MHYC Cruising Division Program 2014 – 15 December 12Th Club Christmas Party Friday 12Th 6:30Pm (Replaces December Meeting) January 19Th End of Cruise BBQ

Volume No. 34, No. 11 December 2014

Editor Michael Mulholland-Licht

Next Meeting: FRIDAY DECEMBER 12 FROM 6:30PM

CLUB CHRISTMAS PARTY IS IN LEU OF MEMBERS MEETING IN DECEMBER. PLEASE BOOK WITH THE OFFICE

Admiral Astrid helms Bliss through the Heads on 090 exercise. Nashira (abeam) helmed by Admiral Kelly 1

CRUISING DIVISION OFFICE BEARERS – 2014 - 2015

Cruising Captain Colin Pitstock 0407-669-322 Cruising Vice Captain Phil Darling 0411-882-760 Vice-Commodore Colin Pitstock 0407-669-322 Cruising Secretary Michael Mulholland-Licht 0418 476 216 Treasurer Trevor D’Alton 9960-2878 Membership Jean Parker 0403-007-675 Name Tags Lena D’Alton 9960-2878 Compass Rose Maralyn Miller and Committee Members 0411-156-009 Coordinator Safety Coordinator Bill Allen 9977- 0392 Waterways User Group Mike McEvoy 9968-1777 Sailing Committee Colin Pitstock 0407-669-322 Guest Speakers Royce Englehardt, & Committee Members as required

On Water Events Colin Pitstock/ Michael Mulholland- Michael 0418-476-216 Coordinator Licht/ Phil Darling Phil 0411-882-760 On Land Events Jean Parker / Hilary Gallagher Coordinators General Committee Royce Englehardt, Trevor D’Alton, Phil Darling, Maralyn Miller, assistance Hilary Gallagher / Paul Wotherspoon

Editor's note: Deadline for the next edition of the Compass Rose, is: 1st February 2015

The EDITOR for the next Compass Rose is Trevor D’Alton. Please forward contributions c/-: MHYC PO Box 106 SEAFORTH NSW 2092, Or Email: [email protected] Opinions expressed in the Compass Rose are those of the contributors, and do not necessarily reflect opinions of either Middle Harbour Yacht Club or the Cruising Division

MHYC Cruising Division Program 2014 – 15 December 12th Club Christmas Party Friday 12th 6:30pm (Replaces December meeting) January 19th End of Cruise BBQ. Informal Meeting. 2015 24th to 26th Australia Day LWE – cruise & raft-up Sydney Harbour. Includes Navigation exercise and Junior sailors. February 1st -8th New Year cruise. Paul Wotherspoon Co-ordinator.

16th Cruising Division General Meeting Speaker: Peter Nott, Marine Rescue UC 22nd & 23rd Watchman Trophy exercise & Spring Cove raft-up

March 16th Cruising Division General Meeting.

April 22nd & 23rd Echo Point Raft-up

2nd Twilight racing ends

2nd to 6th Easter Cruise – Pittwater/Broken Bay include night sail option 11th to 16th Sail Port Stephens week

20th Cruising Division General Meeting

May 16th & 17th Mystery Cruise (note – tides just Ok for Hardy’s Bay) 18th Cruising Division General Meeting

Next Meetings:

Friday December 12 Christmas party

Monday, January 19, 2015 Post Cruise B.Y.O. BBQ 6:30 pm

Captain’s Column – december 2014

Hello Sailors.

I'd like to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone, that comes along to a meeting, puts their hand up to be on the committee, volunteers to edit the Compass Rose, puts them in envelopes, provides a cheese platter for meetings, offers their boat to take Starlight Families for a sail, the person that compiles the sailing instructions or organises our speakers. Without all of you, the Cruising Division would not be what it is. So a very big THANKYOU to you all. We are all interested in one thing and that is to go cruising, educated and be safe at sea. Also a big welcome to our new members.

This year there has been quite a few changes. Noel and Jean, upgraded their boat, and what a boat she is. Ballymagirl, is up for sale, replaced by Sanctum. Michael and Astrid have a beautiful new Bliss, Greg and Deb have sold Volare and bought a trailer sailor. We look forward to many articles about voyages their new boats.

