Crew: Geoff, John, Jamie, Juliette.
Forecast: Southeast 10 kts.
Perfect conditions for our race crew to come out sailing and do some spinnaker practice in preparation for the EBYMBC Winter Series which starts next week. BTW – The race sponsors will be Barton Marine – best chandlery in Wellington. Check out their cool new website: bartonmarine.co.nz
We met up at Chaffers at 1100 hrs and rigged the no. 2 jib, spinnaker sheets and gybe preventer. We slipped our lines from the berth and motored out into Lambton Harbour with Jamie on helm. John and Juliette hoisted the mainsail and then the jib. Dodging the rowers practising in the harbour, we sailed on a beam reach towards Pt Jerningham.
We got up to 6.5 kts SOG as we crossed the top of Evans Bay with the southerly blowing a nice 12-15 kts. Juliette and I prepared the medium spinnaker.
Once we arrived in the wind shadow of Kau Bay we pointed the boat downwind and secured the gybe preventer. Juliette hoisted the spinnaker and we dropped the jib. John did a great job on kite trimming with Jamie keeping a steady hand on the helm.
After sailing past Somes Island we hoisted the jib and then dropped the spinnaker. Once we had sorted out a slight entanglement with the sheets and had the kite stowed down the hatch, we sailed on a beam reach across the top of the harbour towards Seaview.
We decided it would be nice to stop at Compass Coffee for our lunch break. The cafe is located on the water’s edge in Seaview Marina with a convenient jetty that boats can tie up to.
After phoning ahead to the cafe, we motored into the marina at 1300 hrs. One of the cafe staff kindly met us on the jetty to receive our mooring lines under the watchful eye of the clientele.
We enjoyed the great coffees on Halo in the picturesque marina surroundings next to the Lowry Bay Yacht Club.
It was low tide and our depth sounder was showing 2 mts. Out of interest I measured the depth with our lead line, 1.8 mts on the port side and 2.3 mts on the starboard side.
The Coastguard Rescue Vessel Reremoana, (ex America’s Cup chase boat) with John Schuyt on board, tied up behind us later. They were doing some survey work in the harbour and just popped in for a coffee.
We motored out of Seaview Marina at 1353 hrs. After hoisting our sails we beat our way close-hauled up the harbour getting in some good tacking practice with Juliette on mainsheet, John and Jamie on sail trim and me on helm.
About halfway across the harbour with the wind blowing over 15 kts, we put a reef in the mainsail.
Once we arrived in the calm of Oriental Bay we shook out the reef before dropping the sails and docking Halo back at Chaffers Marina at 1540 hrs.
A fun day out on the water and our team is looking forward to the challenges of the Winter Series racing starting next week.
Halo Log Book 