Bad Luck Be Gone. Racing with WAGS.

Back in the slips at RQYS

Women on board a ship bring bad luck.  A naked woman on board will calm the sea, hence the naked figureheads on large sailing ships.  So go the old sea farers' myths.

I might have banished a bit of bad luck during the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron's WAGS (Wednesday Afternoons Go Sailing) race this afternoon.  

On the spur of the moment we accepted Glenn's invitation to crew for him aboard his Bavaria, Simpatico.  So along with Glenn and Roel, another one of our neighbours at RQYS, we headed out into Moreton Bay, with about 20 to 25 knots of wind for the WAGS race.  Glenn seemed to think that having a crew of 3 cruisers with experience crossing the Pacific was a bonus.   We had to confess that we  sometimes stayed on the same tack for weeks and would have barnacles growing only on the leeward side because of the constant heeling.   This was also my very first race.  

Our start was not perfect but not too bad; just 15 seconds after our official start time.  Flying the genoa and mainsail, we were moving along nicely between 7 and 8 knots.  Glenn's racing skills are complemented by his calm and confident manner making it a truly enjoyable experience for his crew.  It's been a perfect sailing day.

As far as racing tactics go, well I don't want to give away any secrets, but we laughed at old myths as Simpatico crossed the line first in the monohul division.   And no one on board had to get naked!  Glenn jokes that his crew stuck to what they learned while crossing the Pacific.  The long tack.  It really paid off this time with a convincing win and a couple of bottles of wine to celebrate!

Relative Calm on Moreton Bay

It's relatively calm here in Manly Harbour, Queensland today.  Maybe some white caps on Moreton Bay, 20-30 knot southerlies, bright blue sky.  Yesterday afternoon was a completely different story.  It was around 4:30pm, just as the boats participating in the RQYS WAGS race were coming back into the harbour.

I took this picture in light rain with my phone camera.
Look closely, you can see people standing in the water beside the keel.

The storm came across from the west pretty suddenly.  Tied up to our slip in the marina, I raced to get the portholes and hatches closed before we were pelted with rain that sounded more like hail.  Before I knew it our wind instruments registered 48 knots.  

Bristol Rose was healing over so far that the locker doors flew open and pots, plates, books, bottles, and anything not secured on the starboard side flew to the port side.  I thought of the damage done to boats during a hurricane that came through White Rocks Marina on the Chesapeake Bay and all I could do was hope "please let our neighbour's boat lines hold her so she doesn't come down on top of us".

The lines held and the storm passed leaving everyone in a state of shock.  As we all compared notes, we heard that someone registered 60 knots in the marina and the Coast Guard registered 70 knots at the entrance to the harbour.  

The big casualty was BlackJack Too, a 40ft racing boat.  She was one of the last to make it to the entrance and not having a big engine, the wind pushed her towards the rock wall.  Luckily, the tide was at its lowest and she stuck in the mud before reaching the rocks.  At high tide during the night the crew were able to float her off and back into her slip a few boats along from us.  To look at her this morning you'd never know anything had happened.

Danish Family Released by Somali Pirates

Even 300 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia, private sailing vessels can be hijacked by pirates.  Four US citizens were killed in February 2011 during a failed rescue attempt.  A few days later, a Danish family of five with children under 16 and two crew members on the sailing boat Ing were taken hostage.

When you've shared the same anchorages with people just living the dream of sailing around the world and suddenly they become hostages or are killed by Somali pirates, the horror of piracy comes close to home.  Our family has been anxiously monitoring news of the Danish family, Qvist Johansen from Ing.

Today we are celebrating news of their release after six months.  Link to news.

The Gulf of Aden is a major shipping route.  With the Somali pirates extending their reach 300 nautical miles from their coastline and the fact that the country has not had a functioning government since 1991, it is hard to believe that most people are completely unaware hundreds of people remain hostages in Somalia.  Perhaps some of the millions that go in aid to Somalia could be used to protect the safety of private and commercial ships attempting to enter the Gulf of Aden.  What do you think?

Ing

When we crossed the Pacific last year we found ourselves in the company of yachts from all over the world.   One of those international boats was the Danish yacht Ing.

On board Ing was a family cruising the world.  Tragedy struck when they were captured by Pirates.

News this week is that they maybe released within a week.  I hope so.

See link for news

Update, Crew of ING have been released after 6 months.  See link for news

messing about in boats

"Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing,"

Brisbane Based Bristol Rose

Brisbane River City Cats Signage

 Moving back into the mainstream of life has its challenges.  As well as all kinds of crazy weather in Queensland, we've been confronted with some serious culture shock.  Our experiences are fairly mundane compared with everything we experienced in crossing the Pacific.  

Bristol Rose in her slip at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron

Getting settled in Brisbane, working, enjoying the sunshine, favourite foods.  Unfortunately not a lot of time to keep our blog up to date and friends have been asking if Yasi got us.

Pumpkin in the markets and roast pumpkin on the menu, yum!

A tower of lamingtons!
The stuff of cravings when we lived in the US, far away from an Aussie cake shop.

Buckets of gerberas

Rainbow Lorikeet building a nest

Attitude, contender in the Brisbane to Gladstone multihull race.

Bristol Rose is being hauled out this week to take care of annual maintenance, which is a little overdue.

Manly, Queensland

Yasi knocks on the door of Queensland

As if the recent floods was not enough now mother nature is sending cyclone Yasi to visit north Queensland this week.  With the state still struggling to dry out we are now looking towards more rain and damaging winds.

Australia Day on Moreton Bay

Look Closely, Jack from Anthem joins in with the Aussie Day celebrations

Each Wednesday the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron, or simply RQ, has an afternoon race.  Last Wednesday was Australia Day, perfect weather attracted 79 sailboats of all shapes and sizes in the afternoon race.

Here are some of the photos taken on our sail on the bay.

Nice and close

It may be a social outing, buts it's still a race.