We have had quite a few boats explore the Whitsundays, this year. The Gibson's, the D’Alton's and the Attersall's. And do they have a story to tell! Thankfully they have all safely returned to Sydney. They do have some very special stories to tell you. But we are very lucky to have them back, uninjured and in one piece. Just a word of advice, always keep an eye on WEATHER. IF IT MEANS STAYING IN PORT FOR AN EXTAR DAY; STAY. So stay tuned, for many more interesting stories.

We also need articles from you all. We need your input, to keep us fresh. You don't want the same people writing all the time. We also need help with speakers, so if you have great ideas for speakers for 2015 please let us know. Don't forget our next meeting is not until BBQ in January, but we do have our Christmas party this Friday, Dec 12.

So cheers everyone stay safe and have fun.

Colin SY SHAZAM

FUTURE EVENTS:

New Year Cruise - February 1 to 8, 2015 Come sail with us again on a repeat of last year’s most successful cruising event. This year, all vessels will start together and attempt to sail in company,.at least at the start, but doubtless the faster ones amongst us will streak away. We shall see. Just make sure the smallest boat in the fleet does not overtake you.

The intention is to sail north to Broken Bay, weather permitting, relax and enjoy the delights of exploring the many sheltered bays for a whole week.

Two reasonably priced waterfront restaurants have been booked with a reserved berth for our transport boat.

Luncheon is always popular. We will have the Cowan Creek almost to ourselves, as school holidays will be over. So be sure to add your name and Vessel to the Event Board to be circulated at the December Christmas Party on Friday Dec 12th, or contact Paul Wotherspoon directly on 0417 495 794. Do not miss out, as numbers may have to be limited. ….Rapture

PAST EVENTS: OFFSHORE EVENT - COURSE 090 True Saturday November 8th dawned sunny and fine for once with the promise of a healthy wind to carry us offshore. As per usual it was evident that some yachts had a little trouble correctly applying the local magnetic variation of 12 degrees East to the True bearing to obtain the Magnetic course to steer.

Kelly at the wheel of Nashira

It was soon evident that there were three different magnetic courses being sailed, ranging from 78 degrees through 90 to 102. The old adage of “Variation East, then Compass Least” was seemingly temporarily forgotten. In other words, if we have two bearings, (true and magnetic) for the one course, the Magnetic or Compass bearing must be the least or lesser of the two. Hence if we start with a TRUE course of 90 degrees and wish to convert it to a Compass or Magnetic bearing, we need to SUBTRACT the local magnetic variation of 12 degrees. i.e., 90 deg. True minus 12 deg. variation = 78 degrees Compass. So the correct compass course that was supposed to be sailed on Saturday was 078 degrees.

Another way that I use (for local waters only) is to remember the Thames river in London. It is almost pronounced as TMS, which can be used as a check if we say, True to Magnetic, Subtract” In other words to go from a True Bearing to a Magnetic bearing: subtract the variation. i.e., 90 deg. True minus 12 deg. variation = 78 degrees Compass. Obviously to convert a hand held compass bearing to a True bearing for plotting on the chart, you would use MTA, Magnetic Bearing to a True bearing, Add the variation. (This can perhaps best be remembered as the opposite of TMS) Nonetheless six boats participated in the event with a brisk breeze carrying the fleet on its way towards the northernmost tip of New Zealand. After an hour and fifteen minutes the order was given for the fleet to reverse course and return to harbour in time to catch the 2:30 pm bridge opening. Four boats rafted up in Sugarloaf Bay for the night. Barbeques flared, songs were sung and poetry recited well into the evening. Many thanks go to Evan and Kelly of Nashira for the fine photos.

Rapture .. running Home

Know Your Knots (part 1)

Having been asked for an article on the Knots presented at the October meeting, here is a reminder of the first three knots. The “Figure of Eight “ knot is used to prevent a rope from escaping from a block or fairlead, or a halyard from disappearing into the base of the mast.

The “Clove Hitch” can be used to attach a fender to the Lifeline, or to tie the dinghy painter to a pipe railing on a wharf.

