This weekend was RPYC's annual end of season social sail to Rottnest Island from Fremantle. As Vera and I had been away all week, I had to rush to get the boat ready on Friday night. So, I loaded up the car with everything we needed, and Brett & I loaded everything onto the boat.
As Swagman doesnt have very much in the way of good sleeping arrangements, a few years ago I built some bunk boards that lay across to main cabin settee providing a Queen size bed. This is great even if it does take up quite a bit of room in the cabin. But for the great weather we have this doesnt cause us any problem. Vera & I, Alysha & Brett went with Brett sleeping in the navigation berth, Alysha up the front in the 'V' berth, and Vera & I on the bunk boards, and it works really well.
So, we were all up at 6am on Saturday morning, and after the busy week that Vera & I had on her junket, that was quite difficult. The race started from outside the RPYC Annex of Fremantle at about 0930, so we need to be down to the boat at RPYC on the Swan River by 0715 at the latest, to get away by 0730, and it takes about 1hr 45min's to get down the river. We had a really good run down the river, and through the bridges, and we arrived with about 15min's to spare. No boats were out yet, so we motored into the annex to see if any of the smaller boats need a tow, which the didnt, and we ended up starting the spinnakers up at about 0945 in about 8-12kts of wind.
It was a disappointing turn out this year, with 2 Endeavour 24's (Mistral - last years winner and another), us & a Farr9.2 (Toravean), plus one of Alysha's friends (Ryan Bindell) sailing by himself on his boat a S97 (Low Flying Duck).
With the superior sail area we quickly got away from the others and had a delightful shy spinnaker sail (right to 50deg's off the bow) until about 1nm from the Natural Jetty at Rottnest. The wind dropped then and was drifting from all the North directions so we dropped the spinnaker, and floundered with the main and jib up, until we started to drift toward the Natural Jetty, so we turned the motor on and motor sailed into Thompsons Bay.
I had been contacted earlier in the week to say that the mooring I had booked was unserviceable, and they had allocated me another one. This one turned out to be a little further away from the Rottnest settlement area, but was close to the old Army Jetty, and closer to shore. Which meant we would have a short row into shore. I am going to remember this one in the future because I think it is in a great spot.
We got in just after midday, and we sorted the boat out, and then we went ashore to have some lunch, get our landing & mooring permit, and then went back to the boat to relax.
In the evening we had the social part of the weekend at the Rottnest Tea Rooms. As there are smaller boats that come over, and they dont have the necessary safety gear on board, they are escorted by a couple of Power Boats, so we a few more people at the social gathering. The winner of the day is not necessarily the 1st to the island, but as it is always a themed event (this year it was Hollywood Glitz & Glamour), the Power Boats that come with us decide on the overall winner. Who has to arrange the social gathering and theme next year. This year is was Tony Finch and his crew onboard the other Endeavour 24, who had done the event for 18 years and had never won. So, it was a worthy winner, and should make for an exciting and great event next year (with his reputation).
We headed back to the boat without going on to party, as both Vera & I were still tired from the week.
We arose on Sunday morning at about 8am, and went ashore ans showered, and then went to Dome for Brekky. When we finished we went back to the boat and cleared everything to make ready for the trip back to the mainland.
The wind was much the same strength as Saturday, but from the SE-S, and we were initially heading a little away from our destination of Fremantle Harbour heads, but I knew it would slowly swing around to the S bringing us closer to where we needed to be.
It was a lovely sail back, taking a little longer than planned due to lack of wind. We dropped the sails coming into the harbour to prepare to lower the mast to go throught the bridges. We had some observant power boat owners who slowed down for us to reduce their wash, however after getting the mast back up, and going through a channel a little further up the river, one boat came past at about 10-15kts creating quite some wake and knocking us about a bit. So, I took his details and he will be report to the Department of Planning & Infrastructure - Marine using the Marine Incident form I have on the main page of this blog. I will post his details later.
We had a pretty uneventful motor back to RPYC, except just coming out of Blackwall Reach in Bicton/Point Walter 2 big power boats roared past at in excess of 25kts, causing a huge amount of wake. We werent close enough to them to get their details but I think they were from SoPYC, and of the same design and new twin decked boats.
It was a very enjoyable weekend, if not a little tiring after last week.
The photo is of Alysha, who was dressed as Paris Hilton, and Vera, who was dressed as Jessica Simpson.