(So good was the forecast in fact, that when I offered youngest daughter a trip out she jumped at the chance... you could have knocked me over with a feather... )
Either way, having given daughter plenty of opportunities to change her mind, Sunday morning found us both down at the club, and loading the tender - the wind was manageable, and I took the decision to take out the reefs I've seemingly had in all summer, fired up the donk, and by 9:30/10'ish we were heading down the Northney channel to the harbour. The wind direction was an (entirely strange) easterly - very rare... what it meant was that the wind was cold, but it also offered up a number of interesting opportunities in the harbour, as that is a reaching wind for up and down the harbour length...
Turned off the donk just off Emsworth Channel and we then reached down the harbour against aforesaid tide and we were still seeing 3 and 3.5 knots - cracking sailing, loads of boats out, but the gusts were fierce so off Fisherman's I hove to and put the reefs back in (😁)..
Bottom of the harbour and I had a choice, either to continue the reach out into the Solent or do something else... given the wind had continued to pick up and was an almost constant high 4 low 5, and given the size of the tide, I decided against Solent (especially as youngster was with me) and went for a trip up to Prinstead - a nice trip, and loads to see....
So, hardened up on to the wind at Verner, slipped across the corner of Pilsey Sands heading for East Head, tacked about 100 mtrs off the beach, and had just enough offing to make the entrance to Prinstead Channel on almost one beat (saw a yacht aground off of the entrance to Prinstead so did a quick tack to keep clear.. looks like he freed him self OK), bore away and rocketed up the channel - an absolutely lovely sail... turned at the top to head for home against an ebbing tide, and had a glorious sleigh ride to just off HISC where we turned for home, and put the engine on just at the beginning of the Northney Channel/Sweare Deep...
Little'un (she's not any more, but habits die hard) motored us back, and also took us on to the mooring, which gave me the opportunity to both tidy up and get a new view of Sparrow under way ==>
A brilliant day, but fairly cold, and made all the better by seeing a seal in the moorings as we were tidying up - daughter was delighted (so was I!)
* TISC - Thorney Island Sailing Club
Log:
Distance: 16.21 miles (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top of the page - that takes me over the 100 for this year...)
Wind: F4 (top) gusting a good F5, direction NE, goin E almost immediately
Sail Plan: Reefed main (two rolls) and reefed genoa (between 2 and 4 rolls) - engine to manoeuvre...
Speed: GPS track says the max speed was 4.6 knots (which would have been under sail) - average speed 3.2 knots
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