The “Bowline” is used to form a temporary loop in the end of a line (the “Fall”). Remember , In your left hand, form a Loop and “The end of the rope goes in from the side of the Standing Part” Next month, three further knots. Rapture

CD Quiz – December 2014 by Phil Darling

1. You are sailing along in fog and wish to alert other vessels of your location. What is the correct sound signal to make? 2. In the conditions of Q1 you decide to turn on the motor. Does the sound signal required change, and what to? 3. After the conditions of Q2 you think you hear something and decide to stop and evaluate it. What is the signal now? 4. Through the fog you seem to glimpse a white flashing light. Although the conditions are quite rollie, you count 8 white flashes. What is this light likely to signify? 5. You are listening in to an argument (possibly in the MHYC bar) about the relative advantages of twin masted rigs. What are the three most common 2- masted rigs, and how do they differ? 6. You call up a passing freighter to see if they have a recent weather forecast. They say that the wind expected is “easterly and backing”. What does this mean? 7. A lighthouse on the chart is shown as Fl(3)20s 180m 16M Racon (G) (3&10cm) What do all these mean? 8. The last question referred to a light’s “nominal range”, also known as “luminous range”. What is this? 9. In the Hawkesbury River at night you see a vessel showing normal nav lights, plus a green light over a white light at the masthead. What should you do, and why? 10.One of your crewmembers wakes you in a disturbed state: “Captain the rams horn at the goose neck is adrift”. Is he talking gibberish, or could there be a real problem?

January LWE On-Water Event (In Shore) Members – a quick “heads up” for our January on-water event.

The Cruising Division is assisting in providing a path for Junior Sailors (and their parents) to continue sailing. The idea is that we take them out for a fun day’s sailing on the harbour to show them what happens on bigger boats than their dinghies. After the day we plan to drop them off, then proceed up Middle Harbour for one of our traditional raft-ups.

The idea has been enthusiastically received by the junior sailors so far. Please let Phil Darling know of your interest. 9

The Whitsunday Islands (75 of them) take some exploring! After joining in with the first night of the Airlie Beach Festival on 1st Aug, the weather dictated that we retreat to Woodwark Bay, 6nm north, to hide from strong winds, which lasted for a week! So we entertained ourselves with walks on the beach, drinks and nibbles on the beach with other gathered yachties, several from Lake Macquarie and Port Stephens and two from MHYC, baking bread, phone calls, emails and general maintenance and housework. Can’t escape this even on a boat, where it is actually more crucial than at home, otherwise our very small living space gets even smaller! Exploring the beach at the entrance to the bay gave us the opportunity to climb a small hill to the southward facing cliffs to watch even big yachts struggle to get back to Airlie. They’d probably run out of beer. The view south from there was good and the flotsam and jetsom interesting – including a large white punching bag. How did that get here? A week after this the wind abated – for the day, so we had a very pleasant sail back to Airlie and treated ourselves to a marina berth for the best part of a week, whilst we enjoyed swimming in the lagoon, shopping for our pirate fancy dress for the forthcoming Shag Islet Cruising “Yacht Club” Rendezvous (a fund raising charity for Prostate cancer) and enjoying a bus ride through the sugar cane fields to the sugar mill town of Proserpine. In the marina, we got the chance to have a good look over and talk to the builder of the world’s only genuine reproduction Portuguese caravel. (The builder claims the two in the Caribbean are replicas designed for passenger carrying).

Being in the marina also gave us the chance to celebrate our 46th anniversary in style, which was at a restaurant overlooking the beach where we enjoyed a monster sized seafood platter! The next day we sailed in beautiful weather over to Blue Pearl Bay on Hayman Is. Starting in the south of the bay, where we saw a gigantic and colourful clam and schools of colourful reef fish feeding on-masse on the cyclone damaged stag horn coral, we snorkelled to the northern end, which definitely had the better coral and fish. A reasonable night moored there and then off the next morning to Bait Reef, 18 nm north. This reef has a series of large isolated “bommies” (cylindrical hills of coral 10-20 m diameter and around 15 m high) along its western side, which have earned the name of “Stepping Stones”, because that is what they seem from the air. Swimming around these kept us entertained for over an hour, before we retreated to the boat for lunch and the hard decision as to whether to trust the weather and go out further to a large coral 10 lagoon we haven’t been to yet (Hardy reef) or head for “home” back on the large Hook Is. Reluctantly, being more cautious than we have been in the past, we opted to retreat to Hook, where we had a very calm night. We went further east the next day to Border Is., where we had another good snorkel and a “walk” ashore up the saddle between two hills for a view to the south. It is a very picturesque place!

