If you have any questions or suggestions for cruise activities please contact one of the cruise committee:-

David Williams Rear Commodore, Roger Kennedy, John Groves, Matt Kirlew, David Taylor, Greg Thomson or Sonia Williams.

Or email us at cruising@rpayc.com.au

Join us on facebook  

Please be aware that at the time of sending this the new website is currently being migrated over . Some links may not work at this time which will only be temporary. 

 

Name	Boat Name	Berth	Responsibility
David Williams	Galadriel	A26	Chairman / Rear Commodore
Sonia Williams	Galadriel	A26	First Fridays, Photography & Activities Committee liaison
John Groves	Verve	F54	On water events
Roger Kennedy	Waterbird 111	A35	New members & cruising member list
Matt Kirlew	Jindarra	F58	On water events
Megan Nixon	Margarita	F10	Cruising web content & marketing
David Taylor	Kailani	A19	Monthly Newsletter & E-news
Murray Glase	Gypsy Princess	F28	Board Liaison Director

On behalf of the Cruising Committee and members I would like to extend our many thanks to our retiring committee member, Megan Nixon. Megan has been a member of the Cruising Committee for more than three years and has resigned so that she and husband Bruce can enjoy cruising on their new boat Lucid.
Megan worked tirelessly to assist with the necessary changes to Cruising’s presence in the new Web Site. Megan also researched what we needed as a club to make Pittwater a cruising destination.
Thank you Megan and fair winds.

My focus in the committee is helping members interested in cruising to engage with the club’s cruising community and its activities.

Cruising covers a broad range of activities and often doesn’t require much direct club support, but it still helps to get familiar with the club infrastructure and cruising community. This applies whether it’s just a relaxed summer lunch in Towler’s Bay, estuary cruises and longer distance offshore cruising with the club/individually, or trying to fix one of those too hard basket problems on your boat.

I have been mucking around in boats from an early age. I helped my father build a Frisco dinghy intending to do some sailing but also add an outboard and go fishing. However, we caught the sailing bug from our first launch in Bayview opposite RPAYC. More than 50 years of sailing adventures passed before I ended up with Waterbird III at RPAYC looking back over at my sailing starting point. In that time, I sailed a Flying Fifteen (Waterbird) from Avalon Sailing Club in club, state and nationals, and then a Holland 25 (Waterbird II) extending into cruising in Broken Bay, JOG & Quarter Ton racing, crewed an early Manly Graduate at Manly, another Holland 25 in Port Moresby, a Hobie 16 in Wewak PNG, raced/cruised in the Southern Caribbean circuit including Antigua Week, met and married Anne in Barbados, returned to Australia and racing/cruising on Waterbird II, crewed on a Farr 37 in the CYCA offshore series, became a cub/scout leader at 1st Sailors Bay Sea Scouts, taught our 2 boys to sail a Flying Ant at MHYC and Greenwich, crewed a few CYCA winter series on a Farr 40 and DK46, sponsored (while working at Skandia) and had a few sails on 2 maxis Nicorette and Wild Thing. After several years of no boats, Anne caught the cruising bug and in 2014 we bought our Bavaria 43CR and joined RPAYC. Since then we have settled into the cruising community and enjoyed many cruising activities and friendships.

Lisa is the first woman to sail solo around Antarctica.  72 days into her 183-day journey and 1,000 nautical miles from land, Lisa ’s mast came crashing down due to equipment failure . She battled in freezing conditions for four hours to save her yacht and her life. The book’s title, ‘Facing Fear’, centres around the lasting effect of trauma from the serious accident and Lisa’s brave determination to overcome this in order to complete her trip.
 
The book is available from selected book stores. You can also order a copy via http://www.lisablairsailstheworld.com/shop.  Lisa can personally sign copies with an appropriate message to inspire you and your family and friends to pursue your own dreams and adventures.

After all the challenges of this year an opportunity to catch up with your friends and start the celebration season with a traditional menu. We will not have a speaker for this First Friday to provide more of an opportunity for everyone to just catch up (in a Covid safe way of course)
 
The chef has planned some great food for us.
Main course choices are

• Roast turkey and chicken ballontine, gratin potato, spiced roast pumpkin, green beans, stuffing and jus
• Maple glazed ham, sweet potato and thyme puree, baked apple compote and cider jus
• Pan roast Cone Bay barramundi fillet, crumbed potato cake, steamed asparagus, lemon butter sauce

Followed by a dessert of Christmas pudding, brandy custard, vanilla ice cream
Book here First Friday Booking Form

The December Estuary Cruise will be to Yeomans Bay. A great place to relax ahead of the Christmas rush. Meet in the vicinity of the RMYC Port Pile at 10:00am for a cruise in company or meet at Yeomans Bay.

