Pilsey dash..

Bit of a 'honus bonus' this one as despite the lack of quality sailing time on Sparrow (been out on lots of other boats though..) this weekend was looking distinctly sub optimal to reverse that trend..

Tides were 7 and 7 (morning and evening), and in addition to that Sunday was looking stupid weather'wise.. add in grandson sitting duties (the significant women are all working) and I'd settled for a non-sailing weekend with perhaps a spot of Americas Cup highlights to get me through.. you can imagine my delight then when grandson was offered an overnight at his other grandparents, and having gone to the aforesaid it was still two hours to HT! 😁

Just a quicky then.. on the boat just shy of 1800, whacked in 3 sliders of reefs on the main as Cambermet were reporting solid F5's. Made the mistake of leaving the main up as I thought it might be easier, it might still be, but when I dropped the mooring the effect was to drive her broadside to the wind towards my neighbours boat (even with maximum free main sheet).. Not good - distinctly amateurish in fact - no damage done though, except to pride as I had the outboard on and a burst of reverse saved the day. I'll remember that next time..

Swift run down the channel on main, wind was strong, 3.5's/4's (knots) against that last of the tide on just main. Rolled out genoa as I went past Northney and then we began to shift... 'turned the corner' by Emsworth Beacon and came on to the wind and she was a handful so rolled in a little more genoa (six rolls) and that balanced her nicely. Shot down the harbour, tacked at Pilsey, and then shot back up the harbour.. superb sailing, the spray was being thrown about and it was sunny, very few other boats about...

Main down/genoa furled at Sweare Deep and back on to the mooring in the face of a strong wind directly down the channel by 19:30'ish

...blew the cobwebs out nicely!

Log:

Distance: 6.43 miles (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top of the page)
Wind:Force 5 gusting Force 6; West by South
Sail Plan:Reefed main (3 sliders)/genoa between 6 rolls and 4 rolls - engine to manoeuvre...
Speed:GPS track says the max speed was 5.5 knots (which would have been under sail) - average speed 4.1 knots (another fast outing!).