Wind from the north

6 nautical miles

The wind was predicted to be from the south and gentle in the morning (6-8 knots) and stronger in the afternoon (12-15 knots). The intention had been for a gentle sail with two friends of Tim's - Paul and Panny.  However... when we got to King Malu we saw the wind was from the north, which is very unusual for this area and was 15 knots gusting 20 knots. We decided if it settled a little lower, maybe 10-12 knots gusting 15 we would sail, otherwise cancel for the day. Panny is not a sailor so unsettling her on her first sail would not be a great idea!

After about half and hour or maybe 45 minutes it did reduce so we decided to try a sail. Just as we were about to leave the motor boat next to us arrives to moor. They have quite a difficultly mooring so we are concerned. The new place we have for mooring is not good. It's really for smaller boats than ours, for instance the chain to which the mooring ropes is only about 1-2 metres away from the boat, to the angle is way to steep for us and we have to use centre mooring rather than end mooring. Actually there are no lines even attached to the chain - a couple of weeks ago Tim dived and attached one line, but is is temporary and we have made two new lines, but need to get someone to dive to attache them to the chain.

Anyway, back to the northerly and getting out of the marina... Our first attempt failed as the guide line for the centre mooring line had not been let go and we were therefore still secured to the pontoon. When we returned we changed the way this is secured so that we will see this line and not miss it. But... that was not all the problems... we don't yet have an inboard so manoeuvring is difficult. In reverse King Malu will always turn to port whatever you do with the wheel since the prop-walk on an outboard makes steering in reverse pretty difficult. We also have no bow thruster.

First problem was that the northerly was blowing the bow round as we reversed out. She just clipped the pole - fortunately just the anchor. Then trying to do a three point turn we had to fend off the sea wall, which broke one of our boat hooks. Still, we got out OK.

Out of the marina on the sea the wind was stronger as you would expect, it was 18 knots, gusting 25 knots. At least that's what the wind instrument told us. So I decided to hand steer as I could spill wind when the gusts came through rather than letting the autopilot hold course and giving our guests a rougher ride!

After tacking to come back the wind dropped a little, but was still gusting quite a lot. Coming back into the marina at just after mid-day it was 'like Piccadilly Circus'. Piccadilly Circus is a square in London where there is always loads of traffic coming from every direction. In our case there 4 or 5 boats coming out, one just ahead of us going in and a whole fleet of them behind us trying to get in.

With the new mooring position you have multiple turns the final one with very restricted space and a boat either side, that gives very little space, it's the fenders that hold us apart, there is no actual space! Too slow and you lose steerage, too fast and you have problems with the pontoon or another boat. Now remember we still have an outboard which has a long throttle cable so fine adjustments to speed are difficult. 

Let's just say I didn't do the manoeuvre very well. But thankfully didn't do any serious damage to us or any other boats or to the pontoon! Just after we secured the wind changed 180 degrees and so we were trying this just before a wind shift where the wind is unstable anyway.

Problems with the gennaker

17 nautical miles

Jacob and Marie are our boat cleaners - every week they go down and swab down the decks, clean outside and spend a couple of hours doing some polishing of the metalwork. Polishing the metalwork is an endless job and since it has not been done for many years needs a lot of hard work to return the stainless steel to looking bright and shiny. We have one requirement for this: Being teenagers Jacob and Marie must be together for safety. 

So, since Marie was away at camp this week, Jacob encouraged Anji, a adult friend who is staying with the family to come down with him. When he got back his Mum asked her how it was. Her reply was something along these lines, 'Well, it was rather stressful, lying in the sun on a yacht reading and watching someone else do all the work...' We thought she should see King Malu in her element and invited Anji to sail with us today.

First stop was round to the anchoring area north of the port for a swim. This time we anchored easily. Partly this was due to the wind and partly due to paying out the chain carefully so the catenary was always drooping correctly.

After the swim and a drink we set sail.  The temperature gauge was showing an air temperature of 31.6C so drinking enough to not become dehydrated is a critical part of sailing in the Med. The wind was light - maybe 6-8 knots to start with, from the south east, so we set the new gennaker and headed off towards Cape Pila. King Malu was sailing beautifully, I think we have got the knack of how to set the sails now. We were getting about 4 knots SOG in 6 knots wind.