Several boats braved the bad weather of the 24^th October for the second Race'n'Cruise.
The results were as follows: 
 
1st -   Tania and Greig Ebeling: Carpe Diem
2nd -  Andrew Irvine: Unruffled
3rd -  Matt Kirlew: Jindarra 
4th -  Megan Nixon: Lucid
 

We would like to extend to Angus Gordon a huge thank you on behalf of those who attended the November First Friday. It was our largest gathering for a year! Angus’ expertise was clear and his presentation was most educational. It’s wonderful to have such talented and experienced people amongst our members and very kind of them to share their knowledge.

The hopeful plan was to cruise to Maitland Bay, however, Maitland Bay is very uncomfortable in a Southerly which of course is what we had.
 
Our hosts for the weekend John and Jo Groves (Verve) led 5 boats to Hallets and a lovely afternoon of catching up was enjoyed on the beach.
 
A huge thank you must go out to David and Jenny Taylor (Kailani), Greg and Margaret Dunstan (Heavens Gate) and Mike and Mitch from the club. On the way out for the weekend our boat Galadriel “failed to proceed” in front of RMYC. Her engine failed and we were left to sail around in circles whilst waiting for a rescue from Mike and Mitch and the club tender. While we were waiting Heavens Gate, (Greg and Margaret) stayed with us and circled around our poor girl. Mike and Mitch towed us back to our pen and in the middle of a southerly managed to somehow get us back in with an increase of only few grey hairs. Jenny and David Taylor then invited us to stay on their lovely Kailani. With our fluffy Jenna and Lola we spent the Hallets weekend enjoying the companionship of Jenny and David and the comforts of a catamaran.
 

After overcoming the challenges of providing a start boat and setting the start line a gentle and slow fleet headed towards the Challenger Head finish line.
 
Thank you to those who joined in on our last "Pursuiting" for the year. An excellent job by the handicapper with the first two across the line within a few seconds and all boats within 10 minutes. We then enjoyed a lazy afternoon on Hallets Beach. 
 
Official results:           
 
Bellissima 12:17 
Carpe Diem 12:17
Fridays Child 12:18
Boree Creek 2 12:26
Liquid Leisure 12:29
Phantom 12:37
 
* Galadriel withdrew to provide the service as Start Boat

These muffins are really easy to make and do not require any special appliances. A silicon muffin tray works really well on a boat and will not rust.

 

3 cups of liquid (water or stock) 
3 cups couscous
⅓ cup toasted pine nuts
1 red onion chopped
⅓ cup currants
⅓ cup mint leaves
⅓ cup flat parsley
2 tsps Harissa Paste
⅓ cup lemon juice
⅓ cup olive oil
 

Boil liquid. Add couscous. Stir with fork. Cover and leave for 5 minutes. Fluff with fork.
Combine Harissa, lemon juice and oil. Shake or mix well.
Add all ingredients to couscous. Combine well.
This recipe keeps well and is enough to serve a horde for a pot luck beach BBQ.
Quantities may be reduced to serve less.

Now in its 25th year, Planet Ark's National Recycling Week (Monday 9 to Sunday 15 November 2020) provides an important opportunity for councils, workplaces, schools and individuals to improve their recycling knowledge, build better recycling habits and build trust in recycling.
This established and highly regarded annual campaign continues to educate and stimulate behaviour change, by:

• Promoting kerbside, industrial and community recycling initiatives
• Giving people the tools to minimise waste and manage material resources responsibly at home, work and school.

This year's theme is 'Recovery - A future beyond the bin'. We invite you to value your resources, giving them a second life by reducing virgin resource use, reusing and recycling. Reducing our waste not only keeps valuable materials out of landfill it also benefits the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and our need for new materials.
 
We thought it was a good opportunity to remind everyone that at the end of each arm at the club there are both rubbish bins (red lid) and recycling bin (yellow lid). When out on the water remember to separate your recycling so it is easy to put them in the right bins when you return to the club.
 

This one of the iconic Whitehaven Beach in the Whitsundays-  comes from Jim Cormack