Feisty soldier..

Needs must when the end of the season is approaching ..

The lift out dates are already up on the club calendar - looks like it's an interesting approach this year with  two separate lifts starting on either 12th, or 24th October - no idea yet if you can choose the date or not, time will tell.. 😏

..but so it was, that with the rest of this week busy, and after a week of no tides last week, even WITH the forecast I was keen to get out..

Ah.. the forecast - well no rain, and it remains warm, but we had a F4 gusting F5 on the books - time would tell whether it turned up (though the day before had been the same) but better than all that, potentially, it was an easterly! Long reaches to either end of the harbour - a belter of a direction..

HT was 11:08 and at 3.88m considerably more manageable than the man mountain of water we had last time I went out. On the boat by half 8, I started tidying up and getting stuff ready, with an easterly like this it would be a motor to Sweare deep so I had plenty of time to get the sail cover off and sail ready while I was motoring. I eventually dropped the mooring at 0845, and headed up the ditch in a spiky breeze - wasn't so much the wind as the gusts that were coming through..

By the time I'd got to Northney I already knew that it was not only going to be a reef but probably a double one so I hoisted the main while we were motoring almost head to wind and rolled in two sail slides of reefing (I don't have fixed reefing points, and with roller boom furling I can roll in as much as I like within reason, so I tend to do it based on the number of sail slides rolled down to the boom.. two slides means about a foot and a half rolled away off the bottom of the main)

 

Isle of Wight in the distance

Cranked everything down as I got to Sweare Deep as I came off the wind on to a beat, but only for a short time - even with a couple of knots of adverse tide we were seeing mid to high 3's (knots) through the water.. 

Eastoke ahead

..and it was soon enough over as we came further round at the Beacon onto a broad reach, and hurtled towards the bottom of the harbour..  

Two reefs had definitely been the correct decision, even with that she was a handful at times - tiny bit unbalanced I wonder?? Maybe needed either a little more (or less) genoa to balance her, but she was going like a rocket.. high 3's against a solid 2 knot tide, even with a weedy bottom..

Thanks Simon!

.. down to HISC, past HISC, past Fisherman's, 'Bar Beacon?' I wondered, but as the tide turned I was just past Eastoke, and decided to head back as with the wind as it was it would be a beat. It was, but only as far as HISC as I could then start bearing away again for a close reach back to Marker with maybe the last legs of the tide under me..  seeing 5.5's here..

Enjoyed it so much, I tacked at Marker and went back to HISC before finally turning for home - dragging the main down just after Beacon, and with genoa still out I motored back to the moorings where it then went went decidedly interesting.. 😁

With a gusty F5 NE'ly blowing through the moorings, along with a whole load of current*, and it proceeded to be a right bastard to get the pickup buoy on board, too much engine and you overran it, not enough and there was no steerage. In the end (and after three attempts just ended up with me overrunning the mooring), Jolly Boy Dave (who was heading back to shore after some pottering on his boat) suggested a long line from the forward cleat back to the cockpit, run outside the genoa sheets and standing rigging. Line through the top of the pick up while sat in the cockpit near engine controls, tied off, then with engine off the boat just drifted back to sit on the end of the line, which then allows you the time to go forward and just pull yourself in - worked a treat, I'll remember that, and thanks Dave! 👍

...fantastic days sailing - out again on Thursday with the Jolly Boys for what would have been an overnighter, but which has been foreshortened to just the one day due to weather.. 🤞

*(the moorings are fairly ambivalent to tides, as the water flows Chichester to Langstone pretty much all of the time - something to do with our location a the top of the harbour, and the fact that Chichester is way bigger than Langstone, so water is looking to drain from Chichester via Langstone - bit like an osmosis effect)

Log:

Distance: 13.79 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): F4 gusting F5; ENE
Sail Plan: Double reefed main and 75% genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots): 5.3 / 3.4

Intermittent puffs and some rafts..

Short meander on yet another very hot and sweaty day..  32'C and almost windless - which would have been good news for the raft racers in the front of the pub opposite, but not so good for a sail..

