I haven't been onboard this week, due solely to the fact that she lays some 300k from where I live. I do have good news though, and that is that this week I took formal ownership of JS and am about to secure the Clareville Beach mooring. The very same Clareville Beach from where Ann Gash departed and returned from her solo circumnavigation. I have new lateral chainplates to install too, so apart from shipping safety gear (flares, vhf & ?), I just need to overhaul the anchoring gear and ready for sea. SydHarb is just 16nm, head to head, so a solid halfday's sail could see us swanning around under the coathanger. Apart from getting under sail and testing her out, the under the bridge sail is the only immediate goal I have for JS. Taking a dump out the front of government house and Vaucluse mansions are two other perverse pleasures I may take part in, though l will need to mind the Fun Police. * * ...
After motoring to the beautiful Clareville Beach, I found the waters calm and silky dark. Slow skidding cumulus that reeked of showers, hung without menace. The lovely Barry Marshall (previous owner) arrived with a bag of ship's papers which provided a potted history, receipts, manuals and registrations. Generously, he also passed on a porta potti, boat hook, auto bilge pump, two headsails and a spinnaker. The headsails felt heavy and crisp, were labelled North Sails and are possibly unused. I also became the caretaker of the yellow surf ski. I'd seen Barry, who paddled across Bass Strait calmly paddle this as a tender and as he told me the lock code, extolled it's virtues and how easy it was "to stand on to get onboard ". Of course I couldn't wait to try out the new tender in order to check on on Jack Sprat so off we went with se new chain plate fittings and little else. As we arrived at the gunnel Barry's words came to mind as I shuffled and jerked, g...
Inspired by a group of guys, mostly middle aged or older, that sail the Jester (transAtlantic), Azores or Baltimore challenges in older boats between 20 and 30 feet. The solo challenges are self supported, self rescue type affairs and while it's common to have withdrawals from every challenge, very few require outside assistance. So, idly just checking the local market to see what is available should one have the money and time to mount a challenge. . Cole 26 $6000, Qld. Average cond. International Folkboat, $7000 tidy, simple. Spacesuit 28', near, spacious $16000. The 2022 Jester Challenge to Newport RI began with j just four entrants this year. A series of storms battered the little fleet and the last two yachts decided to withdraw to the Äzores due to significant gear failure. But apparently, without a deadline any of the four may resume the race.