the boats around us. My vigilance proved warranted, as later in the evening it was clear that Lara was dragging seawards on her anchor. Motoring in and resetting it seemed to fix the problem, although I must admit to being somewhat puzzled, given the length of heavy chain and weight of the plough we use. (Retrieving the anchor the next morning, I could see that the shackle was installed the wrong way round, allowing it to twist and jam sideways, thus any tension on the warp was putting sideways tension on the anchor shaft.)


The following morning after a bacon and egg breakfast the girls spent a couple of hours walking along the beach and bomb diving off the back of the boat, We left around 12:30 for the homeward trip as an afternoon change was forecast bringing with it 25-30knot winds, which I preferred to avoid. Arriving back at the marina around 4pm we tidied Lara and left her moored to the dock for the guys to rack.

The next morning, with 20-25 knot winds, this time from the south-east, we headed out for simple day trip, taking with us two of Helena’s school friends who were keen to go sailing. We decided to head to Peel Island again although the outward leg turned into a bit of a slog beating to windward the entire time. Horseshoe Bay in a breezy south-easterly isn’t really pleasant as the anchorage is open to the weather in these conditions.

After lunch and a swim we decided it would be fun to sail around the eastern end of the island and return on a long downwind run alongside the Amity Banks. We arrived back at the marina around 6:30pm enjoying a glorious sunset along the way and the delights of sailing in the evening dusk.