A rolly night again, but another good snorkel before sailing via Hook Passage to Cid Harbour, a large fairly well protected natural harbour on the south western side of Hook Is. Here we sat on the small beach and toasted the setting sun. The next day was really windy from the SE (where else!). so we went to Hamilton Is., to watch Jackie Morgan on “Hurrica” (a restored veteran yacht) start their race in the Cruising Div. It was quite exciting watching them all. Then we moored off the resort to await the finish, before returning to Cid Harbour. The next day we returned to the beach to begin the assent of Whitsunday Peak, 434 m, which we just made! All via man thousands of made steps, leading to a fantastic 360 deg. view from the top, where we saw the end of the final race.

Fellow members from MHYC joined us on board for coffee the next day, before we returned to Airlie to stock up for the weekends festivities in the Gloucester Passage, 15 nm north, for the Shag Islet Cruising Yacht Club 2014 Rendezvous. This is a charity supporting the Prostate Foundation of Australia and over the weekend $75K was raised to help research. Besides the eating, dancing and drinking there were gold coin donations for Tai Chi on the beach each morning, haircuts by a bikini clad young lady and a substantial trivia quiz based on host location, raffles and auctions, etc. A great time was had by all especially at the Pirate and Parrot Head dress parties!

We sailed over to Nara Inlet on Hook Island for a quiet night before going onto Hill Inlet. This is one of the iconic Whitsunday locations and it is just spectacular, even when you’ve seen it before. We anchored the boat in the afternoon off the inlet and took the dinghy into a beach for lunch and a swim. It’s rather like the River Dee in the UK, our old sailing ground, in as much as at low tide it consists of a series of sand banks with channels weaving in and out of them. The only difference is that here the sand it white, the water crystal clear and turquoise and the sky blue and sunny! It took some effort to drag us away, so we arrived in our anchorage well after dark! Thanks goodness for our iPad and Navionics to help show us the way.

We next teamed up with a delightful couple on a catamaran from Sydney, who had been out to Hardy Reef a couple of times before, so they had the way-points for the 11 easiest of the three entrances to the lagoon, called of all things, The Waterfall! So named because as the tide ebbs that’s what this gap in the coral is – a waterfall of water flowing out of the lagoon. Day one was a very pleasant sail with a following breeze, which took us to a protected anchorage behind the adjacent Line Reef. From here at low tide we got to watch The Waterfall from some 100 metres away across a very deep channel and this gave us an idea of the entrance’s position, which is far from obvious at the best time to enter. This is when the lagoon water and ocean water are at the same height. This only exists for a very short period and produces a glass like appearance to the entrance channel.

You can see the bottom and sides of the entrance channel clearly, so it’s hard to realise just how deep it is. It appeared to be about 5 metres deep and just two hours after low water outside. Following our friends in was easy and took all the drama out of it, but we got an inkling of what can go wrong on the way out. Being a cat, they wanted to leave as late as possible to exit, so they had width of deep water in the channel to account for their beam.

This they did, but as we followed, the tide had started to flow in to the lagoon and suddenly there were the beginnings of a waterfall in to the lagoon with attendant waves and a good bit of current. Our little motor struggled to get us out! We then proceeded down the long channel between Hardy and Hook reefs. I had Gill up in the bow watching out for shallow water and stray bommies but she needn’t have bothered. At one stage the depth got down to 64 metres and it wasn’t until we got out of the channel and started the crossing back to the mainland islands that the water returned to its usual 35 metres! Once the tide was over the reef, it gave us the ability to go to the upstream side of the lagoon in the dinghy and motor out into the deep water to see the outer wall of the lagoon and all its colourful coral and fish.

So you can see why we found it so hard to drag ourselves away. However, we may be able to reward ourselves further with a visit to our favourite island Lady Musgrave. The weather looks fair, so early tomorrow off we go again. Early November should see us sail once more into Sydney Harbour.

Glynne & Gill Attersall, ‘Simply Irresistible’. 12

Lucky Strike!

On Wednesday night, 5th November 2014, Simply Irresistible received a direct lightning hit. Initially we thought we had a fire on board, but then we found that that was the least of our problems. We were also sinking! Fortunately, we managed to resolve these issues and made it into a harbour under our own steam. The following description is given in the hope that sharing the experience may help someone else in some small way if ever they are confronted with a similar dilemma. This is not a tutorial. In no way do we think that we did all the right things and yes there are several things we will do differently if it ever happened again. However, we did survive, so I guess we did some things right and we had a lot of luck. The lucky part was being alive to tell the tale!

