Today was another awesome day dodging a 470 regatta, a Finn regatta, a Laser regatta, a 49er regatta, and of course the usual ferries and tour boats, cruise ships and general yachtie folks including others trying to practice. Sailing in Sydney Harbour is like a bad chess game trying to avoid contact, perhaps 3D chess is more accurate. Anyhow, we survived. We hadn’t seen the J5 or A5 yet and it was blowing so we threw in a single reef and the J5 performed well… will be good in a blow.
Then we dodged our way through the millions of other boats and gybed south towards the bridge and hoisted an A5. This Sail has got the be 2oz cloth and very heavy but Brad says in 30 knots that will be the call. As we headed south the winds puffed more and we started to fly. SI much power and Lindy just levels out and become hyper-wheel sensitive. We just about wiped out once while Captain Joe was at the wheel but he managed to hit 17.5 knots. Big grins all round. By now we were running out of race track and the kite had to come down. Joe returned to his normal pit position and promptly dropped the kite in the tide (as Brad likes to call the sea). No damage other than a salty sail and unfortunately no shrimp for the Barbie ?
Then back to port to work through the list… a cold beer helped with the heat, it was strength zapping! Thankfully Tori drove us back to the house to avoid breakheart hill, a real killer, then a swim and other libations. All fine!
Pics are Captain Joe hitting 17.5 knots, Joe up the rig, a picture of our VERY expensive sprit being protected by a 1$ grocery bag (we are taking up a lot of marina space!)
