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Yesterday went on a trip to Carnac Island with my girlfriends dad Nigel an highly experienced sailor and pro Laser racer. It was our first real trip into open water and before we even got out Nigel's Mirage drive got jammed under one of the click n go connectors. We left Woodmans point about 10pm and the trip over took about an hour and 15 min. On the way over we could see flying fish and a possible bait ball I also managed to have my chain slip off the sprocket! The island is as beautiful as always with lots of small birds nesting , reefs and seals. Unfortunately there was also a large contingent of japanese tourists who persisted to annoy the seals, i must admit i was waiting for one of them to get bitten. One of the seals took a liking to my AI and followed me for a while. The trip back to about half the time due to favourable winds, but i did have a fair bit of submarining even with the sail reefed, speed maxed out at 9.8 knots. Nigel's Mirage managed to get jammed again on the way back and i have a sneaking suspicion that one of the locks is bent.











notice the seal checking out Nigel



Some really good looking guy



Nigel trawling

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Great photos & movies. Beautiful looking water & wildlife. You seem to have a great sailing area. I'm envious.

Keep 'em coming.

Hey, great report and pics. Anychance of doing them a little bigger?
I never realised that island was there. Looks like a great place to visit. Can you camp over there?

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It truly is a beautiful place to live, unfortunately like a lot of places there is a lot of development happening so i fear in 20 years we won't still have this wildlife haven.

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for some reason the pix got resized when i uploaded them to photobucket, when i get a chance i will try and do them again without the resize. Carnac, like Garden Island is a wildlife reserve so you can't camp there and even if you wanted too the island is riddled with tiger snakes. As a young kid we camped illegally in the caves at the end of the island and it was magical, in the morning we awoke to find a freshly shed snake skin.

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this is a link to google maps

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=carnac+island&sll=-32.210477,115.698395&sspn=0.144661,0.439453&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Carnac+Island,+Western+Australia&ll=-32.120964,115.666187&spn=0.0181,0.038581&t=h&z=15

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Ahhh, another use for the special AI hammock system...

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Yes, great pictures and video, Dave. I especially liked your underwater work. Did Nigel catch any fish?

Over here in the states, we call that trolling, or was Nigel doing something different?

Keith

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I sail: S FL, Key Largo, Everglades to Cape Romano, Ft Desoto, Cedar Key

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein

no i just can't spell! He was using a luer not suitable for the fish in the area so had no luck. We have just bought an anchor so i think next time we will have more luck and i will be able to go spearing from my AI YAY!!!

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Great stuff Dave. That seal video is great. How did Nigel like the performance of the AI compared to the Laser ? I had a race with a Laser at the weekend and on a cross wind, if I used the drive, I could keep up with him. But only if I used the drive.

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Don't take life too seriously................it ain't permanent.

I will have to ask him, the only comment he has made besides how much fun he is having, is that its the wettest boat he has sailed and that it likes to submarine.

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Don't mention submarining !!! We've done that topic to death and almost started an international incident. In fact I wouldn't be suprised if a couple of submarines are on there way over here right now.

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Don't take life too seriously................it ain't permanent.