- VOLUME No. 34, No. 4 May 2014 Editor: ColinNovember2013 Pitstock 2011 1-04 200911-04 Next Meeting: Monday May 19th, 7:30 p.m. 2009 B.Y.O. BBQ 6:30 p.m Guest Speaker: Julie Evans 2009 Senior Forecaster – Bureau of Meteorology Presentation: Julie will provide an explanation of current and planned enhancements to the Bureau’s forecasting services, and how these can be better used by cruising sailors 1 CRUISING DIVISION OFFICE BEARERS – 2013 - 2014 Cruising Captain Colin Pitstock 0407-669-322 Cruising Vice Captain Phil Darling 0411-882-760 Vice-Commodore Colin Pitstock 0407-669-322 Cruising Secretary Open Treasurer Trevor D’Alton 9960-2878 Membership Jean Parker / Michael Mulholland-Licht 0403-007-675 Name Tags Lena D’Alton 9960-2878 Compass Rose Maralyn Miller 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 / Jenni Brennan / Paul Wotherspoon Editor's note: Deadline for the next edition of the Compass Rose, is: 6th June 2014 The EDITOR for the next Compass Rose is Phil Darling. 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 2 MHYC Cruising Division Program 2013 – 14 May 17 - 18th Visit to Woolwich Pub via water or land 19th CD Meeting – 7:30pm at the club (BBQ 6:30pm) June 7 - 10th LWE Get Checked Weekend and Raft-up. 16th CD AGM – 7:30pm at the club (BBQ 6:30pm) July 13th Long Lunch at the Club 21st CD Meeting – 7:30pm at the club (BBQ 6:30pm) August 8th - 9th Mystery Cruise 18th CD Meeting – 7:30pm at the club (BBQ 6:30pm) September Sat 6th MHYC Opening Day. 13th & 14th On water event - Blackwattle Bay raft-up and Fish Market Cooking School?? 15th Cruising Division General Meeting October 4th to 6th Port Hacking Mini Cruise (tides OK) including Slocum LWE Trophy single handed 9th Twilight racing starts 20th Cruising Division General Meeting November 9th 090 plus sugarloaf raftup 17th Cruising Division General Meeting December 12th Club Christmas Party Friday 12th (replaces December meeting) 3 CAPTAIN’S COLUMN – May 2014 I'm sitting here, thinking should I put another log on the fire. Winter certainly arrived on the weekend, it was freezing. It is the coldest blast I can remember so early for a long time. In contrast the Easter break and the next 10 days were fantastic, more like summer, not nearly winter. We spent a couple lazy days on Shazam, spending some time in Smiths Creek, my favourite place and it was just perfect. After a quick trip to the airport on Monday morning to drop a friend back after the couple of days aboard, we headed up to Hardys Bay in Brisbane Waters, it was a great place, easy to get into with our draft of 2m. We entered with the last couple of hours of the tide running up to high and came out at the top of the tide which is about 1/2 hour behind. The bay has easy land access plus a RSL & general store. I recommend a visit to Hardys Bay. I was even swimming. Remember some of the best cruising is in winter. To all those of you heading north have a great trip and we look forward to updates along your journey. Smooth seas. Colin Pitstock Cruising Captain and Vice-Commodore, Cruising. 4 FUTURE EVENTS: Advance Notice – Sugarloaf Raft-up and Safety Audits June Long Weekend Sat 7th – Mon 9th June Our annual safety raft-up is being held this year on the June Long Weekend in Sugarloaf Bay. As usual this will be a combined social raft-up and serious safety check. If you are coming offshore with us in the next year you will need a Cat 4 Special Regulations Audit - unless you plan only to take part in Harbour events, in which case the simpler Cat 7 is all you need. Alternatively, if you are not completely ready, you can have a “pre-check” with one of the division auditors, then book in with the club at the “Get Set Weekend” one week later. You will need to: a) Have a look at your Blue Book or at last year’s form b) Collect the appropriate Category form from the club or web site c) Service (or replace) any time-expired items. Special attention needs to be paid to: flares; EPIRB registrations (and batteries); PFDs (Cat 4 inflatables will probably need servicing); first aid kit contents; and fire extinguishers d) Check-off the items on the form prior to the