West Pole Beacon

A triumphant days sailing today - first day in almost two weeks where it hasn't rained - in fact the sun came out again in parts. Biggest little'un and I grabbed the opportunity to go sailing on what has been forecast to be the best day of the holiday weekend here in the UK..

It was windy, though - a very solid force 4, gusting force 5 at times... the wind was also WNW, a definite change from the southwesterly's we've been getting up to now.

So with a couple of reefs rolled in we headed off down the harbour - can't remember the last time I sailed without reefs - I wasn't over-reacting though - there were plenty of other boats out who had also done the same!

Big tide today, so little'un and I decided that it was time for something adventurous. I'll be the first to admit that the weather is beginning to get frustrating - Papillon and I are ready for something more exciting (I'm dying to do the IoW trip I tried to do before I went on holiday, for instance) but I don't feel I'm able to while the weather has been as rubbish as it has been.... This afternoon though, with a lot more northerly in the wind, the entrance to the harbour would be considerably more manageable than it was in the last trip, so we decided to go to sea...

See following for our track (or rather part of it - I've cut off the beginning and end as you can see them from any of the other log entries), which for the first time then took me to the West Pole Beacon - chuffed isn't in it, "Papillon" lapped it up, swell and all - just a short trip, but even that was enough to bring the Nab Tower (another "target") seem much closer...



Distance: 13.86 miles (cumulative total over there to the left)
Wind: WNW - Force 4 gusting to force 5 at times.

All in all a brilliant days sailing - little'un and I had a good chat - we swapped music through the afternoon and being ever open to new musical experiences I quite liked these guys (who are her favourites at the moment) - the video made me laugh, but it's not for the faint hearted!!