Kai Rani and Sanctum recently visited Middle Percy Island. 

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Hello fellow Cruisers,

Our Cruising AGM was held on the 21st of August and the turn up was good.

 I would like to thank you all for letting me be your Captain for this next year as I look forward to this upcoming season.

I would also like to welcome back the returning committee members, Evan, Kelly, Niclas, Phil, Dallas, Jeremy and Martyn. A special Welcome to our newest member of the committee – Gerald. As the new committee gathers in the next month and plans for the new season, we will share this in the upcoming editions as well as on our events page.

MHYC is preparing for the opening of the season on the 21st of September. As this if for the whole club I would love to see many of you come along for the day, whether it is to sail or join the on land events.

 Reminder that from September we are holding our monthly meeting on the third WEDNESDAY of the month as the club is closed on Monday and Tuesdays at the moment and we in the committee feel that we would like to be more visible to other members of our club. The meetings will now follow the Wednesday sailing when the club is buzzing post race. (They will be finished at 6 pm but for those who would like to hang around this is a good opportunity for them to see what we are up to).

A reminder that we are looking for contributions of articles to the Compass Rose, if you have anything you would like to share, and I am sure a lot of you have lots to share, please email this to cruising@mhyc.com.au and we will include them in the next upcoming Compass Rose.

And if you have nice photos to share, please send these to us too and they can be part of the Photo of the Month.

Stay safe on and off the Water.

Sanna

Cruising Captain, SV RaRa

Sunrise at Brampton Island by Greg Russell (SV Argenta)

Send your photos to Mike McEvoy to enter into the 2024 Cruising Division Competition. Each Month the best photo received will be published and, in the running, to win a new Mystery Prize at the end of 2024.

Send your best photos (as a JPG / JPEG) - Remember … to be in the running to win the prize you must be in it. Hint …. Give your favourite photo a Title and Place taken. Submit your photos to mmcevoy@bigpond.net.au

Good Shooting …!! Mike.

1. The following lights were photographed from the club going from right to left.  What do they say and what should you do? (thank you Dallas for the picture)
   
2. The skipper was out for the day on another boat and thought it would be a good idea to catch lunch – but the owner said “sorry – you can’t fish unless …” What was the owner looking for?
3. From what level are charted drying heights measured?
4. If the air filters on a diesel engine are dirty, what colour smoke will be produced?
5. A yacht navigator wants to be seen, so switches on the masthead tricolour, steaming light and the deck level running lights (red/green/white).  From the starboard bow the yacht is now showing the lights of what type of vessel?
6. You hear that a solar eclipse is going to occur.  What sorts of tides would you expect on the day – springs or neaps?
7. What is a Cunningham Eye and what is it used for?
8. You are in Sydney Harbour, sailing along happily on starboard tack, when you see a racing fleet approaching a yellow bouy ahead.  What should you do?
9. Should the lazy spinnaker sheet pass over or under the spinnaker pole?
10. On some yachts it is a requirement to pump the bilge even though no water is present.Why?

Peace of mind - when away from your boat

As all cruisers would know, when you're away from the boat there are things you sometimes worry about, such as 

• How's the state of my batteries? Are the solar panels able to keep up with the draw from fridge etc?
• Is my boat still on it's anchorage/mooring, not drifted away (or stolen)
• Is the bilge pump running?
• What are my tank levels, do I need to fill up water / fuel, or empty the waste tank, before my next outing?

I'm sure there are quite a few technical solutions to this, and one that I've installed on RaRa and recently also helped Dallas set up on Salty Lady is a small computer made by Victron, called the Cerbo GX.

The CerboGX easily connects to your other 'blue boxes' such as solar panel controllers, battery shunt, inverter/chargers etc. And by adding a cheap USB GPS adapter it knows it's exact location.

It can also connect to various inputs, such as tank sensors, temperature sensors and bilge pumps, and it also offers outputs (relays) so that you can remotely switch on and off devices, e.g. a fridge or lights so that the boat is ready for you when you come to it.

For this to work it needs an always on internet connection, and RaRa / Salty Lady already had a wifi modem installed so no additional equipment was needed for that.

Once it's installed, you will be able to monitor your boat remotely from a web interface, which is secure and only can be accessed with a userID/Password. You can also set up alarms to be triggered when the boat is outside it's "Geo fence" boundary, or when battery levels gets too low or the bilge pump is running etc etc.

Victron doesn't charge any fee for the remote web portal.

So, what's the cost? It depends on what equipment you already have on the boat and what features you want to enable. The system can start small and you add to it as you go. A basic system, assuming your boat is connected to the internet already, with a Cerbo GX, some additional cables to connect to existing (Victron) equipment, a GPS receiver would cost just under $400 + installation cost (if you don't do it yourself). Additional sensors (tank levels, temperature etc) would come with some extra costs.

Note that there are no subscription costs or similar, which may be charged by competitors solutions.

If you're interested in finding out more, then feel free to get in touch with me. 

Niclas on SV RaRa (0476 152 800)

Going home

This painting reminded me of rowing out to your yacht to weigh anchor. And depart for another destination, in the tradition of cruising up and down the coast.

The painting is in acrylic on canvass, a medium I enjoy using as acrylic  paint dries quicker than oils but slower than water colour. This gives me time to compose the painting and fix mistakes.

