We went ashore for breakfast again, and left the mooring at about 11:45am. Put the No.3 blade Jib up again, with a full main.
Vera helmed it out of Thompsons Bay via the channel between Phillip Rock and the Natural Jetty. Most people come in and out of Thompsons Bay north of Phillip Rock, but this cuts about 200-300m off the trip (not much considering the overall distance).
Vera then handed it over to Brett to helm back to Fremantle. We just gave him a bearing and some landmarks to steer for, and he pretty much did it from there himself. With the occassionally re-focussing when he turned to chat and lost his bearing. But, I could see that he is a natural, and with a bit more experience and will become very good. So between Vera and Brett over the next few years, I can see I will slowly lose some of the helming. The 2 of them make a great team; that is why they work so well together on the foredeck when we are racing.
We took about 95mins to get to the Fremantle heads. Sailed inside and once we got into calmer conditions dropped the sails and prepared everything for the mast lowering to get back under the Fremantle bridges. This time of day is a harrowing time for yachts lowering their masts, because of the amount of wash from power boats who have absolutely no idea what they do to yachts and lowered masts. There have been some very serious injuries on yachts because of accidents with masts; primarily caused by excessive wash from power boats.
We got through the bridges reasonably uneventfully, and go the mast back up, and decided to put the sails back up because the following breeze had increased and we would probably end up doing a quicker speed than under motor. Plus it would be quieter without the motor on.
We got back to RPYC just before 4pm, packed the boat away, and put what we could in the back of my car and head back home. I would come back and get the rest over the next couple of days. Swagman needs to get back into racing mode for Saturday.