During the morning the wind freshened to about 12-15 knots. Glorious sailing. Then time for a tack to return. To do this with the gennaker you have to furl it on the magic furl and then tack and then unfurl. We tried furling and found the bottom joint had seized. The gennaker should furl from the centre to the ends, but with the bottom seized it furled from the bottom up, leaving the top somewhat of a mess. We needed to drop the gennaker to the deck and get it stowed as quickly as possible. I started the motor and headed King Malu into the wind. Bad move. The top of the gennaker now spilled out balooning and making it very difficult to control. I took her 30 degrees off the wind. Now it was just difficult! We dropped the sail to the deck, Tim almost falling on the sail to keep it from balooning up and damage, then get it into the sail bag and below without any damage.

Whereas we had been thinking of sailing down and back up the coast for a bit, we decided we had enough and headed back to the marina under genoa and main.

Returning to our mooring also proved difficult, especially because there was an extra guest yacht moored alongside the sea wall. The turn that is normally difficult became impossible without a bow thruster or very still water. We ended up grabbing the boats either side and walking ourselves in. Definitely not an elegant way to moor and would have been even more difficult in stronger wind.

Then it was back up to Tim's flat to sort out the gennaker. We never did find out why the lower joint had seized, but it had seized solid. We sprayed everything with WD40 and made a note to remember this as part of our regular monthly maintenance.

The second thing we wanted to do was sew a sleeve for the rubbing strip for the dinghy. Mick watched the 'Larnaka men's sewing club' in action.

I think this was actually the longest seam we have done.

We then returned to the marina to fit it. Mick remarked that the dinghy was now looking very Greek, with the blue rubbing strip and the white hull.

The dinghy has been an ongoing project, and it's still not finished. When we inherited King Malu, she came with a wooden tender in somewhat poor state of repair. We cleaned it up and did some repairs to the wood, including adding buoyancy tanks. Then some friends from Alpha Divers fibre glassed and gell coated it.

It's nearly ready for use again as a tender, but still a little more TLC needed.

Sailing with the family Robinson

15 nautical miles

No, not Swiss family Robinson, but Northern Irish family Robinson were are guests today: Peter, Rachel, Sam, Bella and Naomi. 

The wind was low, 6-8 knots coming from the south east so we raised as much sail as we could - new gennaker, main, mizzen and mizzen staysail and headed south. Aim was to tack round sailing over the Zenobia, wave to our friend Chris who runs Alpha Divers, and then head out towards Cape Pila.

The Zenobia was a Swedish build roll-on roll-off ferry that got into difficulties and then capsized and sank on her maiden voyage in 1980. She now rests on her port side in approximately 42 metres of water and has been named as one the The Times top ten diving sites for wrecks in the world.

Chris, who, as I said runs Alpha Divers, is a friend of ours and the Robinsons and was out diving the Zenobia early in the morning. Early morning is a good time to dive and a bad time to sail due to lack of wind. Diving doesn't excite me, but Sam, the eldest son of the Robinsons has dived down to, but not into the Zenobia.

Alpha Divers do a lot of diving of the Zenobia and depending on diver experience and capability can even take divers inside the wreck: It's like a tour of a ferry - the bridge, the restaurant, Duty Free shop, chain lockers, life shaft, engine room and even the vehicle decks where you can see over 100 trucks still full of sunken cargo!

Last year Alpha Divers were dive support for a film crew making a film about the Zenobia wreck.  The Official Zenobia Documentary looks at the ship and its history - why did a modern ship on its maiden voyage sink? Was it sabotage from Mossad, the Israeli Secret Service, was it some sort of insurance issue or was it just a plain old technical failure? The documentary that Chris acted as dive support for asks and answers these fascinating questions. Well... I guess it's more fascinating if you dive the wreck!

Summer has finally arrived. It's hot and somewhat humid, though the humidity hasn't risen to its normal dripping wetness of the summer. That, no doubt, is to come.

Replete in live jackets the crew and guests lounge around the deck enjoying the shade of the bimini and the cool breeze coming of the Mediterranean Sea.

The wind picks up to around 12-15 knots and Bella and Sam are given a chance to steer the yacht, since we have dropped the gennaker and are now sailing on just genoa, main and mizzen.

Relaxing for Rachel is lying with a book, preferably a book resting on the stomach of her oldest child!

Lunch off the Dhekelia Power Station and it's time to head back. Well... not back, but to a mooring north of the port where a lot of yachts drop anchor and let their crews swim.

At 12-15 knots Tim and I are concerned about our anchor holding. We have two anchors - one that fits in the pulpit and the other that we have in the sail locker for overnight mooring. The one in the pulpit is a plough anchor. It is both slightly small for the boat size and tends not to set too well on the sandy bottom around Larnaca. 

