Weather: Sunny and mild. Winds: Calm freshening to S@20. Seas: <2ft.
A good day with an ugly period.
Departed Bedwell around 1000, motoring initially but picking up a light wind and we beat out of the harbor. Once outside, winds died and then became brisk and increasing to 20 by the time we arrived Sydney. Raced RT, flying formation for a while, but the centerboard was not going down and control was sloppy. Heaved to and deployed the centerboard and returned to the race. Initially used the screacher, but elected the genoa as the winds increased. Cruised in for an easy victory arriving about 20min ahead of Captain's Mast.
With the south winds, route to Port Sydney was pretty direct, south of Moresby Island, north of Reay Island, south of the Little Group
Entry into the marina was standard but got ugly getting into our slip. Sydney marina is tight, one of the tightest I'd been in. Not much maneuvering room. Further, the strong winds were pushing us into the dock, but off our finger pier. Attempted to use our standard entry, going past the slip and turning back into it to approach bow in, directly towards the dock. Did not make the turn fast enough, did not have enough speed on and the winds weather vaned the bow away. Then the winds pushed Strider sideways, into the moored boat next to the slip we were headed for. Ended up hooking the other boat's bow anchor with the port back stays.
A gathered crowd assisted us into the slip.
What could we have done differently? Turn sooner, making a more direct entry into the slip comes to mind. Kept more speed on perhaps. Could have used the weather vaning to hover at the end of the finger pier, drop Kelly off with the spring line and then made the entry is another thought. Next time....
Though tight, Sydney Marina was modern, clean with good showers and laundry. The town was nice and we restocked, did a shelf check in the BC Liquor Store and found an ice cream shop!
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