Run for Cover! - Episode 134
We say goodbye to Hobart and sail out to Port Davey on the West Coast of Tasmania. Coming out of the Derwent River we encounter some pretty strong winds making us change plans and alter course. We also visit the town of Dover where we try the World's first spirit infused with Sassafras!
If you need help with Satellite communications then we strongly recommend contacting Rob Martin from ClientSAT. Phone: 1300 368 858 Mobile: 0412 265 558 rob@clientsat.com.au https://www.clientsat.com.au - if you do plan to contact him let us know and we'll make sure he knows that you support us, he's a pretty loyal member of FRS crew.
Update on our refit. We are currently building the cabinetry at a workshop provided to us by yet another generous FRS crew member. It's been nice to start building things for Mirrool instead of ripping them down!
With gratitude
Troy and Pascale
Comments (39)
I know you've said this on a previous video, but remind us which Halco Laser Pro is Betsy - length, coloring? Thanks for another great video. Like always, I'm weeks behind.
Laser Pro 160 or 190 shallow diver. Bonito colouring is great but also orange squid colouring, silver blue mullet or Qantas colours work well too.
Don't buy Musto. Check.
I know that feeling sailing the Channel, I've been teaching myself to sail there! How have you found the Burke wet weather gear? I was thinking of investing in the offshore jacket?
Well, once you've learned there you will be able to sail anywhere ice-free! So far, we do like the Burke gear. Though it is designed in Australia, it is Chinese made unfortunately, but we think they have remained vigilant on the quality control. Anecdotal, but we have also heard that their customer support is good which really is a key consideration for sailing equipment (even if it is equipment you wear). We both have the offshore jacket and find them well cut and pretty good at reducing wind chill. They are popular among the race crews around sydney, at least the ones without big sponsorships!
:)
Just another beautiful video. Thanks for focusing on actual sailing, nature, and museums/history. Along with your fix up projects. I so appreciate getting to travel along with you on your adventures.
Sorry for the late reply Charlie. We're very happy to have an audience who is so appreciative of a wide range of subjects to share with.
I think the extreme Greenies (to the point of being anti-human) have cast a shadow over thoughtful people who want to stop the headlong rush for profit at any cost till we can make some informed decisions. Our opinion is that any feedlot style farming is rarely sustainable and has downstream socialised costs that are very hard to account for, so we don't support them. We didn't want to take a strong stand for or against in the episode for lack of knowledge on the subject but my 'knee-jerk' reaction is to be against those facilities. We try to avoid any preaching or voicing opinions (except about crappy service!), preferring to demonstrate how we live. Nice to hear from you Francis.
I don't really like cultured seafoods primarily because of the hazards inherent in aquaculture. There is a 40 minute vid on You Tube, "Famed Norwegian Salmon worlds most toxic food", which is very anti what the culture is doing both to the fish in the fjords and the damage to the waters of the fjords themselves. Resulting in a toxic culture which end up in the human food chain. Whilst living in Canada there was an argument over cultured salmon anywhere along the coastline, this was echoed in Alaska where it was feared accidental releases of the cultivars also released new bacterium as well as possibly altering the genetic makeup of the wild salmon. I am not a rabid "greenie" but reflecting on what we have done to fish stocks by overfishing and pollution, we are not being good stewards of the earths resources, hence introducing new risks into our food chain may be rash. Sounds a little like the argument against Genetically Modified grains (GM) about which I know little !
Any luck with the lure? Pascy, you sure looked and sounded excited at your chances! :-)
No unfortunately having to turn the motor on dampened our chances a bit and we don't fish during the night as tuna are sight predators and it would be too dangerous to land a fish in the dark! Take us back to WA where you go on morning watch put out a lure and before the sun had fully risen you've got a fish on board!
I wonder do you ever use a spinnaker pole on your jib? I have one on my boat but where to store it effectively has made me keep it off for now. I imagined storing the spinnaker pole vertically on the forward portion of the mast with an attachment point at the top of the pole and the bottom where it would normally clip in. But even there it seems like it would flop around and something else to tie up and bundle all the cables. Is the flopping of the jib potentially damaging to the standing rigging? This is my main desire of using a spinnaker pole rather than trying to get more speed.