We drop anchor in just over 3 metres of water, with 20 metres of chain. This should be plenty for a good catenery and hold firm, but strangely King Malu will not settle head to wind, but almost continues sailing without any sails up, dragging the anchor as she goes. There are yachts all around this anchorage and we are concerned about hitting them. We try three times to set anchor amongst the other boats and fail. 

Eventually we set the anchor in 2.1 metres of water but much closer in. This time the boat comes head to wind, but in 2.1 metres Tim and I are concerned about any anchor slip as we only have about half a metre under the keel and the last thing we want to do is ground the boat.  So everyone who is swimming is told the must come out of the water quickly if told to do so and I set an anchor alarm at a few metres. Everyone except Rachel and I jump in and cool off. 

A minute later and the anchor alarm goes off. I reset it. About 3 minutes later it goes off again. I cannot see a slippage - I am watching points on the shore I have lined up, but nevertheless it's enough to worry us so we call everyone in and head back to the marina.

We will need to find some way of securing the bigger anchor close to the pulpit so we can use it for day sails I think/

After the Robinsons have left Jacob, Tim and I fit a new bilge pump which is vey much smaller and will go right down to the bottom of the bilge and hopefully keep out bilges a bit drier.

We also fit the new table we have bought for the saloon. This is the first step in the interior cosmetic upgrade. I know a table is more than just cosmetic, but it certainly is a start to making the interior more habitable.

500 miles... new Gennaker... repaired bilge pump...

4 nautical miles

We had hoped to try our new gennaker yesterday, but what with moving berths there was too much on for us to get the time to attach the new gennaker which we got from Crusader Sails to the Magic Furl. So, first thing this morning we attached one end of the magic furl to the railing on Tim's balcony and then stretched it out right across his flat (it's a big flat) and with Tim tensioning it and Erika winding and me making sure it wound correctly we wound it onto the magic furl.

So what are the differences between a gennaker and an asymmetric spinnaker? Wikipedia comes to the rescue...

The differences that distinguish a gennaker from an asymmetric spinnaker are blurry; they are both high camber downwind sails. One difference is the amount of camber, which dictates the points of sail. A gennaker is optimal for a beam reach, while an asymmetric spinnaker is optimal for a broad reach or run.

So then down to King Malu and try it out this morning while the winds were low. But before that I went up the mast to fix some new spreader protectors over the ends of the main spreaders. The last thing we want to do is to damage this brand new sail!

We went out and tried unfurling and re-furling - it did much better than the old asymmetric we used to have, partly this is because it was cut to work with magic furl and partly because the old asymmetric was actually a cut down full spinnaker and partly because it is a brand new sail. Anyway we were very pleased with it. The shape is better, and it pulled better in 6-7 knots of wind we were getting more than 4 knots SOG with only the gennaker up.

We did try the genoa with it briefly but need to work out the lines better to try it again in the future. Yes, Malu Marine is the name to watch. It's the name of the company Tim and I have formed to supply specialist sailing equipment that is currently unavailable in Cyprus.

When we got back to the marina Tim berthed the yacht as he wanted to try in the new mooring. He took it about 1 knot faster than I do into the marina and round into the main waterway. With the extra turn before the new mooring we slowed down well on that, so I will do his speed rather than mine in the future. The old mooring had only two turns to slow with, the new mooring has five turns to slow, so we can come in slightly quicker, like many of the other boats in the marina. It's just I have this fixation with trying not to hit the floating dock!

We did about 4 nautical miles today which just tipped us over the 500 mark to 502 nautical miles we have sailed in King Malu. We are both becoming much more comfortable with her, so we expect the next 500 to go very much more quickly as we will try some longer trips.

Anyway, we then looked around for a small job to do before lunch and decided the manual bilge pump was to be that job.

The manual bilge pump has been leaking ever since we had the boat. I don't know if it was original or had been replaced, but the pump housing which takes the inspection hatch moved whenever you pumped it which in turn moved the inspection hatch which then leaked water into the engine room. Not a good idea!

We had tried replacing the inspection hatch but that didn't help at all.

About a year ago we had bought a new Henderson/Lavac Mark V pump for the for'ard heads since that had been leaking and we thought best to just replace the whole unit. But... although it claimed to be a Henderson/Lavac Mark V it wasn't the same size and the pump wouldn't fit. However, the inspection hatch did, so we replaced that from the new unit and the old one stopped leaking. Hence we now had a new Henderson Mark V pump with an old inspection hatch.

