Poking the nose into Emsworth

I'm now in weather sniping mode - the weather and the seasons are rolling on and you have to grab an opportunity when it presents itself.. so just a short trip on an otherwise late'ish tide..

HT was 15:44 and a spring'ish 4.39 mtrs, also the westerly's remain with us and just for once the forecast was almost entirely correct. F4 gusting F4 (so both ends) but the forecast was saying westerly, and what we actually got had some north in it.. a slightly awkward direction - it makes the Emsworth channel a beat on the return, and it makes getting to the Emsworth channel a dead down wind run...  

So... on the boat by half 12 quarter to 1'ish, got everything set, had the "should I, shouldn't I" internal discussion about reefing, as the gusts were a little spicy, but I took the call not to* - dropped the mooring, circled and put the main up while head to wind and then headed down the ditch...

* What a mistake'a to make'a - they do say that if you have to think about reefing, just do it, the brain has already made the right call, and so it was here..  we were careering down the ditch doing 3.5 knots under just main, downwind, and against a 1.5 knot tide before I knew it..  so at the end of the ditch, I turned and rolled in a slide's worth of reef .. like I should have done in the first place, and everything calmed down.

Loooooong glorious goosewing run down to the Beacon, and then I could bear away to make the angle of dangle to bring the wind back over the quarter and get the genoa pulling on the same tack - nice run down to Marker but I had a yen to try something different and with this wind direction it might just work. 

Tacked at Marker and headed for Fisherman's - been a while - it was time to go up to the top of the channel to Emsworth itself - first though a couple of fun facts... 

One, the county border line runs up the center of the channel, so I think I went up via West Sussex, and came back via Hampshire.. 😁

Second fun fact is to do with the island you see in the main plot below - that's Fowley Island, and back in the early 70's the location of my capsize drill as part of the RYA Dinghy Part 1 course I was on... all I remember was it was chuffing freezing, and that a Wayfarer is a big old boat to get upright...😏

This is it..

..it was used for temporary oyster storage back in the day - the ponds are man made and date from the mid 19th Century, but in latter days were the site of my RYA dinghy capsize drill.. 😏

In fact there were a couple of dinghies in there today as I came back...  that brought back memories.. 

...couple of small dinghy's taking advantage of the high tide to sail into the centre of Fowley ..

Brilliant to see... anyway, tacked just past Fisherman's, as the wind was proving elusive and I didn't fancy having to start tacking as there was a fair amount of boat movement, and then ran back to the bottom of the upper channel before tacking twice from the Beacon back towards the moorings and then putting the engine on for the return to the mooring..

Nice to see Jolly Boy Dave out!

More reading on Fowley (if you're interested), here:

• https://web.archive.org/web/20170824220839/https://www.emsworthonline.co.uk/Emsworth%20Oyster%20Trail%20Leaflet.pdf
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fowley_Island

Log:

Distance: 7.51 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): Both ends of a F4 ; WNW
Sail Plan: Full/reefed main and 90% genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots): 4.4 / 2.9

Hard work

MASSIVE tide for this one at 4.96mtrs, which, if my tide tables don't lie, is one of the two biggest tides of the year (the other one is in April) - the forecast though was showing sun and a solid F3 and who was I to pass up the opportunity of a mid week sail at this stage of the season - winter is a long time going.. 😏

We'd also had notice that this was going to be a busy old weekend in my part of the harbour - a regatta at Emsworth, and also the round Hayling race, so best get my sail in before the crowd turn up for what many will be seeing as the last weekend of the summer..

With a 13:45 HT, I was on the boat for 10:00, very little water about (the low water level on a Spring that big is something to behold) but we managed. At least when the tide turns, it comes in quick - but I still much prefer a neap..  

Having seen the weed at the waterline the last time I went out, I'd brought the broom with me this time for my usual scrub round the waterline, the rudder in particular was looking a bit 'Brian Blessed', and as usual I notice the port side was worse than the starboard (I reckon that side is more shaded as when she's floating the tide flow in the pool will generally have her nose pointing east?), but with no concrete evidence to prove it yet (we'll see in four weeks when she's lifted) I think the barnacles are less this year?

