Ships Log - Yacht "Sparrow"

Didn't we have a lovely time
The day we went to Bangor (..err "Cowes".. though the way Smithy was steering it may as well have been..)
A beautiful day, we had lunch on the way
And all for under a pound, you know(..clearly not been to the Folly pontoon recently)

Day Trip To Bangor (Debbie Cook)
Those of you who follow the blog regularly will know that the Jolly Boys Outing to the Solent happens once a year, lasts three or four days, and generally involves us not getting to France while eating, drinking, talking bolleux and laughing far too much... we planned to do the same this year, this weekend in fact, but due to the Royal Marine Sailing Club (Rod's the member) changing the boat we charter for a new one, and the new one not having been certified for charter yet, the planned weekend has been shifted to September.. which left us with the option for a day sail in Rod the Mods boat to tide us over to then... we almost bit his arm off...

So it was that half nine on Sund…

Bit of a grey cold bank holiday here in the UK, and with also either early or late tides I decided (and decided fairly easily to be honest) to spend my day titivating the tender...

She was in a fairly sorry state so this was not before time... i've always operated on the tennet that i'd rather the tender didn't look like it was worth stealing, but I'm willing to accept I may have taken it to a bit of an extreme...  So, before shot... albeit after I'd sanded down the hull and woodwork..!


Hideous, I think you'll agree..  I got her about 4 or 5 years ago and haven't ever painted her hull...  you can see a poor repair on the side which dates from, err, yonks ago when I decided to use up some epoxy I had left over from another repair...  either way shabby doesn't begin to describe her..

Quick trip to Toolstation later though and I had some Flag Black Gloss, 4 disposable brushes, some nuts and bolts and I was good to go..

Two coats of gloss later and she loo…

Not quite what I was expecting...

Had hoped to get to Bosham but it turned out to be a low wind start to the day, and after 3 attempts to get past Marker (the wind was fair to about a 100 yards short of it and then turned to almost completely on the nose) in light wind with a big tide against as well we were reduced to spinning gently in the tide...

I was also feeling cold despite the sun, but it was clouding over so I thought "sod it" and turned for home... got back on the mooring just as the wind came up (which to be fair was what the forecast had said)...!


Packed away and tidied, said hello to Chris Partridge whose rowing club were having an open day (Chris, nice to chat... how is it that whenever I see you, you always have a lovely crew?? ), cracked a beer, contemplated the world, and went home.

Ah well, some days are better than others...



Log:

Distance: 4.76 miles (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top of the page)
Wind: Force 1 gusting Force 2.. started SW (…

....so the windex lasted exactly four weeks... posted "job complete" on the 13th April, and I went out to the boat to check all was OK yesterday (13th May) and it was bleeding gone....  nothing...  not a sausage....  gah!

Having said that, we've had almost non-stop gales ever since she went in - with a few notable exceptions (the first sail of the season, and yesterday) it's been wall to wall gales/strong wind...  last week it was so bad that on the Wednesday lunchtime I had to go out to the boat in a F8 as I was in danger of losing my sail cover...  stupid really, but I was convinced I was going to lose it, and the main, so needs must ....  took me three minutes to get to the boat, and twenty to get back...  knackered!

In all the years I've had the boat on the mooring I've not seen it that rough - waves were being picked up and blown as spray under the bridge. The wind was SW'ly so theoretically the boats on the Chichester side are protected from the …

Talk about a narrow weather window...  Saturday/Sunday were a wipe out due to wind and/or rain, but a very narrow window looked possible on Monday before the gales arrived with a vengeance on Tuesday. Serendipitously, Monday was a national holiday in the UK, so having cleared the absence with the family I legged it down to the boat and slipped away for a few hours of what mate Jelly Bean Phil calls "bimbling" [clicky]

Weather started sunny, but the breeze was a little fitful until I got to the end of the Northney channel when it started to fill in from direct on the nose with 2 knots of tide against...  gah...  left the engine on and motored down to Verner (for all buoy positions, see map below), before switching off, restoring blessed peace, and bearing away slightly on a beat across Pilsey Sands ...

No specific plans but I knew the wind was forecast to go round easterly as the day went on so I decided to head up the Chichester channel, see how far I got, and use the SE…