The Mark V bilge pump appeared well and truly fitted to the bulkhead so the thought of changing the whole thing was somewhat daunting. So what we did was replace the front housing from the old one that moved when we pumped with the front housing from the new one. This worked wonderfully... no more water in the engine room!

The 'new' Henderson Mark V pump we are still keeping as parts, though less than 50% is now new.

Another gentle day sail...

19 nautical miles

The day started early... well... early for me, at 7:15 picking up Tim, Sidney and Jacob and going to the marina. We needed to move the boat to a new berth. Hopefully this will be our permanent berth. If you zoom in on the map above you will see we left from one berth and returned to a different one. That's not totally correct, it's just we didn't do a spot location at the new berth before we left.

Anyhow, the new berth is at 90 degrees to the old one, which means that prevailing winds will now be on our beam instead of our bow. We'll have to wait and see how this affects us. Early in the morning, before the wind gets up is the best time for manoeuvring round the marina, so we tried both a bow to and stern too mooring. It's nothing like as easy to get in and out of this new berth, but no doubt it will become 'home' as we get used to it.

Sidney didn't come with us for the day but a business client of Tim's called Vladimir from Russia joined us for the day.

Some sailors like to tell of their horror stories. We like the nice days sailing and this was one of the best. 7-9 knots in the morning and 15-20 knots in the afternoon. Gentle and just the thing to unwind and the end of a hard week.

And... a great lunch out in the yacht near Cape Pila. What more could you want?

Night sailing and tornado...

54 nautical miles

Tim and I want to build up our night hours so we decided to do an overnight sail last night. The passage plan had been to broad reach south to Cape Kiti and then close reach south west. Then when the predicted wind turn happened around 5am to tack and turn north onto a close reach. The aim would be to see the new fishing harbour at Zygi just after dawn for breakfast. Then we would gybe around 6am and run back to Cape Kiti, have lunch while sailing, and finally a beam reach back to Larnaca Marina.

When we arrived at King Malu around 10pm Tim had all the sails ready for hoisting and so the rest of the crew - namely me, Jacob and Jörn got aboard, lifejackets on and we set off. This was the first time manoeuvring around the marina after dark so I was taking it carefully.

The first problem we noticed was the port and starboard navigation lights were not working. Great. That's all we need. Expected it to be a blown bulb. Navigation lights are the only non LED lights we have on the boat. It wasn't that. The wiring for the breaker panel is due to be renewed very sortly, maybe a wire off there. It wasn't that. Check power at the panel in the for'ard cabin and it's fine there, so it means it is somewhere between the for'ard cabin and the lamp unit. Eventually I traced it down to a corroded joint at the bow lamp fitting itself.

So we enjoyed the night for a short while and Jacob and Jörn (Jörn is Jacob's dad) went off to sleep in the for'ard cabin, Tim settled to sleep in the saloon and I took first watch. The wind was 11 knots 230 T so looks like the passage plan will work perfectly.

Tim had barely settled than he is up concerned that the bilge pump is making a lot of noise. We had been working in the engine room and adjusted the prop shaft so maybe the bearing there is leaking. But it isn't. Next thought is that maybe there had been extra water in the bilges and the pitching of the boat was just running it down to where it can be pumped out. We therefore manually pump out and Tim heads off to sleep again.

Less than 20 minutes later the bilge pump is on again. Maybe the pitching is pushing water back into the bilges. We pump out again and Tim goes off to sleep... again.

40 minutes later and the bilge pump is making noise again. So this is serious and we look round to try to locate the problem. Do we really have a leak on one of the through hull fittings? Checking those after dark isn't fun.

Eventually we trace it to a leaking fresh water tank seal and since the fresh water had been slightly over filled by Jacob earlier in the day this is where the extra water is coming from. Relief and Tim goes off to sleep again. Why does he get up? Well the saloon sea berth is just above the bilges so it's the noisiest place for hearing the bilge pump cut in. We do need to add an indicator in the cockpit so we know when the bilge pump cuts in.

The wind is still a steady 11 knots and from the same direction. We have genoa, full main and full mizzen and King Malu is nicely sailing along at 4.4 knots. That's slow for her, but the waves are choppy and holding her back. Still the sail plan feels comfortable and I am enjoying it immensely. At this stage I should have thought about Jacob and Jörn in the front cabin, but they seemed to be sleeping peacefully so I do nothing. If we had moved them to the stern cabin the ride would have been slightly less rough.