Simply Irresistible is a much travelled 26 year old 10 metre Jarkan 10, and we were returning from several months up north. Gill left the boat at the Gold Coast, so Ross Bruwel, our neighbour and fellow crew member with Dick Williamson on the way north (Compass Rose June 2014), joined the boat again to sail to Sydney with me. During Ross’ revision of on-board safety routines, I made sure he was aware of which lines to cut to effect an emergency launching of the RIB.

We had left the Gold Coast the previous evening and had enjoyed a pleasant sail under headsail only in a fresh northerly. Late afternoon the following day found us north west of North Solitary Island and to the south we could see a large black cloud. The Internet being what it is now-a-days, I looked up MetEye to discover large thunderstorms over Coffs Harbour, our next port-of-call. We reduced sail to slow down a bit and let the lightning pass by the time we got there. Later, we dispensed with the sail altogether as the wind reduced and we motored into the sloppy sea. At 2010, we were just south of South Solitary Island in thick grey cloud and heavy rain and still with some dramatic lightening about. I put my head near to the boarded up companionway and said to Ross, who was down below leaning against the steps, “Don’t touch the chain plates”. BANG! In the shock of the explosion, which seemed to come from down below, I lost sight of Ross behind a ball of white light, even though he was less than one metre away. “I think we have been hit” he said, which I couldn’t help but agree with, understatement not withstanding!

The cabin immediately filled with acrid black smoke. Don’t ask me how I know it was black smoke, because every light and indicator LED on the boat had gone out and we’d lost the three quarters moon ages ago. Only South Solitary Island light kept blinking through the rain. We were dead in the water and the wind completely

13 deserted us as well. Ross climbed out of the cabin coughing and choking and thinking of fire I turned the gas off at the bottle in the cockpit. I wanted to turn the fuel off as well, but Ross advised against it until we had confirmed there was a fire. This was a good suggestion, because once stopped, we may not be able to start the engine again if the alternator/starter motor had been damaged and with no wind we would have spent a miserable night out there. Subsequently I have been told that many people turn their motors on in a thunderstorm for this very reason.

Holding my breath as much as possible, I went below to see if there was a fire or if all this smoke was just an aftermath of the explosion. I couldn’t see flames, but the smoke seemed to keep coming. Returning to the cockpit coughing, it took some time to recover, before I could go below again. This time I stepped down into ankle deep water. I wasn’t carrying a torch, because I needed one hand for the boat and one hand to feel around with. My head-torch only reflected back off the smoke. There was less smoke down low as I felt under all the floor boards and into the lockers, trying to find where the water was coming in, but to no avail. I had heard that in some cases the lightning goes out through the bottom of the boat and if this was the case here, we wouldn’t have long to wait to find out. Whilst we still had time to prepare, we therefore decided to get ready to abandon ship. This was a very easy decision to make at the time, because it was just logical and obvious; there was nowhere else to go.

Ross went to launch the RIB from the davits aft whilst I went below to get the grab bag (behind the companionway ladder), EPIRB, wallet, iPad (our chart plotter in a waterproof case) and phone. As I prepared to leave, I looked back and emotion did swell up in me. She is such a lovely little boat, so comfy and has given us many happy memories of racing around Sydney and holidays with our two boys. She may only be 10 metres long, but some yachties, sitting in her roomy cabin, have called her the Tardis and now she was on her way to the bottom. It wasn’t fair I thought feeling a touch of anger. And then I noticed the small floor board near the forward bulkhead was bouncing up and down trapped by a floating floorboard above it. Investigating I found the speedo impeller missing and the 1 ½ inch diameter hole of the through hull fitting gushing a fountain of water. I stuck my left hand over it to stem the flow and then, thanks to AYF safety regulations and annual audits of compliance, I put my right hand on the round wooden plug that has been sitting there for 26 years! Into the hole it went and with much relief we turned our attention to bailing the water out.

Firstly to the manual bilge pump in the cockpit, but for some reason we couldn’t get it to prime itself. Never mind, let’s see how the electric bilge pump with its float switch is going. Strange, that didn’t seem to be going either, so I assumed this was something to do with the loss of all power circuits and moved on to Plan C, the 14 buckets. Sometime later with the water mostly gone, we relaxed a bit more and then suddenly realised that we had better disconnect the batteries in case what power they had left in them caused another fire in the debris of the switchboard. Just then my phone rang. It was the VMR operator. Why hadn’t we radioed in at our 2200 sched. I thanked him for checking on us and told him that we’d had a few issues on board, but were about to get underway again and would ring him when we got in. We saw no reason to explain more fully as we were now not in any immediate danger.

