Showing off Spinnaker

Haven’t posted for a while but here’s a nice shot taken by Chris on board of Allegro.

Finishing the DB Regatta 2010

This was taken on the final stretch of the DB Regatta 2010 just before the finishing (view from the committee boat, we’ll finish in a few seconds). Of course the breeze died just a minute earlier and we were ghosting (and losing) into the finish.

Nonetheless, this is a fabulous picture, thank you Chris! We had the asymmetric on a run (TWA 170 – 175 deg finishing at about 165 TWA) and have thus the main all the way in to prevent any accidental jibe. Of course we’re too lazy to rig a boom preventer. The tack line was kept a bit lose to make the spinnaker more stable to fly and stable it was!

Sailing boat hit by meteorite?

It was on our third or fourth day at sea, better said, it was at night of course, as these things (and others) usually happen. Meteorite strike or not.

Anyway, Jan was sleeping down below, Stephan and I were on deck on watch when Jan came up (it was probably around 2100 local time) and said he heard a bang from the deck (he slept in the saloon). We looked around with our flashlights, couldn’t find anything amiss and said it was probably just a block banging on deck or something.

Until, in daylight, we found this…

Off to Macau! – Updated

The Cruiser Owners Association Macau Race starts today 14th of Feburary.

Wish us luck!

Well, just adding to this post that we came back from Macau obviously a long time ago and that we came 3rd and 2nd in our category on the two legs. We would have come first overall but there was no prize for overall so it’s a bummer. I’m trying to find pictures to spice this up sometime.

Installing AIS Pt 2 – Install

I thought I could write this post much earlier, but then. Well. Make sure whoever you employ for doing work on your boat will give you a diagrams, plans and documentation. I do not have any documentation from the company who installed my electronics, my request was just, well, ignored. So what normally will take only a day to do, if at all, and if you know where your cables run, and if you know that when you extend a 4-wire cable with a 4-wire cable you will connect all the wires, even you only need two right then… and won’t put that connection into the most difficult to reach location. Well then it could be quite quick.

Installing AIS Pt 1 – Test

As part of our Offshore Racing Category 1 requirements, I’m installing AIS. Well, in fact, I’m not sure if it got anything to do with Cat1 because I would have done it anyway but with all the expenses coming up to me, I guess it’s a good excuse.

5th place on the DBYC 10-year Race

Just a quick posting that we made fifth place on last Saturday’s DBYC 10-Year Pursuit Race. We surely would have done better if your lousy skipper would read the sailing instructions entirely (and not just page 1).

Finish of the 10 Year Race

Skellum – max beam at keel – Update I

I’ve just helped lift Jan’s Skellum out of the water, the pictures speak for themselves – the boat wasn’t even that long in the water.

Freedom Cruise I

Colorful Chute

We had a nice sail on Sunday in variable to good sailing conditions. We left around 0815 and motored for the first few hours. As usual, our idea was going to Wai Ling Ding and the Limas afterwards. Luckily, as we were abeam of Lamma, the wind picked up and we were able to unrolling jib and setting the main.  Interestingly… when we came closer to Wai Ling Ding, we heard banging noises…

… some of our crew attributed that to our sails. But knowing the boat very well, I know it wasn’t. The closer we came to WLD the louder it got. As we were around 2NM from the reef, we suddenly saw a water fountain there and, a few seconds later, a heavy bang from an explosion. WTH are the doing. The bombing got louder (they were also setting up explosives on land) and we got the hell out of there – we hadn’t had cell coverage there otherwise I would have checked if there was war. The bombing kept going for a while while we left WLD in our wake.

What should have been the mother of all fishing trips…

The girls do what they do best - testing equipment (today: the new bean bag)

Our friends Nik and Diana hadn’t been out with us on Vega yet, so we took the chance and planned for a full-day fishing trip to our favorite fishing & cruising grounds, the Limas. The stage was set for 29th of July, with a forecast F2, the HK Observatory with good reason does not give out any wind direction. While we are a sailboat, it does not mean that we can’t motor and motor-sail (although the latter requires more than apparent wind) and we were sure there will be a touch of breeze every now and then. And besides, we wanted fish.

That I’m not opening “the mother of all fishing trips” blog entry with a photo of a fish, should probably be an indication of what did not happen on the trip. Anyway, read more after the break.

Limas, Wai Ling Ding & a Spanish Mackerel

Taking advantage of Tatiana being in Italy visiting her family, we went out on two successive weekends to go for a short sail on saturday and a long sail on sunday each. Obviously, our choise is clear: To head over to Wai Ling Ding and the Limas. While on the short saturday cruises it wasn’t possible to go to the Limas we settled for Wai Ling Ding instead.