Not the best of days to do a shakedown cruise on an entirely new boat, but needs must and the charter was paid.. either way, we did a lot more than I thought we were going to be able to do at the beginning of the day!
So Saturday saw us take a 40 foot Jeanneau "Ocean Waves" out in far too much wind.. but no one was killed no one injured, and boat was returned in one piece.. full marks I'd say given the conditions
Bramblemet shows it as F6 or 7 gusting 8 while we were out... we used heavily reefed main only and just a short trip to get the feel of the boat before we use her to go to Cherbourg on the Bank Holiday weekend in two weeks tine..
So out from the pontoon into the harbour and the (totally unexpected) sun came out, main up (eventually
) with two reefs in (would have gone for 3 but the cringle wouldn't reach the reefing horn which made us think no one had ever reefed that much before!), cracked a little bit of jib and headed for the entrance of the harbour...
Absolutely barking out there but a quite astonishing feeling to be sailing in control in that much wind - most impressed, and very exciting... I've lost the track for the afternoon (user error!) but we were consistently seeing 7 knots plus, and when we got back into the harbour at the end of the session I saw an average speed of 5.5 knots..
So out to the Outer Spit cardinal, rolled away the jib on the way (didn't need it), turned at the cardinal and headed back into the harbour for a few circuits up Fareham Creek before taking her back to the pontoon as the wind picked up even more.
So all in all about 12 miles, most enjoyable...roll on Cherbourg!
So Saturday saw us take a 40 foot Jeanneau "Ocean Waves" out in far too much wind.. but no one was killed no one injured, and boat was returned in one piece.. full marks I'd say given the conditions
Bramblemet shows it as F6 or 7 gusting 8 while we were out... we used heavily reefed main only and just a short trip to get the feel of the boat before we use her to go to Cherbourg on the Bank Holiday weekend in two weeks tine..
So out from the pontoon into the harbour and the (totally unexpected) sun came out, main up (eventually
) with two reefs in (would have gone for 3 but the cringle wouldn't reach the reefing horn which made us think no one had ever reefed that much before!), cracked a little bit of jib and headed for the entrance of the harbour... | |
| "Gray Power" |
So out to the Outer Spit cardinal, rolled away the jib on the way (didn't need it), turned at the cardinal and headed back into the harbour for a few circuits up Fareham Creek before taking her back to the pontoon as the wind picked up even more.
So all in all about 12 miles, most enjoyable...roll on Cherbourg!
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