All sail covers off, sails made ready, engine warming up, and I dropped the mooring at just after 10:30 ; heading for the bridge I put the main up, and then gybed for the ditch. Wind was dead westerly, so dead downwind, not much of it (low end F3) and no help from the genoa (covered by the main). I estimate there was an adverse 2 knot tide so the engine stayed on even after I got enough angle of dangle to deploy the full genoa at Sweare. 

Motor sailed to about the midway point between the Beacon and Marker, hugging the west side of the channel to stay out of the deep water flow, before eventually switching it off mainly for some relief from the noise...  progress was then being made, but not much more than a knot SOG.

The wind throughout all of this had been no more than a low F3, but as we passed through the Marker bottleneck, heading for Verner, the wind began to perk up a bit, and the sun came out...  happy days..

Reaching Verner after almost two hours (!) of sailing I was clearly on no 'speed run', so with the wind continuing to build I turned and headed back. It was a close reach so I rolled away 10% of the genoa as she goes up wind better with that.

Lovely sail to Beacon and I toyed with the idea of going back down, but some ominous grey clouds were building to the west, and I had somewhere I needed to be, so engine went on at Beacon, and I tidied up as I headed for home..

Turned out to be a good one...

Log:

Distance: 7.05 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): Both ends of a F3, gusting F4 later ; W
Sail Plan: Full main and full/90% genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots): 4.0 / 2.3

Autumn's here..

Almost like someone flicked a switch..  after months (well, weeks.. 😏) of sun and warmth and high pressure systems, someone found sixpence for the meter and turned the Autumn on..  but as usual I get ahead of myself..

So HT at 11:22, and a fairly chunky 4.5mtrs - definitely Spring'ish. On the boat by 9'ish, I got everything set and dropped the mooring about quarter past. 

I still had the reefs in from the last sail and had already decided to leave them in based on the forecast (F4 gusting F5, going F4) - as I was getting the boat ready I didn't feel any need to change my mind on that as there were a few sharpish gusts coming through. With the wind direction being what it was I had the choice to put the main up in the pool by the bridge, but in the end decided to wait and puttered off down the ditch, before eventually turning 180' and putting the main up just off Northney..

Pointless rolling the genoa out with the direction it was I was just off dead down wind, but I did roll it out and ran goosewing to just past the Beacon, before turning and then having a (very) broad reach to the bottom of the harbour.. I also took out the reefs, I got the impression the wind was calming..

I don't have a chart plotter so finding that
channel was sheer luck.. 😁

As I say, autumnal definitely - it was cool - ended up with extra layers on...

At NW Pilsey (why is it called NW Pilsey, by the way, when it's actually south and east of the NE Pilsey buoy?😏), and roughly 20 minutes before HT I tacked and headed for the top of the harbour. Was hoping to ride the last legs of the tide, but to be honest it was already slack where I was - I tend to work from tide times at Northney at the top of the harbour which is about 15-30 minutes later than at the harbour mouth where I now found myself..

From the peace of a broad reach to the utter mayhem of a beat in a rich F4 with a full rig - finally got her going though, and because there was still lots of water I had the benefit if being able to make long tacks outside the main channel, including one cracking one where by sheer luck I found the channel that I'd last used on the seal watching trip a year ago..  just as well I had a close eye on the depth, the 2 and 3mtrs I was seeing didn't bear any resemblance to what they should have been in relation to the main channel markers - tacked to cut the corner and saw less than a meter underneath before I re-joined the main channel! 

Seventeen tacks brought me to the Beacon , where the engine was engaged for the trip back to the mooring directly in to a headwind..

Since the last trip and that abortion of a mooring pick up, I'd been thinking about putting together a mooring aid/line of the kind Dave used - one spare line from the cockpit locker and a snap shackle later I'd put one together so thought I might give it a try. Happy to say it worked perfectly - another tool added to the armoury..

...that trip takes me over the 100 mile mark for the year..  about time to.. 😁 

Notes/work items:

• trolly wheels for the tender need a look at - one of them is sticking
• patched some scratches/nicks in the cockpit locker lids 
• the hatch covers are looking scruffy and need doing
• will bring the broom out next time - she's looking very weedy round the water line
• got my lift out date - October 12th

Log:

Distance: 10.27 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction):  Both ends of a F4 ; NWxW
Sail Plan: Double reefed / full main and 75% & 90% genoa.
Speed (Max/average in knots): 3.9 / 2.4