I'd put off going the day before because the conditions were if anything the same, but wanted to get out as I had a couple of jobs to do and I was missing Sparrow

So...  on the boat for 12'ish, as todays HT was 14:24 and at 4.94m an absolute beast of a spring tide..  the water was fairly ripping through the moorings.

First order of the day was to fit new genoa sheets - the old ones were worn, and beginning to fray so this was long overdue. The old sheets also had a matt finish so by way of an experiment the new ones were of a lighter and slipperier feel to see if it helped with the sheet transition when tacking... 

That done, I topped up the tank with 5 ltrs of fuel, and started up the metal donkey to warm up while I got the boat ready to go. Lots of noise and fun from the pub opposite, might be a bit more peaceful down the harbour (wishful thinking on a hot Saturday!)

Dropped the mooring at 12:30..  motored down the ditch and then went head to wind off  Northney to raise the main before bearing away for Sweare Deep and rolling out the genoa - wind was fitful at best, and northerly, and the tide was problematic. When I turned the engine off to sail, at times we were doing half a knot backwards.. 😏

Then when I got to Sweare I found that one of the Emsworth Sailing Clubs was running an RS Tera Open event that weekend, and there were 50 of the buggers racing at the top of the Emsworth Channel... 😁

Ah well - couple of enjoyable transits between Sweare and the Beacon, but with no wish to do a very slow run down the harbour only to have to then fight upwind all the way back, it was back to the mooring to tidy up, watch some of the antics across the way, and go home for a beer..

Piccie courtesy Farcebook - you can just see Sparrow in the background..  just... 😁

Piccie copyright Scenic Eye

Log:

Distance: 3.73 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): F1 gusting F3 ; NxE
Sail Plan: Full main and 90% genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots): 5.2 / 2.2

Greek dog..

Another cracking sail with the Jolly Boys - it was possibly the hottest day to date though, so it was good to be one the water in what was a decent breeze for most of the day..

Passage plan was 'to meet at Rod's gaff at 0830' (yeah that's about as much detail as we go into 😁), HT was 12:01 and at 4.6mtrs a big'gy. As it turned out we were all clearly keen to get going, and the boat was on the move barely an hour later..

Scenes of interest as we left - AmiLy's pontoon is right opposite the ferry port, and Brittany had clearly reached a tick the box day as they were testing the lifeboats - never seen them doing that before..  with people in them to provide scale you then realise how big the big one's are...

...and how small the small one's are! 😂

Glorious day in the harbour..

..but yee gods that water was churning in the entrance to the harbour - bow and stern were being kicked all over the place..

Long broad reach to the island was perfect, but the wind direction was a little fickle by the time we go to the island side as it was coming over land and twitching about a bit, but even so it was a good run - good speeds (4.5kt's SOG) thanks to tide. Lunch spot was East Cowes and the Lifeboat again - soz, we like it - good food, decent price, well kept beer (but a slightly conservative selection)

After a snooze in the heat - and Smiffy and I had to deploy the beach umbrella's as the sun was merciless - we then upped sticks for the "event". Yeah - a solar eclipse was due that evening and the plan was to watch it from the boat, as with a 17:18LT we'd need a couple of hours before we could get back on the pontoon. 

Wind was dead on the nose ('natch!) so we motored to just off Fishbourne (on the island) here the 'angle of dangle' was then such that with the sails up we had one of the best close hauled tacks I can remember in some time - the wind angle was just right, we had 20+kts of breeze, and AmiLy just went for it - tide was in our favour so even as we were beating for the other side we were also being swept sideways in the direction we wanted to go...

Once in the harbour we refuelled, and having done that pulled her back along the pontoon, and awaited the event.. 

Two old men and a pin hole card - please admire the socks.. it's important to him.. 😁 

...while they were doing that I went to have a look at the Clipper Race fleet - the first of their new generation boats has just arrived and is an absolute beast...  hoping to have a closer look at her in the near future, as my bro-in-law works for them... 🤞

We're not easily pleased and most of us thought the eclipse was a bit "meh" (as the young people say), so after a few beers we were back on the home pontoon and heading for home..  

Next one will be an overnighter..

Log:

Distance: 27.6 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): F4 going F2 ; ESE going SE
Sail Plan: Full main and genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots): 7.2 / 2.3