The plankton are being kicked aside by our bow wave as we plunge into the waves resulting is sparkling phosphorescent flecks cast out from the yacht as she surges through the water. That and the millions of stars overhead seen clearly because of the lack of light pollution make for a wonderful night alone with God.

About 45 minutes after midnight I spot a radar target on our port bow and track it to ensure it will pass astern of us. The wind has picked up marginally to 12 knots but our boat speed down to 3.9 knots. The waves are really impacting us.

I had been trying to give Tim a full 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep but he appears on deck so we change watch.

About an hour and a quarter later I wake and so we change watch again. The wind is still 12 knots and the waves must be slightly kinder as we are now up to 4.7 knots. I spot a ship on our port bow about two miles off and watch as she crosses ahead safely. I hand steer for quite a while, just for the sheer pleasure of doing so.

An hour later the wind has dropped three knots though the direction is still the same, but the waves must also have reduced as we are now up to 5.1 knots. I reduce the sensitivity of the autopilot and notice that the wheel is moving between two positions back and forth. So I try something: I turn off the autopilot and lock the wheel mid way between the two two points. I am fairly sure we are well balanced and having just read Joshua Slocum's account of his round the world passage without autopilot or wind vane I am interested to see how King Malu performs. I watch the wind indicator and the compass. She holds her course, weaving back and forth only slightly as she is knocked by the waves but holding true to her original course.

Just before 4am Tim comes on deck, we tack and head back towards the shore. Our aim still to see Zygi fishing harbour. If the wind holds we'll nearly get to Limassol. Tim relieves me on watch and an hour later the wind shifts and he starts the motor to motor sail. By the time I come on deck again at 5:26. I had asked me to called around dawn so I could see the sun rise over the Mediterranean.

On the starboard side... sunrise. On the port side... less than half a nautical mile away was a huge great car transporter. Tim thought they had seen us as they had slowed from 15 to 3 knots. While I watched both we and they changed direction (defensive sailing?) and they picked up speed again to 12 knots.

The wind had dropped to under 5 knots and it's now more motor than sailing. We'll not make Zygi, Tim has turned to be west of Cape Kiti. We discuss motoring more west towards Zygi, but if the wind does drop more still we are faced with a very long motor back to Larnaca and we still only have a 20 HP Honda outboard to drive us. Actually the Honda outboard is amazing. I think we ran it for nearly six hours and used only 10 euros of fuel.

Sometime around 7am we make some fresh percolated coffee and Jacob and Jörn appear. Sadly Jörn has not had a good night and is looking unwell. Normally the best way to revive Jörn is some good coffee, but this doesn't have the desired effect and he is sea sick.

Since the winds are light and about 120 degrees off our starboard quarter we decide it's time for all the light downwind sails and hoist both the asymmetric spinnaker and the mizzen stay sail.  We get another knot of speed out of this and King Malu looks like a ketch should, flying more canvas than a regular modern sloop! The motor revs are cut back and it's only assisting now, not the primary part of the propulsion.

A hour or so later Tim cooks breakfast, a feast of fresh tomatoes, cucumber, fried Haloumi and pitta bread.

I don't have the pitta as it seems flour products give me indigestion early in the morning. Jörn decided to give all food a miss and takes a shower instead.

We turn slightly more eastwards still towards a way point a mile or so south east of Cape Kiti. It's very shallow around that cape with shoal waters. Tim has run aground even on his trimaran so we are being careful. More careful than we need to be, since we pass another yacht motor sailing well inshore of us.

Jacob watches as she passes. It appears the yacht is moving very fast, but since we are it are both doing 5 knots then the apparent speed is about 10 knots.

We pass Cape Kiti. The wind generators behind Pervolia are easy to see. Jörn remarks how they spoil the landscape and I remember how my parents said exactly the same thing about the pylons crossing the South Downs when I was a child. He doesn't like them either, but both are a necessary part of 21st century life. I wonder what the island looked like one hundred years ago.

Jörn remarks how he does like to see the island like this from the sea. Some day I long to circumnavigate... not the globe, but the island.

Since the waves have now all but disappeared we are able to sail again rather than motor sail. Silence returns to the yacht. Not that the outboard is noisy - far from it, it's probably quieter than an inboard diesel as Tim remarked while  we were sitting chatting in the cockpit.

Tim and Jörn lay out in the sun. Not many minutes later Tim decides his legs are cooking in the hot Mediterranean sun and so I fetch a sheet from the cabin to allow his legs not to roast.

