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Hello fellow Cruisers,

Winter is now halfway through, and I hope you are all keeping safe and warm. In the harbour there are some updated courtesy moorings, flat and round, keep an eye out when you are next out and about on the water. 

Our Cruising AGM will be held on the 21st of August, Wednesday, in the Harbour room at MHYC starting at 19.30. We will have the BBQ on from 18.30. Please come along and hear about the plans for the season, see who will be awarded the inaugural Compass Rose Trophy and meet up with your fellow cruisers. If you feel you would like to contribute and join the committee, please contact one of the committee members.

The MHYC AGM was held at the end of July and it is my honour to be nominated and elected Flag Officer Cruising for another year. 

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

Captain Cruising, SV RaRa

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

Hello from the Great Keppel Island group.

The worst thing that can happen to you on a boating holiday is for the toilet to break down. So far this problem has occurred to Kai Rani twice in three weeks, one with the manual toilet backing up and the second with the electric head not flushing . Not good. To fix the manual toilet required a replacement  “joker valve “ no pucker. 

The Geology side of this job is that salt water reacts with uric acid and forms a hard rock like substance that stops the joker valve from puckering and also in extreme cases can block hoses having a cholesterol effect.This rock or hard calcium substance I have called PissRock and is known throughout  the boating community as hard to remove. A sample of PissRock removed from a toilet  ( Google) 

The electric toilet decided to pack up and not flush. I think I left the boat with too stronger mix of vinegar in the head so when we arrived back from NSW the toilet was not flushing correctly. I had a complete electric toilet service kit on board so I went straight to it as “I really really like working on toilets” , not. Pulled everything down and cleaned everything up and found the culprit of the poor flush “ the joker valve” (what ever I put in before we went away caused the valve to fail )it’s smaller and longer than the manual toilet valve.

The service kit didn’t come with the joker valve. I’m now waiting for delivery to GKI from boat parts, hopefully today Friday 

 

The “joker valve “ got it’s name from the court Jester‘s hat that had three points  to it. No not because the jokes on you and you have to deal with “Ship High In Transit” 

 

The Head With the wind blowing from the rear to the front as it does for sailing ships(square riggers)  the “head” (or front) of the ship was the best place for everyone for a sailor to relieve himself. So, when the crew went potty, they went to the head of the ship…and the name stuck.

Solutions to avoid this drama is drink plenty of water or coffee as this breaks down the uric acid in the body. When you flush, flush more than you think you need to  making sure the concentration is diluted and gone 

Washed hands twice 

Jeremy Clarke 

SV Kai Rani 

1. On entering Sydney Harbour, you sight a large vessel with two flags flying –a white and red flag (vertical halfs), and a solid red flag (swallowtail).  What are these flags, what do they mean, and what should you do?
2. What is the name of the line often led from the end of the boom to a forward cleat or block to prevent an accidental gybe?
3. Should you use old sheets or halyards as docking lines?
4. What is an East Coast Low, and how does it often form?
5. What is the effect of high barometric pressure on tidal heights
6. On the Australian coast does a sea breeze normally back or veer during the day?
7. You see a group of new markers, all with vertical blue and yellow stripes and a yellow cross on top.  A check of your on-board books (all several years old) does not help.  What are these, and what would their night lights be?
8. You are sailing on a beam reach, and want to reduce the twist on the mainsail to prevent flapping in the upper leech.  What would you do?
9. You are off Sydney, but in an area where you know there is no current (ocean or tidal).  While steering along a transit marked on the chart as 340T, your compass reads 333 degrees.  What is the deviation on this heading in whole degrees?
10. What is the name given to the edge or lip of a table top to prevent items from falling off?

Sanctum at Sunset off Kingfisher Bay, K'gari (Fraser Island) by Evan Hodge

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.

It’s a question as old as sailing itself, but we have yet to find an answer…

Selina and I have just farewelled our beautiful Buizen 40 Eternity and handed her over to her new owner. Even with 2 large horizontal solar panels, she never attracted the attention of seagulls.

But you see, there is a new boat in the bay, our lovely new Hanse 418 called Salty Lady. Now this is a whole new ballgame. Salty Lady has become the party boat for the flock of seagulls, which live in Balmoral, get fat during the day on fish&chips and release their holding tanks at night on our deck and solar panels.

We have never seen anything quite like it!

We started with netting, which is a cheap enough solution, but soon discovered that it could catch on every sharp zipper or wire that exists on a boat. For us netting simply took too long to set up and remove.