Now to set a course for Coffs Harbour, which we still couldn’t see, although we were only 6nm away. Unfortunately, our brilliant iPad with Navionics Charts and remote Bad Elf GPS appeared to be dead. I then went to the paper chart, which I had been updating during the day. I couldn’t just transfer our last position, because I didn’t have the distance run from the speedo/log, which was now not operating. All I initially thought I could do was to enter an estimated position given the bearing of the South Solitary Island light and then plot a course line from that. This I did and we started off on that bearing. I was a little worried though, because if my EP was not accurate enough, along the way we could have been too close to some inshore obstacles. So I got out my old Garmin 72 hand-held GPS, entered the coordinates of Coffs Harbour and pressed the Go To button. It came up with the same course, which meant we were clear of the obstacles I was worried about. Eventually the east cardinal light on Korf Island came into view, but it was hard to work out how far away it was. By phone (no VHF now) VMR advised us to keep aiming for it until the beautiful big blue lights of the leads came into view from behind Mutton Bird Island, which we couldn’t see in the rain as it is totally unlit. Reaching the calm of the marina was a relief and a delight.

The manual bilge pump is still under investigation, but it looks like a tired choker type discharge valve had finally hardened up in an open position sometime during our trip thus preventing it from priming. Fortunately, the iPad only needed a reboot to fully recover. It is possible that it had just lost the Bluetooth connection to the GPS during the incident, but at the time I decided to move onto other options rather than spending time to investigate. Alongside the marina, the electric bilge pump worked fine when switched to manual rather than float switch and a few days after that even the float switch started working again! During the trip I had routinely checked that the pump started by turning the axle of the float which protrudes from the side of the float switch, so what happened I don’t know. Maybe it was working during the incident, because I didn’t go to the stern to check the tell-tale stream from the discharge pipe mounted half way up the transom. Put there for this very purpose! Anyway, there was plenty of water to share around all the pumps!

I won’t list all the damage, but it is extensive and involves anything electrical/electronic, which is not working, blown to pieces or covered in soot. This includes the (new) EPIRB, which has now failed the “monthly” test provided with it. The biggest shock the following morning was seeing the blackened and charred deck head liner, obviously the source of most of the smoke. I am still with the boat in Coffs, waiting for an assessor to work out how to put it all together again. Personal damage was also done to Ross’ hearing level, which will hopefully return with time. A check by a Doctor the following day confirmed no other damage to us other than shock, which was admirably looked after by the kindness and support of Gill and Elizabeth plus fellow boaties from Phlat Chat, Sub Zero, Reeflection, Take Two (Port Stephens), Bella (ditto), Volare and Strega (both MHYC). Phone calls by these kind people to reassure Gill in Sydney were much appreciated and copious quantities of home (boat) baked chocolate brownies and banana cake soothed the jangled nerves. The concern and care lavished on us by so many people did the rest. Thank you to all of you and to Ross for being such a stalwart in a crisis.

Glynne Attersall Simply Irresistible

USE CRUISING DIVISION PARTICIPATION POINTSCORE CALCULATION SHEET YELLOW JAN - DEC 2014 CELLS ONLY DATE = Feb 2-9 Feb 28-1 Mar 22-23 Apr 18-21 May 17-18 Jun 7-10 Sep13-14 X Nov 8-9 CompassAttendance Technical EVENT = 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th Rose at Corner TOTAL 045 deg Echo Pt Check 090 & Feature Monthly Projects ENTER CREW FOR Feb & Easter Mystery Elvina Safety Safety Port Raftup Articles Meeting complt'd EACH Cruise Pittwate Cruise On Land Bay Hacking CUMUL' Practice LWE Sugar'f Points Points Points r Raftup & Slocum SEASON YACHT No. Nights 7 0 1 4 0 2 1 0 3 2 1 3 POINTS

Altair Crew 0 10 0 10 Kieth Watson Nights

Sanctum Crew 3 2 4 8 10 0 56 Noel & Jean Nights 5 1 3

Bliss Crew 2 2 7 0 12 Michael & Astrid Nights 1

Breeze Crew 2 1 1 6 5 0 26 Bill & Helen Nights 3 2 1 eXpresso Crew 1 20 9 0 31 Phil & Maralyn Nights 1