Morning Bobby. Our spinnaker pole gets used exclusively for poling our headsail out to the windward side when we are running wing on wing. In theory, we could also use it on the tack of our gennaker to allow it to run deeper off the wind but we don't bother with that. As for storage; the pole is left attached to its track- mounted ring on the front of the mast and hauled up vertical against the mast by its halyard. The block that the halyard turns around ends up being about a foot above the outer end of the pole when fully upright. Because the halyard is external to the mast, we can then flick it infront of the pole and around one of the mast steps on the port side, followed by one on the starboard before pulling taught. This presses the pole firmly against the mast preventing it from moving. Most boats store their poles adjacent to the lifelines on deck as they have more room than us. Making custom chocks for the deck is relatively easy or just clip one end to the base of a stay and lashing the other end to the pulpit or a handy stanchion. With regards to a flopping jib, that is only a problem in winds so light we would tend to motor sail. A determination to sail in very light wind led to us buying our asymmetric spinnaker and others also get large light nylon drifters for the same purpose. Does this help?
Fantastic! It's a pleasure to work with accurate machines, and it can be a real chore to dial them in. Not to mention, it would be poor form to suggest to a gracious shop owner that they needed it! Good news/bad news for my refit project (don't read this if your busy at all. It's self help therapy for me to write about it): I finally splashed my little Venture 25 on Thursday! It's great to be in the water! No leaks! The launch I've worried over for so long was going smoothly until rounding the end of the dock to head to my slip the outboard (5 HP 2 stroke Mercury) suddenly sputtered and quit. It had run flawlessly during all my tests, of course. Come to find that the fresh fuel in the tank I thought I had meticulously cleaned was contaminated by little (and not so little) pieces of plastic, that had been well stirred up by the trailer ride to the marina. Likely some part of the filler tube or something I could not get to in my cleaning must have broken up (the tank was a stupid place to try to save money)... Thankfully I had an anchor ready to deploy as I was drifting out of the bay at a rapid clip, and even more thankfully my helper on shore saw me pulling to no avail and spotted a marina work boat nearby that kindly towed me to my slip, I bought a new tank and fuel filter, then went through the carb yesterday with a partial disassembly and sprayed a bunch of Sea Foam where I could, but still no luck. My track record with carbs predicted this result, and I was afraid to get too far into it without a rebuild kit. The kit is now on the way and will try to do a proper job of it... Found a good expanded diagram, which may help. Oddly, the diagram does not show where the Geni lives, or how get him or her back in the thing. That seems to be my issue with corroborators to date ;) Wish I had your skill set, Troy! Thought about taking this to a mechanic, but decided I needed to get over my fear of carbs. Frustrating as the weather the last couple of days would have been perfect for a shakedown!
If it is any consolation, most carby trouble (including yours now) are to be found inside the float bowl. It is a very simple system combining the same type of valve that waters cows and fills toilets and two static tubes that rely on a venturi effect to draw fuel upward. The tubes get blocked and need you to back them out with a flat screw driver and blow them clear before reinstalling. Simple! I'm pretty sure there will be a youtube vid on 'Clearing the jets on a [insert mercury model here] carby'. I look forward to your happy reply that you have that particular gremlin licked and your confidence in good condition once more! The other thing to get your head around, is changing the water cooling impeller inside the leg. We filmed doing it in episode 42. Again, though there are only minor differences between our Yamaha and your little black beasty, a search for a model specific video of changing the impeller is worth your time as that can really stuff up an expedition if you can't easily fix it. It's fiddly, but well within your abilities. Good Luck!
Enjoyed the episode and the technical sailing, as well as the calm. Great to hear you have a shop to work in to facilitate the cabinet work. That would be a tough project without machines. Stay safe and sane, friends!
Not only is it a shop, but all the fences and blades are 100% true and square! It can be a mixed bag being invited to use someones workspace because attitudes to initial setup of standing machines can vary. This one is first class and the family is lovely as well. We'll be posting a few update photos shortly. Take care mate.
