Sailing...

Fair Maid sails nearly every week on the Swan River Estuary.  Being engine-less for the time being, we are sailing her off and onto her swing mooring, which is only 10 metres or so from a mud bank hazard, making for a real challenge to navigation.  So far we've been aground on the mud twice, once kedging her off, and the other time being towed by a yacht club rescue boat.  All in all slightly embarrassing, but considering the degree of difficulty and our unfamiliarity with the boat, I think we've done OK.

The allure of sailing is difficult to describe to the uninitiated.  It combines many elements, all of which are fabulous: being on the water, isolated from the hard, solid, daily world; no mechanical noise at all, no fuel or oil smell either, just salt in the nostrils making one feel clean and invigorated; the power of the wind, which until it is experienced as it is on a yacht, is either unnoticed or only seen as destructive; the aesthetics of a sailing craft, which are beyond compare; the feeling of liberty which is comparable to flying; the sheer joy of the whole experience, the senses filled with sweet, gentle, things.

The following are some sailing pictures, illustrating the beauty of this part of the world and the serenity and attractiveness of sailing.

A couple of weeks ago the Duyfken passed us running her engine...

And Saturday (Oct. 21, 2017) our twilight sail turned into a half hour of magic towards the end, as the breeze dropped to a whisper and the sunset exploded into liquid gold, with a spectacular, almost mystical, counter-glow in the East, with a huge double rainbow over the City of Perth filled in with pink.  I cannot recall a more beautiful evening.