Flemingo Crew 1 2 1 2 2 8 0 28 John Eastway Nights 2 1 1 3

Galan Crew 0 4 0 4 Mike & Hilary Nights

Jabiru Crew 2 1 10 7 0 31 Mike & Suzanne Nights 4 1

Jenzminc Crew 3 0 2 0 10 Andy & Jen Nights 2

Kachina Crew 2 4 0 6 Trevor/Leena Nights

Mateship Crew 2 3 0 5 Wolf & Tricia Nights

Nashira Crew 2 0 2 0 11 Evan & Kelly Clark Nights 3

Rapture Crew Avge 1.143 1 1 1 16 10 0 53 Paul & Anne Crew 7 2 1 3 Nights Simply Irrestible Crew 2 12 4 0 34 Glynne & Gill Nights 6

Volare Crew 2 1 0 3 Greg & Debbie Nights

Leeway Crew 0 0 0 0 Lee Laurie Nights

Bloodhound Crew 1 1 2 8 0 14 Alex Comino Nights 1 1

Sundowner Crew 0 1 0 1 Bruce & Lily Clarke Nights ===== Points No. of Boats = 7 0 6 1 0 7 3 0 4 0 56 The Leading Boat is….

Boat = 1 Point per Night Sanctum Crew = 1 Point per Night per Person. Skippers are deemed to sleep on their own boat. Crew are averaged, if not present for all nights of the event. 2nd Rapture 53

Compass Rose Articles = 2 points per feature 3rd Simply Irrestible 34 Representation at Meetings = 1 point per month Technical Projects implemented = 3 points each First 3 Bottles of Wine Second 2 Bottles of Wine Third 1 Bottles of Wine Skippers are required to email with results to receive points

PARTICIPATION POINTSCORE 2014 AND THE WINNERS ARE ….

With the end of the calendar year looming large, it is time to announce the winners of this year’s point score.

First on 56 point is Sanctum. Second on 53 points is Rapture. Third on 34 points is Simply Irresistible.

In the ten months this competition ran, 42 feature articles written for the Compass Rose earned points. A total of 28 boats attended 5 raft ups with a total of 112 boats were represented at the nine monthly meetings.

Prizes will be presented at the December Christmas Party on Friday 12th. (not Dec 16th)

First prize 3 bottles of Hand selected Wine Second prize 2 bottles of Hand selected Wine Third prize 1 bottles of Hand selected Wine

Unfortunately if you choose to not attend on the night, no guarantee can be given that your prize will not be consumed by others.

To make an early start at amassing points for next year’s competition the first event is the February cruise, so see Paul Wotherspoon on the night to establish preferred dates, times and destination. - … Rapture

PHOTO CORNER …………….. Wolfgang Kullik

Wolfgang and Trish are busy renovating a home closer to Mateship. Wolfie apologises that he is unable to submit his usual column this month, as he does not have Internet access, while they live aboard the Boat during renovation.

So we’ll make do with a pic from this month’s editor:

Heading to sea at Sunrise. M Mulholland-Licht, Bliss

Keep the photos coming in to photo corner!

Chef’s Corner …with Colin Pitstock

We'll it's that time of the year again, when that big man in the red suit comes down the chimney & leaves things under the Christmas trees for all you boys & girls that have been good. So I thought I'd give you a couple of Christmas things to do. But a yummy drink for this time of the year is Aperol & Prosecco, with a slice of orange in it. So before you head to the ship stores grab a glass of bubbles.

East coast low frozen Christmas pudding. • ½ cup (110g) caster (superfine) sugar • 1 cup (250ml) water • ½ cup (85g) currants • ¾ cup (100g) sweetened dried cranberries • 2 liters vanilla ice-cream • 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste • 1 teaspoon cinnamon • 85g unsalted shelled pistachios, chopped • ¼ cup (60ml) brandy • Blackberries and raspberries, to serve • Icing (confectioner’s) sugar, for dusting

• Place the sugar and water in a small saucepan over low heat and stir until sugar is dissolved. • Bring to the boil for 1 minute. P • lace the currants and cranberries in a bowl and pour over the sugar mixture. • Set aside for 10 minutes or until the fruit is plump. • Drain and allow to cool completely. • Place the ice cream, vanilla and cinnamon in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 1 minute or until softened. • Stir through the currant mixture, pistachios and brandy and spoon into a 1.75 liter-capacity pudding basin lined with muslin. • Top with a round of non-stick baking paper and freeze for 4 hours or overnight until set. • Top with berries and dust with icing sugar.

