Tennent Creek Barckly Agencies Tour

So I race twice at the new TDZ 20km handicap (replaces the old Secrett Rd event so popular for so long in Darwin) and get talked into going down to Tennent Ck to race a two day tour!!! Andy Barcroft is taking his work van down with the bikes and the rest in a few cars will go down on the Friday. There's a small prologue on Saturday morning followed by a road race in the afternoon. Sunday morning there is a criterium then BBQ lunch and we drive home.

What does this mean to me? Well I have 4 weeks to get some serious training miles in :) My motto for this event will be "If you keep your expectations low you will always succeed"

It was back to Plan 'A', The Kuranda Range

In a mad panic Mum rings me to tell me that there is some big festival up at Port Douglas on the day we were supposed to ride up to Port Douglas/Mossman and that 20,000 people are expected there on the Friday night. So it's back to riding up the Kuranda Range. Famous for it's traffic and lack of shoulders on the side of the road so we were a little nervous and as it turns out rightfully so.....it was crazy. We got off and walked a couple of times when we heard trucks approaching but it was so bad that there was hardly any room for that. Anyway the point of this post is, if you every get the urge to ride the Kuranda Range, dont do it at lunch time, maybe a dawn but not lunch time.

To make things a little more exciting Sandy had a bit of a tummy bug going on on the day we flew over. The sort of problem that makes you nervous if you are too far from 'facilities' if you know what I mean. She had tummy cramps, had no food and also dehydrated and put in a stoic effort to climb the range. She's a trooper.

At the top of the range with a big sigh of relief we found a caravan/camp park that was absolutely beautiful in the rain forest.

The cycle tour of Cairns and the Tablelands

We got back last night a great week. We got sick, got scared, laughed, caught up with family, ate lots of food, saw some magnificent scenery and will need to write more words later. But for now we attach the photos.

Turnbull Bay

As part of my Inshore Skippers course I went on an overnight sail to Turn

bull Bay, 32nm from Darwin. The next group of students were going on the 8th May and Jenny (runs the course and owns Zanibar the Farr 38 training yacht) suggested that anyone with a boat can tag along. Judith (co-student) and her hubby just bought a brand new Catalina 309 and asked if Sandy and I would like to join her on the Turnbull trip. Naturally we said yes. Funny thing was Judith's hubby was in France and Judith was not too familiar with her new boat, this sort of put me in charge a bit and it was a great learning experience.

Morning at Turnbull Bay looking at Zanibar.

We left the marina at 1900 (7pm to you landlubbers) and as there was no breeze we motored out toward Charles Point. At Charles Point we turn south toward Bynoe Harbour. When we were about 3 nm from Charles Point a bit of breeze picked up so We decided that we should be sailing and not listening to a diesel hum. So imagine this: New boat, to me and the owner, it has in-mast furling so the main sail just rolls out of the mast all very leisurely. This is when my nerves start unwinding, as the sail is almost out it jams and we can not get it out or roll it back in. This makes me a bit stressed as the next day is a forecast Coastal Wind Warning and I've got 9/10th of the mainsail up unable to reduce it!!!!. Anyway a bit of tacking to put wind pressure on the sail eventually freed it up and we unrolled all main and head sails and had a delightful sail down to Turnbull.

Judith cooking breakfast in the morning

The sail back in the morning was fabulous, a close reach in about 10 knots, if you know anything about sailing you know that that is a happy place in any boat but on a brand new $200K yacht it's not too shabby.

Sandy and I enjoying the conditions

Now I mentioned that there was a coastal wind warning due the next day so I knew what to expect when we hit Charles POint and came out of the lee of the land. Essentially the wind picked up to 20-25knots coming directly from Darwin (where we wanted to go). So the seas built and we had to bash our way on an offshore tack to get room to try and make Darwin on the next tack. Lots of fun and we reduced sail twice with spray coming over the whole boat as we pushed into the short but step swell.

Charles Point before the conditions got worse.

As we continued once we got on the close hauled point of sail, Zanibar, which is a race boat, took off and we couldnt keep up. We ended up rolling up the headsail completely and starting the motor so we could point a little higher as we all were very tired and didnt want to be getting back to Darwin in the dark.

A huge weekend and a great time was had by all!!!

Oh my Gawd, have you looked at the countdown

Sandy and I bobbing along doing what we do and having a great time suddenly realise that we have about two weeks until we are supposed to riding around the Atherton Tablelands!!!!

Quickly last weekend we load up the bikes with front and rear panniers filled with stuff to simulate a load and go for a 40km ride. The result was not too bad, could've kept going so we feel a bit better. Having said that there are no mountain ranges in Darwin :)

Gary's new dynamo hub

Now I cant have Sandy having a dynamo hub and me not :) So I ordered a groovy Schmidt hub and spokes and I built the wheel myself.

Gary's first Inshore Skippers practical session

I enrolled in the Inshore Skipper Certificate course. The course is a sailing based course accredited with Yachting Australia and run by the Winter School of Sailing here in Darwin. It's an intensive 10 week course with theory session one to three times per week and four practical session on John and Jenny's Farr 38.

Last Sunday we hit the harbour for our navigation practical and what a nice day it was. Overcast so not too hot but enough breeze to get some decent sailing in.

The aim of today was to plot a course to sail allowing for the tidal current. For those who dont know Darwin harbou

r we have BIG tides and of course Sunday was a spring tide so we had plenty of current to allow for. During my turn at plotting the chart tidal data said we would have 2.5 knots of tide pushing us out of the harbour and the wind was on the port quarter. Naturally as soon as I gave the helmsman/person the course

the wind change and we could hold my course so they then gave me what they could steer and I then determined where that would take us and a point at which we would need to gybe to get to our mark 10 nautical miles away. It wasnt long and the helmsman gave me more bad news on the course they could steer as the wind shifted.

Little did I know that they guys up on deck had a GPS had having quite a good chuckle at my use of the charted 2.5 knots of current that was actually 3.5knots. Sailing at 5-6knots that tidal stream made a huge difference.

Jenny had a big smile on her face as we each battled Darwin's big tide.

Fighting our way back to the pontoon was fun with the tide and the wind eased. We were making 1.5 knots over the ground while the log showed us sailing at 4.5 through the water.

The action at the chart table.

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