Tuesday was a sailing day again. Went out at 12:30 and we got to use the Spinnaker pole. If you’ve ever seen a yacht sailing with what looks like a giant parachute high above the bow or front of the boat, then you have seen a Spinnaker. From Wikipedia, “spinnaker is a special type of sail that is designed specifically for sailing off the wind from a reaching course to a downwind, i.e. with the wind 90°–180° off the bow. The spinnaker fills with wind and balloons out in front of the boat when it is deployed.” Our Spinnaker sheet was more of a genoa sheet than a giant parachute.
The Spinnaker pole is attached at the mast and at the headsail sheets and allows for the sail to catch more wind. A topper is used to raise the pole’s bow facing end, and a kicker is use to stop the pole from going too high. Our instructor today was John. I’ve come to understand that John is one of the folks who will answer any question by starting his response with, “It depends…” He would be a excellent consultant! If you make a statement about anything to do with sailing, he will look for a way to play devil’s advocate against it. It makes for good fun to try and construct a statement that he can’t successfully un-weave. Maybe he used to be a lawyer/barrister.
I did get some bad news that the class I was wanting to take couldn’t make/get enough people to be held. Several folks who will remain nameless have said, ‘ once winter arrives, people wanting to sail or take classes severely drops off.’ This is in spite of Sydney not really have deep, cold winters.
After sailing, I wandered about the neighborhoods nearby and then then returned to Rushcutters for an evening technical theory session. After the session, we had wine, beer and sausage sandwich fresh off the BBQ. Additionally, there was one of the 47 foot yachts that the sailing school gets to use moored on the pier there, so we got to climb on board a really sweet yacht.
Silhouette of downtown Sydney from Rushcutters
Twilight Sydney’s CBD from Rushcutters. Guess I should buy a travel tripod to hold a bit more steady. BTW, The Hold Steady is a really good music group and I love their song, Sequestered in Memphis. Check it out.
