Showing posts with label at. Show all posts
Showing posts with label at. Show all posts
Monday, July 3, 2017
Lotus 11 at Killarney Circuit
This really is a classic car, it probably boasts the smallest engine size at the annual classic and historic car race event, being only 750cc and a Coventry Climax four cylinder.
Di Dugmore is the driver, seen here talking to Eric Wells.
The Coventry Climax 750cc engine is said to be the idea behind the Rootes Car Co Hillman Imp engine which was sized to 875cc.
Di Dugmore is the driver, seen here talking to Eric Wells.
The Coventry Climax 750cc engine is said to be the idea behind the Rootes Car Co Hillman Imp engine which was sized to 875cc.
Used as fire pump engines, they are still to be found now and again.
Di Told Eric that the engine will pull just short of 6000 rpm down the back straight.
Nice!
Roy
Tuesday, June 20, 2017
How to park a boat at a dock
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Wednesday, April 26, 2017
A Grey Heron seen at the RCYC
Amazing to see such a bird walking around in what is really Cape Town Harbour and a very low tide.
The camera is Canons Gll, now past its best as salt or dirt had scratched the lens but as the camera
has been used just about daily this past four years I have no complaints.
I was there to meet up with Dudley Dix and the crew of Black Cat some three days before the start of the Cape 2 Rio 2014 ocean race.
For more on this now very African bird read below and check the link.
http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/birds/ardeidae/ardea_cinerea.htm
Roy
Click on the image for a larger view.
The camera is Canons Gll, now past its best as salt or dirt had scratched the lens but as the camera
has been used just about daily this past four years I have no complaints.
I was there to meet up with Dudley Dix and the crew of Black Cat some three days before the start of the Cape 2 Rio 2014 ocean race.
For more on this now very African bird read below and check the link.
Distribution and habitat
Occurs across much of the Old World, from western Scandinavia, Britain and the Iberian Peninsula to sub-Saharan Africa. In southern Africa it is most abundant in Zimbabwe, northern and eastern Botswana and South Africa, while also occupying patches of Namibia and Mozambique. It generally favours shallow water bodies, such as estuaries, lagoons, rivers, lakes, the intertidal zone, marshes and dams.
http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/birds/ardeidae/ardea_cinerea.htm
Roy
Saturday, April 22, 2017
A day at the races and Coventry Climax 08 02 2014
That's me, I am off to the Kilarney Race Circuit this morning to see all the period and classic racing cars!
The best money we can ever spend is to support the WPMC each year so they can afford to host the event.
http://www.wpmc.co.za/
I drove my Hillman Imp to second place in the Argus Group series car, in the same event but that was forty two years back!
Roy
The best money we can ever spend is to support the WPMC each year so they can afford to host the event.
http://www.wpmc.co.za/
I drove my Hillman Imp to second place in the Argus Group series car, in the same event but that was forty two years back!
Roy
Sunday, April 2, 2017
Living the cruisers life at Sea Eagle Bay Thomas Island
9-11 November 2016
According to latest forecasts, the best chance of us finding a sailing breeze was earlier in the day so we upped anchor and said farewell to the delights of Turtle Bay on Whitsunday Island and set a course for Sea Eagle Bay on the southern side of Thomas Island. We had spent five fantastic days anchored on the northern side of Thomas Island back in July (READ THE STORY HERE) but this was to be our first visit to the other side of the island.
In his excellent cruising guide ‘ 100 Magic Miles of the Great Barrier Reef’ David Colfelt describes Sea Eagle Bay thus, ‘”This is a lovely anchorage with a beautiful sand beach that is readily accessible at all tides through the break in the reef. It has a truly ‘South Pacific’ atmosphere.” That was easily enough to gain our attention and we were all very keen to see if the reality lived up to the hype.
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| John's photo of Sea Eagle Beach on the southern side of Thomas Island is spectacular. |
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| On our way to Thomas Island. |
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| Passing Pentecost Island. |
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| Our guest crew, John, doing it tough on Our Dreamtime. |
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| One of the Whitsunday Islands along the way. |
Unfortunately the morning breeze was weaker than we would have liked and we had to resort to motor-sailing against the flooding tide past Pentecost Island to round Jesuit Point on Maher Island. Once we had cleared the point and turned southward we were able to shut the motor off and enjoy a very pleasant sail along Shaw Island with good views of the cliff lined islands laying off its eastern side. We soon rounded Fairlight Rock and turned to wind to furl our head and mainsail and drop our mizzen. We were then free to motor into our anchorage on Thomas Island.