At least 86.2k customers will be thinking twice now.
TY for another excellent video of your southern adventure. Curious how you guys do watches. No offense by Troy you do get a workout at the helm. Perhaps your tiller skills are better than your video camera skills, so Pascale only let's you drive the boat...:-)
Pascale may come across as sweet, but you must know Joseph that she is really an absolute tyrant and demanding task master. You can hear it in her laugh!
Terrible customer service from an ostensibly British Company that carries Royal Warrants as well! I was outraged on your behalf but did think to check their customer service times before I rang and embarrassed myself on your behalf, and I've missed them for the weekend! I'll have calmed down by Monday, and thought better of it I suppose. How can it be ok to blame an outside supplier that the garment manufacturer chose to use? It was Their decision to use this fabric, and therefore Their liability. No excuse for it's at all, Grrr. Poor garment quality of manufacture may well be acceptable on the High Street Fashion Scene, but in conditions where having wet weather gear can save your lives, it most certainly is not.
Don't bother yourself too much about it Andy. I did think that they would protect their name a bit better than they did but perhaps companies orientation has changed in the internet age. A lot of effort goes into saying all the right things to influence markets through twitter etc. but word of mouth is still a potent source of consumer information. Hopefully, the company is still good and we just got a slack aussie service rep!
We really enjoyed that guys. Loved the look of satisfaction at getting there. We are avid kayakers too so loved seeing ya's paddle off. We are learning so much from your journies & adventures.
Those kayaks really opened up some inaccessible areas and are great to paddle. We did have a day where we froze our butts off though when a cold change got colder!
Thxs Troy and Pascy looking forward to seeing your explorations in cold weather . We've just noticed if we watch the video from this site there is no like button. If we click over to the Youtube site there is.
We didn't realize that Andrew, thanks for pointing it out. I guess if you are watching it here, not only do you like the video but you are really supporting us so thank you!
Nice video! I liked the fact that, like in Puget Sound, there are route options if the weather turns sour. So much there looks like Puget Sound. I also like the distillery tour. Denise and I toured San Juan Distillery on San Juan Island here in Washington state during our sail there a couple years ago. Like your distillery they use local ingredients. They also produce a Fir Liqueur that tastes like a beautiful Christmas Tree.
We do like the fact that Tasmania has so many different landscaped that we've only seen from overseas. It has added another dimension to the trip. Fir liqueur sounds TERRIFIC! There are some cypress here that smell amazing in flower just when the first sun hits them and we would love to try a spirit that captured the aroma.
What an amazing couple y'all are. I truly appreciate these vids y'all put out. Thank you!
We appreciate your appreciation so things have worked out perfectly!
Had to laugh watching you battle the crazy weather and wind in the channel, been there so many times. Gutsy effort to sail to Port Davey, can’t wait to watch the following episode .. loving it.
Talking to some of the racing yachtsmen of Tassie involves some amazing stories of madness. I've a new respect for long-time Tas sailors- this place can be really challenging!
Incredible sailing in Tazzie. Truly technical. Pity about Musto. The bigger the company, the worse the service I find. Big pity. Oh well. There must be better wet weather gear out there?
Thats the crazy thing. The other brands are quite similar in quality now so service is a key way to maintain loyal customers. Perhaps other people have had a happier experience.
Thanks for the heads up on musto gear Troy, bad service always costs. Good luck and good fortune around the Wild West. Thinking of you from north QLD.
I hope other service agents elsewhere in the world are better, perhaps I just got someone not very good at their job. In these days, it's not like Musto are dramatically better than the competition any more either. Technical clothing is pretty similar across brands now and after sales service is an innovation that doesn't take a lot of R&D budget!
Yay! I'm at work so I can watch the video. Is the current cold weather hitting Tassie too? Heading into the Southern Alps tonight to our hut and they're forecasting -9°C!
I think you have us beat by about 10 degrees Nigel! The S. Alps are absolutely stunning. I had the privilege of flying over them at sunset after 2 weeks of snowboarding around Cadrona. We'll get there again one day.