Serves 8-10.

Top that glass of bubbles up again.

Isobar brandy custard.

• 6 egg yolks • ¼ cup (55g) caster (superfine) sugar • 2 tablespoons cornflour (cornstarch) • ⅔ cup (80ml) milk • 3 cups (750ml) pouring (single) cream • ¼ cup (60ml) brandy • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method.

Ø Place egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and mix to combine. Ø Place cornflour in a bowl, add milk and mix to a smooth paste. Ø Place cream in a saucepan over medium–low heat. Ø Whisk in egg and cornflour mixtures, brandy and vanilla. Ø Stir for 4 minutes or until custard is thickened. Ø Serve warm with Christmas pudding. Ø Serves 8.

CD Quiz – December 2014 – Answers

1. One long blast followed by two short blasts, at intervals of not more than 2 minutes. This happened to the author recently off Sydney heads and a manual foghorn was blown by one of the crew to good effect! 2. Yes – you now need to make just a single long blast at the same intervals. 3. A power vessel “underway but not making way” (that’s us now) makes two long blasts at the same intervals. 4. Tough one this – there is no navigation light with 8 flashes! Most likely a West Cardinal Mark, which has 9 white flashes – but one was probably obscured by a wave. 5. The three most common 2-masted rigs are the schooner, which has a smaller foremast in front of the main mast; and the ketch and yawl, both of which have a smaller mizzen mast aft of the main mast. In the case of a ketch the mizzen is stepped forward of the rudder post, while for the yawl the mizzen is stepped aft of the rudder post. I will leave you to argue the relative merits of these! 6. The wind is initially expected to come from the east, but will later swing more towards the northeast – this could easily desc ribe the typical Sydney sea breeze! 7. The lighthouse shows 3 flashes every 20 seconds ( Fl(3)20s), it is situated 180 metres above high water (180m – this is either MHWS or MHHW – check the chart); it’s nominal range is 16 miles (16M) and it transmits a radar signal showing letter G on the 3cm & 10cm bands (Racon (G) (3&10cm)) 8. Nominal range, or luminous range, is the distance at which a light of a particular intensity can be seen in “clear” conditions, taking no account of the earth’s curvature. It will be reduced by the earth’s curvature (geographic range), which depends on the height of the light, and also by any atmospheric conditions at the time. 9. This is a fishing vessel with nets out. Keep clear of it and especially of the stern area! 10.The Rams Horns (sometimes called Cow Horns, or just the Reefing Horns) are situated at the end of the boom, just next to the connection to the mast (called the Goose Neck). They are used in Slab Reefing to secure the Reefing Cringle, which becomes the new Tack of the sail after reefing. I would definitely get up and have a look.

Treasurer’s Report By Trevor D’Alton;

Middle Harbour Yacht Club - Cruising Division Treasurer's Report As at 31st Oct 2014

Cash at Bank as at 31.8.14 $2,102.01

Plus Receipts

Interest $1.83

Less Payments

Cash at Bank as at 31.10.14 $2,103.84

Where are they now ?

Skipr.net, supplemented by individual reports, has the following:

Kachina – Trevor and Lena D’Alton – Waiting in Coffs Harbour for a weather window for a safe return to Sydney. Somewhat frustrated by the low pressure system that has brought has delivered a week of storms

Simply Irresistible – Glynne and Gill Attersall – Back on the mooring in Pearl Bay for repairs after their lightning strike North of Coffs recently.

Volare – Greg and Debby Cockle – Volare is sold and they are the proud owners of a trailer-sailor!

Dignity – Peter Gibson – somewhere north (unsure of their exact location)

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The Cruising Division of MHYC meets on the 3rd Monday of each month, and uses as its sailing pennant a flag with a white compass rose on a red background.

MHYC Cruising Division members invite a raft-up or cruise in company whenever they fly our pennant, which we refer to as ‘the compass rose’.

The Cruising Division newsletter is titled ‘The Compass Rose Cruising Log’ and is published monthly. The newsletter is also available through the MHYC web-site at www.mhyc.com.au