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| Turtle Bay, Whitsunday Island to Sea Eagle Bay, Thomas Island 18.8 Nautical Miles - 4Hours 11 Minutes Average Speed 4.5 Nautical Miles - Max Speed 6.6 Knots Full track details can be seen here -NAVIONICS |
Sea Eagle Bay proved to be every bit as attractive as Colfelt had reported, although John felt it lacked the one element needed to make it ‘truly South Pacific’, palm trees. Surprisingly there was not one coconut palm to be seen in the entire bay. We suggested he may have been a little picky as the bay and beach certainly delivered in every other way.
We were able to anchor in five metres over good holding sand again with the water clear enough for us to see the set of our anchor clearly from the deck. We had more than adequate swing room to the coral reef lining both sides while the head of the bay was clear all the way up to the tree lined, golden sand beach waiting to be explored.
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| Rob snorkelling the reef at Thomas Island |
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| A nice coral trout on the reef in Sea Eagle Bay. |
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| The level of coral bleaching we saw at Thomas Island was sobering. |
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| Despite the clear water, Rob dove down the five metres to check the set of our Sarca Excel anchor. No problem there. |
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| Our Dreamtime is still looking good after her six plus months roaming the Great Barrier Reef. |
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| After six months underway we're very pleased with her anti-foul but the Prop Speed is already gone on the blade tips. |
We then all headed for the beach with some Sushi Rolls Karen whipped up for lunch and a bottle of bubbles to wash them down with. As beautiful as the bay appeared from the boat, it looked even better sitting in the shade of the trees behind this wonderful stretch of sand. After devouring our delicious snacks, the boys climbed the rise through the bush behind the beach to get some photos while Karen was content to laze in the shallows enjoying surroundings. The rest of the afternoon was spent alternating between submersing ourselves in the crystal clear waters and lazing about the beach - all achieved quite effortlessly really.
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| Karen dishing out her delicious Sushi Rolls on Sea Eagle Beach. |
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| John, Karen and Rob celebrating the cruiser's life on Sea Eagle Beach with Our Dreamtime in the background. |
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| John looking for the perfect spot to take a photo on Thomas Island. |
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| Glorious Sea Eagle Bay. |
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| Our Dreamtime awaiting her shore party's return. |
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| Looking north to Mansell Island from Thomas Island. |
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| John taking in the view. |
Later back on board, Karen spoiled us all with sundowners of her special Pina Coladas in fresh coconuts accompanied with some great cheeses and crackers.
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| Pina Colada time |
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| Karen and Rob enjoying the cruiser's life. |
It was very easy obvious that Sea Eagle Bay was well worthy of a longer stay than simply overnight so in true cruiser tradition we elected to remain here the following day and maybe longer. The following morning, we again migrated to the beach where we set up camp amongst the trees with our hammocks. Karen and John were soon suspended above the grass engrossed in their books while Rob donned his snorkelling gear, gathered up his spear gun and assumed the role of hunter/gatherer,
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| If this isn't paradise we don't know what is. |
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| Karen alternated her time between the hammock and water. Cruising's such a tough life. |
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| Rob with the parrot fish he got. |
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| This sweetlip was chosen for our BBQ dinner. |
Before long he had bagged a collection parrot fish, sweetlip and a fish we originally miss-identified as a spangled emporer. Further investigation revealed it was in fact a juvenile chinaman fish which are known to be full of ciguatera poison so, needless to say, it went over the side pretty quickly. This experience did reinforce the need to properly identify any fish caught before turning it into dinner. We may have all become extremely sick if we had eaten this one.
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| The juvenile chinaman fish - full of ciguatera poison |
Beside our campsite under the trees someone had built a fire pit in the sand which had clearly been the location of many campfires since. Karen’s suggestion we that make use of it to have a beach barbie for dinner that night and roast the sweetlip in the coals of the fire was well supported by the rest of the crew who were quick to gather more than enough kindling and larger dry driftwood to achieve the goal.
A quick trip back to the boat saw the fish prepared along with vegetables. foil wrapped and ready for roasting. The cooler bags were loaded with drinks and snacks plus our ready to cook feast and off we went to the beach. Rob put his long dormant boy scout skills to work and we were soon enjoying our sundowner drinks and snacks with an excellent fire burning as a backdrop.
Karen was lazing in one of the hammocks enjoying her wine when she spied an uninvited guest making its way along the beach towards our campsite. ‘There’s a snake over there,’ she commented rather off hand idly and was met with a two voice alarmed chorus of ‘Where?’ from Rob and John.
