Hummocky to Rosslyn Bay

Wednesday 14^th June 2017

No need to wake early today,  as we only have a 25 nm sail to Rosslyn Bay. The anchorage at Hummocky was very comfortable, despite a 15 to 20 knot southerly in the early hours of the morning. We had decided to leave at around 8 am, and the normal SW early morning breeze came in at around 15 knots.

The anchor was up just before 8 am, and after a bit of a struggle to free the main halyard which had wrapped itself around the radar reflector, we were under way sailing along briskly. Rolling out the headsail gave us more speed and soon we were doing 7-8 knots. Finally we may have a diesel free day. Alas, a bit of an hour late we were down to 4 knots.

Leaving Hummocky Island

All was looking good at this stage, flat water 12-15 knot breeze, it all seemed ideal

The code zero seemed like the obvious answer to keep us sailing, so I clambered up on the deck, towing the sail bag and we went about setting the sail. All was going well until as the halyard was almost at the top, all of a sudden the sail fell into the water, thankfully still furled. We managed to get it back on board and the halyard is at the top of the mast. Somehow the clip on the spinnaker halyard must have got caught on something and was prised open, not a good look.

Anyway we got the sail back on board, rolled the headsail back out and sailed most of the way to Rosslyn Bay, at 4 to 6 knots boat speed. In the last half hour we were doing less that 3 knots so motored the rest. Sailing in 3 knots of breeze is tough !!

Approaching Keppel Bay Marina

We parked in our berth, avoiding the protruding stabilisers on the boat next to us, no fenders of course. Things are pretty relaxed at this marina !!

Once the paperwork was done, we settled in to hosing the boat down, laying the code zero out on a vacant marina leg and hosing it down with fresh water, and pondering how we might recover the lost halyard from the top of the mast. I hunted around to see if there was some rigger/sailmaker nearby that could give us a hand, but there was not much interest, other than a sailmaker who said he may have some time over the next few days. Not much interest there, so  I looked around for other options.

Later in the afternoon, we looked for the boats from Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club, who have planned rendezvous here this weekend, which we have happily joined. After introducing ourselves to George and Gail on Southern Belle , who are organising the rendezvous, I mentioned   my problem recovering the spinnaker halyard , and he immediately offered assistance. He hoisted me up the mast, manually, with Carole's assistance on the safety line, recovering the spinnaker halyard. Thank you George, much appreciated. 

With the halyard back in place, there is no breeze., so we pull the code zero back up on the halyard, and furl it out to dry and then packed it away.

We had sundowners on Isabella, with the teams from Southern Belle and Novae. Great company and we are looking forward to the RPAYC rendezvous dinner  tomorrow night.