Monday 14 May 2012

Winnie the Pooh and the blustery day...

...the forecasts showed force 4 but in the event I think we had a little more....

...finally got out for our first cruise of the season, and not bad for a shakedown...  no breakages, no issues, and so good to be out again...

...littl'est person joined me for this one which is always a pleasure..  she's turning into one mean helms-woman and helmed all the way from the mooring to just shy of Hayling Island Sailing Club at the mouth of the harbour...  not bad as it was a beat all the way which, with the exception of a couple of tacks, she managed to do in one.... she then borrowed my Henry Lloyd and disappeared inside it for a snooze on the way back!

...very gusty old day, two mast slides worth of reef on the main, full jib - but she was a handful in the gusts. If you'd asked me straight afterwards I would have said - no way was that a 4... some of the gusts were a handful.... turn out I was right and Cambermet shows that for the time we were out it was a bottom 5 consistently, gusting top end 5....  wind SSW so she did well on that big single beat following the second tack...!


So - what about the numbers???  GPS showed...

Distance: 8.55 miles (cumulative total in the 2012 mileage tab at the top of the page) - not bad in just a bit over a couple of hours!
Wind: SSW - bottom Force 5, gusting top end 5 at times
Speed: GPS says max speed was 5.2 knots, with an average speed of 3.1 knots....  at times though I was seeing 6 knots and even at one point 6.3 knots...  tide assisted clearly, as that's across the ground, but even so....!

5 comments:

  1. Not sure about your thoughts on boat speed! Surely if the GPS says your max was 5.2 over the ground your visuals of 6 plus must be into it - i.e. a 1 knot plus tide?
    Cheers
    Paul

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  2. It's an interesting thought, Paul...

    I have to admit I've always assumed those brief hits of faster speed are just happening *between* GPS samples.... I'm not sure how often my GPS samples, but I think it's either 10 or 15 seconds (don't have the manual with me), so if I can't maintain that phenomenal burst of speed for that long - it just gets lost, as the sample before it and after it are more usual....

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  3. Glad to see you made it out. It's been an awful start to the season. I think your right about the sample rate. I know I've seen higher speeds on the display than it shows on the log.
    Looking forward to July

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  4. Shame I couldn't get a pic as you passed us in Mabel on your way to the mooring...must try and remember my camera!

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  5. Hi Chris - thanks for that.. you guys were looking good as we went past!

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