Log Entry 3rd May 2010

The recent spate of long weekends finally gave us time to spend a day on the boat, albeit a shortish one. The forecast indicated a 10-15 knot SE breeze which is perfect for Lara. In such conditions she lopes along steadily and everything stays nice and dry. So it was a bit disconcerting to see as we left the harbour, streams of boats coming in. Once clear of the entrance we could see why, I was sure the wind was blowing well in excess of the forecast, and anything with sails either had them furled or were cruising with a reefed main or lone jib. Except for the crazy dinghy sailors of course, still racing in Waterloo Bay, one or two of them were capsized as passed them; however there is always a marshal supervising, we weren’t concerned for their safety.

We decided against sailing around the outside of Green Island and instead to have lunch in the lee of King Island, a much shorter distance. Unfortunately this course was also directly in to the prevailing wind, so I didn’t even try to raise the sails, motoring instead with the aid of Lara’s trusty outboard. Naturally we got wet bouncing of the chop, although it wasn’t cold.

Surprisingly King Island and its long spit to Wellington Point didn’t provide a lot of relief from the wind and we had two attempts at anchoring before we could relax. Lara wasn’t all that happy and swung to and fro on the end of a very taught chain while we ate hot-dogs, drank a bottle of wine and had a coffee.

As the conditions weren’t really ideal, and we had promised the kids a swim, we headed back to Manly early so they could play in the tidal wading pool on the Wynnum foreshore. Upping anchor, I hoisted the jib alone, which for a downwind leg was more than sufficient to take us home in reasonable time.


Interestingly, I checked the actual weather observations the following day to note that inner bay wind speeds were more in the vicinity of 15-20 knots, with occasional gusts in excess of 20 knots. Good weather if you want to hammer but a bit excessive for nervous kids.