Very early morning sail - with easterly winds

32 nautical miles

We had been thinking of an overnight sail starting at 3pm on Friday, but various things conspired to make that impossible, none the least that the forecast temperature meant it might be insufferably hot!

So... we decided to start at 5am on Saturday. This is definitely not a Richard time of day, so I decided to sleep on the boat to be ready for Tim in the morning. He arrived pretty much on the dot of 5am and we were out sailing by 5:14!

The aim was to get as close to Zygi as we could. Normally winds are southerly or westerly and very rarely easterly so since the forecast was for south easterly we tried to make the most of it. The winds were very gentle - we didn't see 10 knots till we were arriving back at the marina, mostly we saw 6-8 knots with some periods of 3-4 knots. That makes it Beaufort 2-3, which is considered a 'gentle breeze'.

The new sails are brilliant! We were seeing very good speeds - 4 knots in 6-7 knots wind. Our highest speed being 5.7 knots. The asymmetric on the magic furl was particularly impressive. I say new... they were new last season, but the improvement in performance never ceases to amaze us.

First thing in the morning was a thick sea mist so we turned on the radar and used that to locate the plethora of fishing boats out. Visibility was down to 30-40 metres, but even very small boats were trackable on the Raymarine radar we use. Partly this was because of the very calm sea, which meant two things: firstly there was little or no 'sea clutter' and secondly King Malu was relatively upright and pitching and rolling very little so the radar gave good targets.

Melvin, a friend from the UK, has sent us some folding chairs, if that's what you can call them for the boat. They are basically padded bottom and back with adjustable webbing straps. Worked brilliantly!  Photo to follow.

10 June 2012

12 nautical miles

Sailed out towards Cape Pila, then over to the Larnaca Nautical Club to see what was happening there.

6 nautical miles

As we were leaving the marina we saw a survey ship moored in the bay. Presumably it is part of the prospecting for oil off the south coast of Cyprus.

It's a strange looking ship with the large heli-pad on the bow and a 360 degree bridge, like a tugboat and a huge crane on the stern.

We motored round to look at it on the way to the club.

Today was Kataclismos race day for the Larnaca Nautical Club and so we took King Malu round to the club to act as committee boat... well really to be one end of the start/finish line.

We intended doing some maintenance on King Malu while we were moored. The bow navigation light had stopped working and this had been traced to the wiring between the light fitting at the bow wiring box.

The wires thread through the pull-pit and through the windlass locker, through a crew locker and finally to the bow wiring box. It took is almost all day to re-thread the wires!

There were actually only 6 boats taking part in the races.

Some of the boats are new and privately owned, and sail very well. When sailed to the limit they are fast. in 8 knots of wind on a downwind run they touch 3.9 knots. I measured their speed on the MARPA on the radar.

Jacob was sailing a club boat. The sails on the club boats are somewhat tired and don't have the sharp 'crinkle' sound of the new sails. However, he did well - sailing safely, but not at the speed of the racers!

There were three races today. The kids seemed to enjoy themselves and worked hard. It's a pity so few of the parents get involved in the club or even come down to watch their offspring race!

These are really preparation races for the island wide events later in the season.

Although they are just practice races, some of the kids were taking them very seriously!

Really today was a coaching session, with Anna and Katerina in the rescue boat giving advice.

For the sail back to the marina we invited Sheila and Marie to join us - they had come out with Jörn to watch the final race with Jacob in it - and Sheila had her first chance to actually sail King Malu. If all works out I will be teaching her to sail in Galini over the summer.