Saturday, June 23, 2007

Journal Entry - June 22 & 23, 2007 Arabian Nights and Sailing Days

Author: Scott

Woo hoo – the sun came out and the new beast has arrived! We were greeted by a fabulously sunny morning with a gentle breeze blowing. The conditions were almost ideal for the installation of the newly rebuilt Perkins 4135, 67 horsepower, 2.2 liter blue/green machine! The Bob and Rob team showed up around 10:00 with the little monster strapped down in their ute.

While the guys went to work on preparing the engine mounts we hovered over the new engine as others from RANSA and the dock congregated to get a look at our new little addition. Bob eventually came over to give us an overview of all the parts and gizmos that would be necessary in the care and feeding of Starship’s new iron sail.

Very quickly the time came to haul the boat across to the dock near the crane and we easily repeated the process we devised on the day of Big Red’s extraction. Sometime the simplest solutions turn out to be the best, and the process of pulling Starship by hand along a long line worked again like a charm. Once Starship was tied down by the crane the insertion of the engine went flawlessly smooth. I always envisioned an engine replacement to be an agonizing and torturous experience, but with Bob’s experience he made the whole process easy. In no time the engine was sitting nicely on its mounts and the boat was pulled back to her pen. We had a little more wind on the return trip but nothing that created any problems.

As Bob and Rob worked on attaching the engines life support systems, Pam and I worked on boat projects outside including cleaning the dinghy, cleaning the sail cover, running the second outboard, and finishing up the cleanup on the stern.

Around 15:30 we did have a big of a setback. As Bob and Rob attempted to align the engine it became clear that the hard mounting boards that support the flexible mounting pads were too thick. This required Bob and Rob to remove the mounting boards to be cut again, bringing the engine installation to a dead stop. At least the new engine was in the boat! Bob assured us with a hearty “no worries mates” and promised to return on Monday with freshly cut mounting boards.

We quickly cleaned up the boat as best we could and then scurried over to RANSA for a shower. Once a month in the wintertime RANSA holds a special event for their members and tonight was Arabian Night, complete with belly dancing, and we were invited.

We did our best to dress up in appropriate attire and headed out for the festivities. The party was great! We all gathered at the RANSA bar for a happy hour and then moved into the Rushcutters Room for dinner. We dined on Moroccan lamb, Greek salad, and baklava and Turkish Delight for dessert. After dinner we moved out into the main boatshed for the belly dancing. Apparently the dancer was so good in the past that a group of women from RANSA had taken lessons from the dancer and they regaled us with stories of dancing the camel… The dancing was quite good and the main dancer did an excellent job of generating group energy culminating in the whole group getting up on the dance floor. All this dancing got Ms. Pamela in the groove and she suggested we bring over a computer with music to keep the dance going. I obediently complied and the tunes were a hit! We kept the group grooving for another hour and a half, until we finally had to shut down due to courtesy to the neighborhood, but we surely had a rockin Arabian Night!

First thing Saturday morning we learned we were responsible for a few over indulgers staying later than planned and therefore facing a rough Saturday morning. In Sydney for a few weeks and now we have a reputation! Well, we didn’t have time to worry about our new rep because we were off to CYC for a day of sailing. On the prior Thursday we had dinner with our new friend Michael Kelly and he informed us he was sailing up to Pittwater on Saturday in preparation for his cruise to the Witt Sunday Islands. When he learned that we would also be sailing to Pittwater he immediately offered for us to join him to gain some local knowledge. He even went as far as to say that he would have 10 to 15 knot southwesterlies under a warm sunny sky. Wouldn’t you know it, Michael got exactly the weather he ordered.

We met Michael and three other crew (Martin, Mark and David) at CYC and headed out to Pantomime, Michael’s 35’ Moody sloop. Supplies and gear were stowed and we struck out towards the Sydney Heads under a gloriously sunny sky.

The sail to Pittwater was splendid. We all got to know each other and sailed with perfect conditions. We even had a chance to fly the sky blue spinnaker for probably ten miles of the trip. Pam and I had a great opportunity to learn about our future arrival to Pittwater giving us a welcome confidence to the start of our next voyage. Upon reaching Pittwater we efficiently docked the boat and shared a cab back to Rushcutters Bay. The entire sailing day was textbook perfect and very relaxed.

Pam and I finished off the day at our favorite little neighborhood Italian restaurant and basked in the feeling that only comes from a warm sunny day sailing with just a hint of wind burn.

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