Sure enough there was a rather large, brownish snake approaching the far side of our fire. It was about a metre and a half long with a bulge in its belly which we guessed was an unlucky, small ex-resident of the island that the snake had recently feasted on. Karen thought it was an Eastern Brown while Rob suggested it could be a Taipan. John was soon Googling snakes on his phone looking for the answer. Regardless, we were fairly certain it was highly venomous and not to be taken lightly. (More detailed investigation later revealed it was most probably a taipan)
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| Terry Taipan had no dinner invite but crashed our party. |
With a full belly, the snake unfortunately took a liking to the heat from our fire and seemed very content lazing on the sand beside it. Despite our willing it to move on it showed no desire to go anywhere. This was clearly not compatible with our cooking our feast in the coals. Rob decided to try to encourage it back into the bush by lobbing pieces of pumice stone close to it – from a very safe distance of course. Terry Taipan (as we christened him/her) took absolutely no notice and the Cruisers versus Viper Mexican standoff continued.
After twenty minutes or so of staring at each other at thirty paces we decided to capitulate. Our problem was that sunset was almost upon us and even if Terry Taipan slithered away before then we didn’t fancy the idea of cooking and eating our dinner wondering if he was about to reappear out of the darkness. However, we also couldn’t just leave with the fire still burning. We had a large bucket of water ready to douse it but couldn’t safely get close enough.
We carefully packed up all our goodies and circled around well clear of our unwanted guest to load the dinghy and then resumed our wait. Fortunately Terry Taipan grew tired of the game and finally slithered oh so painfully slowly into the bush behind the tree line. We then wasted no time putting out the fire and making sure there was no chance of re-ignition before scooting back to the boat to cook our, by now, well marinated fish on the BBQ.
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| Our sweetlip was still beautiful eating despite not being cooked in the coals. |
The following morning the weather was again glorious sunshine with a northerly wind still blowing so we pretty much just repeated the previous day’s activities, without the attempted beach barbie and snake encounter of course.
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| Karen and John hamming it up for the camera while lunching on Sea Eagle Beach. |
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| Karen's Vietnamese Rolls with Satay Sauce were spectacular. |
This time when Rob went off spear fishing on the reef he had direct orders from Karen for coral trout or crayfish. No sign of crayfish was seen but he did manage to bag a good sized coral trout much to the Admiral’s delight.
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| Karen cooling off, again, at Sea Eagle Beach on Thomas Island. |
Like many of the awesome anchorages we have experienced on the Great Barrier Reef, we could have stayed much, much longer at Thomas Island but we limited ourselves to just three nights as a south easterly change was approaching and we wanted to check out the southern side of Goldsmith Island just to our south before it arrived and we would need to shelter at Brampton Island.
Previously in his weekend sailing and seven day chartering, John had never spent more than a single night in one anchorage as there was always the desire to keep moving to ‘make the most’ of the limited sailing time available. The secret to cruising is to be able to stop and truly enjoy the places you sail to without having to rush off. We’re pleased to say John was leaning well and managed to SLOW DOWN enough to get a taste of the cruising life.
Lesson two was coming up.
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Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Anton Anrieth Groote Constantia pediment restoration at the old wine cellars
We have been visiting the wine farm named Groote Constantia for decades, this art work has never looked better!
The most famous work is by Anton Anrieth, its remarkable, magnificent!
Circa 1791.
Anton signed up to the military and that got him out of his native Germany, shipping to the cape.
I can advise visting early rather than late when the place can become really busy with tourists.
The most famous work is by Anton Anrieth, its remarkable, magnificent!
Circa 1791.
Anton signed up to the military and that got him out of his native Germany, shipping to the cape.
Click on the pictures to enlarge them, the camera used was a Canon G1X digital, this shot was
on a 4 x tele shot, which is a disapointing maximum.
I can advise visting early rather than late when the place can become really busy with tourists.
The main house is to the left of the camera and really worth the visit when your in Cape Town.
Roy
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Porsche 910 race car at the Springbok Series
This was in February 4th & 5th 2012, for some reason, cost I assume, they declined to host the visiting drivers and cars this year at the Killarney Race Circuit, so Kyalami saw them once and Zwartzkop twice.
This car is an original Porshe 910 and dates back to 1967. It has the six cylinder Boxermotor and is a 2000 cc capacity. Its been to South Africa a number of times and has raced around the world.
Chassis # 910 013 and fitted with a five speed gearbox.
I have one of those those yellow flyers, all in German but the info is detailed, one name connected with the car is David Piper, who I spoke to at a previous revival event.
Rumour has it we may see the return of the Springbok Revival Series back at the Killarney Circuit in 2014, I hope so!
Check this link to see a lot more of the cars at the 2012 event.
http://www.classiccarracers.co.za/forum/viewtopic.php?f=86&t=1204&p=26395#p26395
Roy
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