S/Y King Malu

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.