Fathers day sail....

Been a while, so what about the sailing trips?

14th June:

Last weekend involved a quick sail in winds far stronger than we should really have been out in, but everything had gone OK until the wind picked up just as we were turning for home. In the strong winds I had turned into the wind to put some reefs in and while the jib was rattling about some of the stitching had given away. I always knew that a replacement was on the card so it wasn't too much of a surprise - the jib is much older than my main so I'd already planned on replacing it. The new jib is now on order and due to arrive this week which is a bit exciting...

Distance: 3.5 miles (39.5 miles year to date)
Wind: Moderate (Force 4 gusting 5)

21st June:

Over the weekend just gone (Fathers Day here in the UK) I managed to get a couple of days on the boat - Saturday to do some maintenance and repairs which among other things included un-attaching the mast so as to do some maintenance on my roller furling gear (that's one to the left - the things you learn on a wargaming blog!) Don't ask, by the way, when we were getting the boat ready at the beginning of the season we had to "drop" the mast so as to do some work on the electrics and when we put it back up we must have put the furler on back to front! .

Everything went ahead as planned and it's always a boost when you do succeed at something difficult that you've been thinking and planning about for far too long...

On the Sunday of this weekend, and to celebrate Fathers Day, the two little'uns and I went on a massive 'voyage' ending up within about 50 yards of the open sea - it was a lovely days sailing was basically just a long run down wind, sitting in the sun and looking at all the boats... fantastic, and massively relaxing..


Distance: 11.5 miles (51 miles year to date)
Wind: Light (Force 1 gusting 3)

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Mackeral spoon...

Took the day off work last Friday (the weather forecast for the weekend was not good) and went sailing for the day - in the footsteps of Slocum and Chichester this was done single handed, and I had some of the windiest conditions to date to play in. Lovely days sailing, but bit cold and gray when compared to the last time... come on summer, make your mind up!!

The recently bought mackerel spoon was deployed, and although it looks pretty has so far only caught sea weed!!

Distance: 4 miles (36 miles year to date)
Wind: Moderate (Force 3 gusting 4 - perhaps 5?)

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Goose winged!

Apologies for the interruption to blog service folks - I promise you there's lots going on - it's just that there's not enough time to blog about them which in the grand scheme of things is probably the right way to go about life... do it and then blog!! So for your viewing pleasure the first of a few quick fire posts....

So - it's along weekend in the UK and most of it to date spent on the water - Saturday was a big race day at my local sailing club and I'd volunteered to man one of the rescue boats... bottom line I got to spend the day blasting all over the harbour in a nice comfortable rib, with a huge (for me) 40 horsepower outboard on the back, and better yet a nice little flag that meant the harbour master didn't mind me breaking the speed limit! Good day, though all the racing was delayed which meant we had a bit of a mud walk when we got back in...

Sunday though was a far more gentler experience as my littlest person and I took to the water in Papillon for the day... the outboard may be a tenth of the size, but it was an absolutely cracking day - we got the whole four hours of available tide, loads of sunshine, and although it was a little light at the beginning the wind soon filled in for some truly memorable sailing that had both me and little'un whooping... ace day... all capped off by a goose wing run from the bottom to the top of the harbour - and that has to be the most mellow experience known to man!

A little of what it was about.....



Distance: 8.5 miles (32 miles year to date)
Wind: None to Moderate (Nothing to force 3 perhaps gusting 4)

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Too windy!....

On the sailing front, just a small trip last weekend - the wind was up and in the interests of ensuring that at least some of the family still wished to come out next time I decided to curtail the adventure! 😏

Distance: 3 miles (23.5 miles year to date)
Wind: Moderate (force 3 gusting 4)

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A couple of fantastic trips..

A couple of fantastic trips out recently..

...I had the day off a week or so ago for my first solo trip - the fishing road was wielded in anger (caught nothing but I did get to reacquaint myself with rag worms - blechhh!). Most importantly a lot of confidence was built up; I can handle the boat on my own, and especially under sail... bodes well for a longer trip later in the summer. Even better though, I also caught my first brief sight of one of the colony of seals in the harbour - there's only 15 or so, but amazing to see one...

Distance: 6 miles
Wind: light (force 1 or 2)

The trip referred to above, however, was on bank holiday Monday. Not good tides as the high was at 8 in the morning, and at best I can only sail from two to three hours either side of that before the mud takes over from the water! Either way I dragged littl'est person from her pit at 7 for company, and we were motoring for the main channel by 8... very light winds at that time of the morning, but with a full flask of tea, and some good chat with my youngest and the time just flew by. Ace day....



Distance: 6 miles (20.5 miles year to date)
Wind: v. light (force 1 just 2 at times)

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.. oh dear...

... "oh dear"??

...well on Friday I went down to check the boat was OK and found it was not on the mooring and had been moved to another one.. no idea why... quite worrying...

..the tides being what they were the first opportunity I had to get down and check the boat was Saturday morning so after a 5:30 start (ouch!!) I found myself on the boat and holding the frayed end of the old mooring.. looks like it had frayed and broken at the point where it is secured to the big concrete block on the harbour bottom. She must have gone adrift, but some kind soul had rescued her and moored her safely - no idea who, but I owe them a beer as the boat seems undamaged in all respects! Whew..... now all I need to do is go mud wading to find the concrete block and repair the old mooring!

So - "oh dear" (and I can promise you what I actually said was slightly pithier that that..) but all's well that ends well - I have this Wednesday off and am planning my first solo voyage; fishing rod has been found, reel unearthed from the back of the attic (neither used for at least 20 years!) - should be fun..



Oh, and family had the first sailing trip last Monday - we hit nothing, broke nothing, no-one was seasick, the sun shone, the wind was ideal and they want to go again.. job done!

Distance: 3.5 miles (8.5 miles year to date)
Wind: light

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Launch day...

As promised, and requested (well one of you did!), just a few pictures of the boat post clean up and preparation...

These were taken on launch day...

..which was just about perfect in terms of sun, but we could probably have done with a little more wind (ie. there wasn't any until we got to almost our destination).

Backing up a trailer with a considerable amount of boat behind the car was an interesting experience - not trailed before anyway, and I couldn't quite get to grips with having to turn the wheel one way to make the boat turn the other!

Finally in the water, and tied up...

..beautiful day - see following - notice complete lack of movement on the water! Almost windless....



...followed by a gentle putter up the harbour to the permanent mooring. No breeze to talk of until we got to almost the end when we had a few puffs that got us moving (5.5 knots at one point!)...

All things considered a very successful first voyage at about 5 miles - couple of interesting incidents and lessons learned... first the lesson; stay inside the channel markers at the top of the harbour (where the water tends to be shallower) - my boat only draws a couple of feet, but we still managed to sit on the mud for a while!

Second the incident - biggest little'un took this for us..



...the rescue services were out and all people taken off safely - cycling to work later in the week I went past and the owner was there stripping out anything usable that was left - it had burned to the waterline. Happily the insurance are paying, but he advised me that this was caused by an engine fire.. very sobering end to a lovely day...

Distance: 5 miles
Wind: light to none

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