audit (there is a column for this), then lay them out to speed up the audit Fire extinguishers can be serviced at the Club the following weekend. The good news is that no major updates have been made to the Blue Book requirements since last year. If you need any advice – please feel free to contact the Division auditors – Trevor D’Alton, Phil Darling, Glynne Attersall, Paul Wotherspoon or Mike McEvoy. Phil Darling, ‘eXpresso’ (mob) 0411-882-760 5 SPECIAL EPIRIB OFFER … Safety Inspections are looming again and this year, but do you realize your 406 EPIRB is now down to its last year of acceptability. From 1st July 2015 the YA Blue Book requires all EPIRBs to incorporate a GPS receiver as this additional feature reduces the search area considerably and greatly increases your chance of survival if ever the unthinkable happens. Instead of a search area typically of around 5 Kms radius, your location will be transmitted to an accuracy of 100 metres which in the case of fog or at night, gives you a much better chance of a quick rescue. For those of you that have a GME 406 EPIRIB the Supplier has agreed to upgrade to the 406G model with GPS for $219 compared to the new price of $349. So to those of you who are looking at a battery replacement cost in the near future, you might consider putting this towards the upgrade. If enough members are interested we might consider a run to the Factory at Ryde NSW returning new for old. If you package up the your existing GME 406 EPIRIB together with your … 1. Name 2. Phone number 3. Boat name, 4. along with the $219, The writer has volunteered to collect all EPIRBs at the May C/Division meeting and return the new units at the June meeting. I will make only one run, so don’t forget to button hole me at the next meeting. This offer applies to the orange GME EPIRBs only. Paul Wotherspoon, ‘Rapture’ 6 Mystery Cruise Norah Head Lighthouse Fri August 7th - Sun 10th This year’s Mystery Cruise is to Norah Head Lighthouse, on the Central Coast. Accommodation for the weekend (Friday and Saturday night) is in the original Lighthouse Keepers’ 2 restored cottages. The above dates are available for a short time, an alternative date is 29th-31st August. Other accommodation is available nearby. The cottages are very much in demand, and bookings will need to be made very soon. Those interested in coming along, contact Maralyn after the April meeting, or email on [email protected]. A 50% deposit of $720 in total is required to book the two for us. The cottages are self-contained and are heritage listed to retain the original atmosphere. There are three bedrooms and sweeping verandahs; two queen-sized beds, two single beds; two roll-away beds, sleeping a maximum of 8 people. Cost is $780 and $680 for the 2 cottages, or approx. $125 pp if sharing the cottages - more if keeping to a maximum of 6 people. All rooms are comfortably furnished and there is a full kitchen, laundry facilities; an indoor bath and shower and toilet. The lounge rooms have gas log fires, TV/DVD and video player. Guests can supply their own linen or linen hire is available at a cost of $15.00 per head and includes sheets, towels, face washer, bath mat and tea towel. Tours of the Lighthouse are available daily, at a cost of $6 per person. See more at: http://www.norahheadlighthouse.com.au 7 CD Quiz – May 2014 by Phil Darling Firstly – an apology for a typo in last month’s quiz. In question 2 – where I said, referring to a two-flag signal often flown on barges “the lower one is alternate red and white diagonal stripes” – as pointed out by several respondents I really meant “the lower one is alternate red and YELLOW diagonal stripes” which is code flag Y(yankee). Many apologies. So – on with the quiz for this month. 1. You see a large commercial vessel flying two flags (from adjacent halyards) – one a red swallowtail, and the other showing white and red vertical halves. What do these mean? 2. The whale watching season is about to begin. How close can you approach by ship to a whale? 3. Coming into a port, you see a new marker. It is coloured red over green over red, and had a red can-shaped top mark.