Wednesday 29 June 2011

In the West Country

We left Emsworth in fog and went around the South side of the Isle of Wight without seeing it until we were nearly off the Needles. From there we had variable winds take us to Studland Bay during which we caught mackerel (dispatched with our new priest) in time for a delicious fried mackerel and rocket sandwich for lunch.  We reached Studland Bay late evening and a friend canoed out to meet us; we cracked a bottle of champagne to celebrate being off at last.
The following day we did jobs and then moved round to Swanage to meet up with friends for the evening.  We left the following morning on a marginal forecast and had a fast and wet sail to Dartmouth with the wind varying between NW and W with a short choppy sea with the wind vane steering doing most of the work.
The sail yesterday has given the boat a good work out and today we will check her over and do a few jobs, tomorrow we aim to sail round to Salcombe.
Going down the West Country to Falmouth is our shakedown cruise to make sure that all the new systems are working and to get rid of any stretch in the new rigging; it is a full time job keeping up with stuff at the moment!

Friday 24 June 2011

A weather window

The forecast is for moderate South Easterlies on Sunday and then Northerlies from Tuesday so if it materialises we will finally be off.  First stop will probably be Studland and then on to the West Country.  We will probably go South of the Isle of Wight as it is the round the island race this Saturday so I reckon the Solent might be a tad busy!

Tuesday 21 June 2011

Sailing promotes phlegmatism

After wonderful weather in April/May when we were not able to sail a succession of lows has been sweeping in from the Atlantic bringing strong winds from the direction we need to go in so we are still in Emsworth, though the upside is that we have got more jobs finished; The cockpit tent is finished and looks great.

There looks to be a weather window on Thursday/Friday that will enable us to get out of the Solent to Poole.

Our biggest problem is managing the amount of stuff on board as we are near the design weight limit for the boat, we were wanting to have enough tools and spares to be totally self sufficient but we will have to compromise; but there again we will be mainly doing coastal sailing so it is an acceptable risk.

Helen is now a Granny so a visit to Yorkshire is also scheduled and we are hoping the weather starts improving after that so that we can have a leisurely journey West and South.

Tuesday 14 June 2011

Back on the water

We were lifted back into the water this morning and I am writing this at anchor off East Head in Chichester Harbour.  The new tabernacle is working and the furler seems to be working OK with the new forestay and bridle.  I changed the shroud lashings to spectra which has enabled me to get a lot more tension in the rig so we should sail better.

We still need to finish sorting out the boat so we will be pottering around the Solent for the next week (also it is forecast to be strong winds on the nose with heavy rain so we are not in a hurry to sail off into that!).

It is just great to be back afloat!

Saturday 4 June 2011

And we have a trysail

Made my first sail last week: a try sail (emergency / heavy weather sail) made out of bright orange material so it will show up for miles. Pics to follow.

Minus a gall bladder and almost ready to sail

Our last sail got aborted when another boat lost control in the marina and knocked off a rudder.  The accident coincided with my getting a short notice appointment to have my gall bladder out so after a 4 week hiatus we are back on the boat and aiming to start sailing in the next week. 
The downside is I have not been abl to do much physical work until now, the up side has been that we have got lots of other stuff sorted out and are about to fit a tabernacle so that we can raise and lower our mast on our own (which means we will be able to do it anywhere we can dry out safely without incurring the expense of yards and cranes).
One of the things we have found is that our little SSB radio can pick up weather faxes and save them on the laptop which will be a big help when we are out of range of the internet and the shipping forecast on radio 4.