Well what a time we had.
Four of us had a top four days away. We had the three fast blue boats Spectre (Steve), Deja Blue (John), Waterbago (me) and slowly behind us came the white boat Bird of Passage (Kevin).
A quick rundown of the weekend is as follows:
Met up with Deja Blue on Thursday night as I had left the mast raiser back at home, and needed to borrow his. Friday morning three of us sailed off to Nicholson with Spectre (who came from Canberra) showing up a bit later. We all went to the pub that night and got to know each other over a couple of beers and a good meal.
Saturday, Bird of Passage went back to Paynesville for some admin, where the rest of us motored off to Lakes Entrance. Along the way Deja Blue gave us a great show of his kids being dragged along behind his boat on a donut at just over 13 knots (impressive).
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We showed the locals at metung an excellent demonstration of the MacGregor precision docking team, followed up by the three of us lining up just off the dock for a three way drag (really impressive).
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Motored on to Lakes Entrance for a bit of mini golf, go carts and coffee drinking. We then sailed off to Box Creek to stay for the night. On the sail back to Box Creek, Deja Blue thought that he would take the lead and sailed off ahead of us. I noticed that when he entered the channel at the entrance, that there was a strong outwards current, where Deja Blue was making very little headway despite a good breeze on the stern. As Spectre and myself were slowing catching up on Deja Blue there was a lot of him looking at us, at his sails, at us, at his sails etc. Once I drew up next to him and about to ovetake him, Deja Blue commenced with a few rude words when he notice my motor in the water quietly ticking away. Later on in that trip, we eventually put the motors away and had a really good sail. At one stage Spectre started to get away from me, so naturally I had to set my spinnaker and set the story straight about which blue boat was faster.
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That night at Box Ck we had a brilliant night of sitting around chatting, drinks etc, until the rain came (and did it rain!).
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Sunday saw a brilliant day; eventually we started to move out, where we met up with Mistral who was enjoying the company of some friends in an RL-24. Motored / donuted back to Paynesville to refuel and traveled over to Bunga Arm. We ended up a good distance down this waterway and pulled up on the beach where we enevitably enjoyed a drink or two. The captains and Admirals all climbed over each boat checking out the various mods on each boat, discussing the pros/cons of each option and how much it made life easier. Bird of Passage eventually turned up (did I mention that it had a slow white hull), making up for their absence by distributing a bit of home made grog. Later that night the kids all jumped in Waterbago to watch a movie and devour some lollies.
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Monday had me decide to return to the rat race, naturally I had to convince Deja Blue that it would be a great idea to follow me back (so I could use his mast raiser again!). Before we left a bit more donuting was in order. Just as Deja Blue was about to power off, one of the local campers was watching us and asked about how slow the donuting was going to be. As we informed her of the truth of the matter her only response was “I’ve just got to see this” shortly followed by “that’s incredible”. We motored off, where in short order one of my fuel hose fittings gave up the ghost and we had this sudden desire to sail back home. Top idea, until the wind gave up. A one hour trip turned out to be a bit longer than anticipated. Eventually we got back, packed up and joined the traffic for the drive home.
All up, it was a great weekend where we managed to get a few Macs together and had a great time. It would be great to make this an annual event and get a few more Macs to join in.
Thanks for the effort.
Brian & Val
We're working out the logistics of her catching a train after work down to Packenham, where I'll meet her with the boat. That would give us an ETA of 9:30 - 10pm ish. I'll give you a tinkle on the phone around 8pm to see what the go is. That way we can set up, launch and have an idea where you are and not have to ring and possibly wake anyone up?