It's a leisurely gentle sail now, such a pity Jörn is still not feeling well enough to enjoy it.

Tim trims all the sails and King Malu is sailing so well we phone Claire and Erica and suggest they come down to the fishing harbour just south of Larnaca and we will sail inshore for them to photograph us. We don't have any photos of King Malu sailing except those taken on board.

I look at the chart plotter, checking depths and positions and work out a route. It will need a gybe to bring us to about 160 degrees on port tack to bring us inshore, then another gybe to 160 the other side for a run past them to photograph us, then a quick turn out. It's going to be fairly shallow, but should be OK.

As we gybe onto the port tack for the final run Claire manages to catch us on camera at the end of the lens just as the spinnaker fills with wind.

I am glued to the instruments. We have about seven knots wind and hardly gusting at all, which is good. The swimming buoys are now about 30-50 metres on our port side and I must not under any circumstances go into that area.

We have a preventer on the mainsail. Years ago I had done an accidental gybe on a yacht about the same size as King Malu and it had frightened me enough to never take chances. Of course, at that stage I had much less sailing experience than I have now, but experiences like that stay with you for years. Actually, seeing how much easier I found it to hold the course within a few degrees was encouraging to me.

But now I am totally focused on the wind... and the depth... and the chart plotter... and the swimming buoys... and a power boat that is moored... and a couple of ribs skidding about. Tim and Jacob are responsible for the sails, I'm going to remain focussed on helming.

Then... SLAP... what was that? Sounded like someone with a huge hand slapping the water just off our starboard bow. Tim points to the start of a tornado that has touched down about 25 metres from us on starboard quarter. I glance over, but am still glued to the instruments. We are now at 3.2 metres depth which does give 1.6 metres under the keel but that's not a lot of space for manoeuvring on our port side, especially with the swimming area that side too.

Suddenly we are knocked over to 30-40 degrees as the tornado sucks air towards it. The wind indicator spins right round. OK, what do do? The 15 tonne yacht is behaving more like a dinghy! It stabilises on our port bow so I throw the wheel over taking us directly into the wind hoping to spill as much wind as possible. Tim shouts for the safety knife which Jacob passes him and he slashes the spinnaker sheet letting the sail fly freely. I shout to Jacob to let the main sheet fly and Tim quickly removes the preventer so that the main sail can go where it wants. I start and engage the motor so that whatever the wind is doing with the sails flying free I still have some steerage.

In a few seconds it is all over and we are stable again. Albeit with a spinnaker flying loose, which Tim furls as quickly as possible. We find the sheet he had slashed shredded about 30cm. Who knows what stress that was under when he slashed it! There is a small tear in the spinnaker where it slashed across the shrouds.

The wind is now 12 knots gusting 15. It has nearly doubled in as many seconds as the wind speed.

I don't think I want to go through that again, but it was good to know how King Malu behaves. When 15 tonnes of yacht gets kicked over to 30-40 degrees in just a few seconds I wondered if she was going to go further, but she didn't, she came back and seeing how we as a crew behaved was good too. I realise she wasn't behaving like a dinghy as had we been out in the Wayfarer we would all be in the water by now! I had lost my first boat, a Mirror sailing dinghy, as the result of a tornado coming through our sailing club about four miles north of where we are now.

Since there may be more tornados we drop the main and mizzen sails and decide to motor back to the marina. Just as we arrive at the marina we find a committee boat moored a few hundred metres away from the entrance and yachts with full sails bearing down on us. We give way and get into the marina.

When we are moored I find that the sudden bounce to 30-40 degrees had knocked the floorboards in the stern cabin out or their normal resting place and so put them back, but other than that King Malu looks none the worse for the experience.

All in all it was a very enjoyable sail.

20 Jun Sail

14 nautical miles

Afternoon sail with a friend Derek and Tim. The wind was predicted to be very light. Questionable if sailable at all - 4 or 5 knots at most. But it turned out to be brilliant sailing weather 11-12 knots constant dropping as we returned to the marina to 8 knots.

Of course... when I say dropping to 8 knots was we returned to the marina it then picked up again to 12 knots as we arrived inside the marina, which meant I failed in two attempts to moor King Malu stern to and ended up mooring her bow to. Oh well... when we get the new internal drive it should be easier.

This was a sail both Tim and I needed, we had spent the weekend doing work on the yacht and needed this nice gentle sail around the bay to unwind. It was extremely restful.