Its always a challenge to paint different water conditions and I hope that this painting creates the tranquility of a good anchorage ,and the coming breeze to take the sailor away.

- Alex Comino

Mooring Med style

Sailing on Seabreeze with several members of MHYC. We joined the second of the 3 week cruise, starting in Dubrovnik.
Normal Mediterranean berthing procedure is stern to. Reverse the boat to the dock, throw the upwind stern line line to the waiting assistant, who passes it through a ring or round  bollard. He throws the line back which is then loosely attached to the stern cleat. The same applies to the second stern line.  Meanwhile, a lazy line, which is attached to the dock, is walked forward. This is attached to a bow line which in itself is attached to an underwater block. Lifting the lazy line raises the bowline so it can be attached to a bow cleat. The boat is driven forward a couple of metres with the stern lines being adjusted at the same time. This bow line  is tied off and the boat is reversed to provide the necessary bow tension, with the two stern lines being retensioned, preferably reattaching to a winch to take the load.
When reversing with a bimini and dodger it is not easy to see what is going on above. Looks of bemusement from the neighbouring boat crew are ignored and not because they are Germans. Fortunately for them our boat is swinging away from theirs. Strange because there wasn't much current and only a little wind. However there was enough for a full main sail to produce too much leeway to perform our docking manoeuvre.
The incredulous Germans didn't speak English and we couldn't understand why the Croatian restaurant staff, who were helping us, were pointing upwards. We were docking at their restaurant Quay. To make matters worse the upwind cleat line slipped from the cleat when we tried motor forward (it hadn't been tied off properly) to counter the leeway, so we had no choice but to start the procedure again
No problem.  I always take the view that one should take time and if it goes wrong a couple of times it doesn't matter. Best to be safe.
It was then that we realised the main sail was still up. We hadn't seen it as we were under the bimini which stretched forward to the dodger. Thinking about it the bow crew should have spotted it.
This was the reason why the waiter pointed to the top of our mast when we were reversing.
For clarification I was not the skipper. :-)
If you haven't sailed in Croatia you have to go

Martyn SV SnO

Oil in the bilge!

A couple of weeks ago, we found upon inspection of the engine compartment - to our horror - that there was a significant oil leak. Almost a litre of engine oil.

A couple of sleepless nights for the owner followed - what could be the reason, and importantly what will be the cost of repairs? Do we need to fully rebuild the engine?

After a bit of clean-up of the engine, and top-up of oil level, we started the engine to observe if we could see where the leak came from. And we found a hole at the bottom part of the engine where there was a clear leakage from. Sanna was capturing the whole thing in a video which I posted on a Yanmar Facebook group. The answer came back in only a few minutes later - The hole in question was an alternative dipstick hole, which should have a cut-off dipstick in it as a plug. The facebook answer told us to look for this plug in the bilge, and YES it was there :-)

We have since done a proper clean-up, put the dipstick plug back in and we will keep checking that it doesn't come out again. Fingers crossed there's no other underlying issue that caused it to pop out.

For once in a blue moon the cost of the repair was $0, much to our relief.

Facebook with all it's flaws, still has some good value when using the special topic groups.

/Niclas SV RaRa

The dipstick 'plug' that had fallen out

Once again we are planning to host families from the Make-A-Wish organisation. If you have not done this before, the idea is that each boat takes out one family for a few hours (generally 2-3) on the harbour before returning to MHYC for a barbeque and other goodies.

In order for this to be a success, we need as many boats as possible.

The date is November 3rd.

If you cannot take anyone out on that day, please consider contributing in some other way such as baking or providing funds to help defray the costs of the BBQ or coming down to assist on the day at the club.

I look forward to hearing from you. My email is theeboom1@tpg.com.au or give me a call on 0409030984.

Many thanks,

Dot Theeboom

This award has been created and gifted to the cruisers by Alex Comino, and is awarded yearly to someone who has contributed to the Compass Rose during the past year. 

We congratulate the 2024 winner Phil Darling, who has been integral in every publication by providing us all with great questions to keep us up to date about the rules of the sea. 

Phil's work with the quiz each month contributes to us all learning new skills, and refreshing what we might have forgotten. A great source of information for us all.

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1. The three lights in vertical line (red over white over red) say “a vessel restricted in its ability to manoeuvre”. The red light below it (and slightly offset) is a port running light, so the vessel is underway (and indeed going from right to left. Keep well clear and give them room.
2. To fish in NSW you need to have a NSW Fishing Licence (cost $35 for one year). 
3. Check the notes on the chart, but usually upwards from chart datum.
4. Black or grey.
5. A vessel engaged in trawling.  Not a good idea.
6. Spring tides – as the sun and the moon will be in line their effect on the tides will be maximised and larger tides (springs) will occur.
7. The Cunningham (or Cunningham Eye) is situated just above the mainsail tack (if it is present).  A line is passed thought it to increase the luff tension on the sail and move the point of maximum sail draft forward.  This then makes the sail more efficient when going to windward.
8. You have right of way, but it would be courteous to keep clear.
9. Over – so that if necessary, you can gybe the pole without tangling the sheet.
10. To remove any gas which may have leaked into the bilge (better get someone to look at why, and also to turn off the gas when not in use).