We moved on to CDs, suspended all over the boat. People wiser than us said that the birds don’t like their reflective nature, and the wind will blow them, making them quite unattractive to bird life. Right? Wrong!….. at night the wind doesn’t blow and there is no light to reflect off them. The bird poo kept accumulating.

We then moved onto bunting, the type you see on construction sites. Bright orange flags

that flap aggressively in the wind. It was a bit quicker to setup at the end of a sail than the

netting, but still suffered a lack of movement when the wind died down.

A few more hours in consultation with Dr Google yielded owls and snakes as a suggestion. Ok, so we tried that too. We were told that we need to move them around the boat often to give the appearance that the bloody things are actually alive. I think some seagulls have subsequently befriended the owls and the snakes, because they keep coming.

Ok, what next? Oh yes, a solar powered ultrasonic sound emitter, delivered all the way from China thanks to our good friends at Temu. Installed on the bow facing aft. This will irritate the bastards surely?

Selina said, if it emits irritating sounds only a seagull will hear, how will we know if it is working? Well, I have the answer for that. You can download a free sound frequency analyser on your phone which will visually show that the blessed thing is making a sound. And it does, but you know what? The gulls find the music adds to their late-night curry parties.

Come on people, now I throw myself at your mercy and ask what should come next?

How about a kite in the shape of a hawk suspended high above the solar panels? A friend suggested I throw a BBQ chicken on my neighbour’s boat, but I will fear they will visit the other boat to dine, only to finish the evening making a Jason Pollock artwork on Salty Lady.

Aaaaah, the joys of boating

Dallas O’Brien

Sv Salty Lady

2 MUSTO  Off Shore “Performance”, breathable JACKETS size XXL.  (Yellow). $300 per set (jacket & pants)
2 PANTS  Off Shore “Performance” high waist with shoulder straps size XL (yellow)

1 BURKE  Inshore JACKET. Size XXL (Silver & Black)
1 BURKE  inshore JACKET  Size M. (Silver & Black)

1 PROQUIP  ULTIMATE “Winning Weatherwear” GORE-TEX JACKET & PANTS size XXL (Black & Silver) $250 for the set.

1 PROQUIP ULTIMATE “Winning Weatherwear” GORE-TEX JACKET size S
(Black & Silver) $100

1 CRANE  Off-Shore high waist PANTS with shoulder straps, Waterproof, wind resistant, taped seams, breathable, size XXL (Silver) $100

1 CLARK JACKET, water resistant, fully lined, size XXL (Navy blue & Forrest green). $50

1 NAUTICAL CHALLENGE JACKET,  Size L has “J Class 1930-1937” NAUTICA CHALLENCE down one sleeve.  $50

1 pair BODY GLOVE  waterproof, multi performance series, mesh lining JACKET size XXL $25

1 pair TEAM BRAND waterproof PANTS. Size XL 100% PVC $10

1pair FILA BRAND PANTS Size L  100% nylon shell & 100% polyester lining $10

ALL PRICES ARE NEGOTIABLE!

Contact Jean Parker for more info. jnparker@live.com.au

1. The white and red flag is code flag H (hotel), meaning a pilot is on board. The red swallowtail is code flag B (bravo), meaning the vessel is dangerous goods are on board. Keep well clear – in Sydney Harbour the regulation is at least 500m clear of the bow and at least 50m clear of either side and the stern (I would recommend more). If there is a pilot or escort vessel do not get between that vessel and the large one.
2. The “Gybe Preventer”, or more often just the “preventer”.
3. No – modern sheets and halyards use non-stretch material. You need nice “stretchy” lines such as nylon or silver rope to absorb movement and prevent damage to your vessel when docked.
4. Off the NSW coast we often get very intense low pressure systems that form from the interaction of a trough or cold front with the warm East Australian Current. They often produce very intense and dangerous winds and seas for a relatively short period of time (up to several days) but with little warning.
5. High barometric pressure will usually depress tidal heights – ie both high and low tides will be at lower heights than predicted.
6. In Australia (and indeed anywhere in the southern hemisphere) It always backs – ie in Sydney it starts as an easterly and ends as a north easterly. In Perth it starts as a westerly and ends as a south westerly.
7. These are emergency wreck marker bouys (added to the IALA system in 2006). They would most likely be lit at night, with alternating blue and yellow lights on each. Keep clear!
8. Tension the Vang.
9. We know that the variation in the Sydney region is 12 degrees east. So:
   • True Heading: 340T
   • Variation: 12E
   • Magnetic Heading: 328M
   • Compass Heading: 335C
   • Hence: Deviation is: 7W
10. Fiddle