Fleet Base Perth Day & BBQ

[SergeSera]

Good Evening All,

The definition of a great sailing weather - blue skies, sunny no wind or rain - well that was Saturday - we sail Sunday.

Sunday I get wet putting Ardent in the car and the wind is also howling .
By the time I get to Jackadder lake the rain has stopped, but the wind has not gone away.
I left early today as we are having a brekky BBQ - reason celebrate HMAS Darwin FFG04 launching in 1982 and also because we can.

Rob arrives shortly after with Peter, Andrew and Bob turning up to enjoy the fruits of our labours.

Ships in the water were Ardent - skipper Me, Manchester and a russian Corvette - skipper Andrew, Peter the Great with new 3D printed superstructure still in red - skipper Rob and the tug Imara - skipper Bob.

As I said the wind had stayed so the smaller ships i.e. Darwin and Ardent made like sailing yachts and were mostly on a big angle with one side of the deck on the water the term tacking seems to come to mind the stabilisers on both ships working overtime.
The big ships Peter the Great and Manchester with the tug Imara handling the conditions very well.

At about ten we celebrated with Rum Balls and coffee, not enough Rum Balls (secret ingredient Bundy Rum).

The weather wasn't great so made sailing challenging but the the company was brilliant.

Cheers

Serge

PS Calendar of sailing dates for the next quarter coming out next couple of days.

[rritchie71]

Ah Serge, you missed the good parts.
PTG superstructure came apart at the lift point, nothing actually broken, it just separated at the joins and is all back together. Lesson learned and rectified.

Andrew’s Kurpin broke down and the rescue tug had to go out, in the course of the rescue Argus hit something and it broke the steering mechanism on one of the azimuth pods, which made her un-steerable and she became disabled aswell.

Then we had to wait until the wind bought them back in (didn’t take long) and Andrew waded out through the weeds and got them both.
All in all an adventurous and frustrating day.

Argus is out for a little while by the way, I will have to manufacture a new part.

Cheers

Robert

[littoralcombat]

Looks like you Guys had an interesting day regardless of the wind, although the pictures don't appear to show much 'Chop'. Almost makes me wish Graeme and I had come up, but it was really unpleasant Sunday morning when I poked my nose out..........next time.

Nige

[scott154]

Great story of what sounds like a great day in the end, you can't beat a good serve of bacon and eggs in the morning. Great photos I'm very jealous of your lake. Cheers guys. Scott

[Ahoythere]

Was even better when the rum balls came out.

I don't normally get water inside Darwin, this day I did.