Eastoke excursion..

..another Friday excursion, and it would definitely appear that autumn has arrived in the UK..  after weeks and weeks of 30 degree sunny days (which I loved) and light winds (not so keen), where I hadn't had to reef since last season, the last two trips have both been under reefs, in fact for this trip I used the reefs I put in last time - glad I hadn't taken them out, saved time..

Just under 3 hours on the water then, and a sunny start that clouded over by the hour, and cool..  three layers by the end of the trip, but to be fair the last layer was only right at the end, and only because rain was threatening... 😀

A most unusual wind direction for these parts, WNW and gusting meant a fast trip down the ditch under genoa and motor..  main up outside Northney, and then a broad'ish reach all the way to the bottom of the harbour in, errr..  occasionally boisterous, conditions..  Cambermet is showing F4 gusting 5 (which I've logged) but the conditions were actually more changeable than that, as the wind was up and down quite a lot but only for short periods of time..

A cracking trip then, topped off only by this coming over as I almost reached the bottom of the harbour..  been a long time since I've seen her (this is the two seat'er Spitfire from Goodwood), or more importantly, heard her..  cracking...

Traveled down past HISC, past the lifeboat station, before finally gybing at Eastoke, wished fellow club boat "Shahin" a good journey as they went past (they were on their way to a club gathering at Yarmouth this weekend) and grabbed this excellent shot over my shoulder..  Bembridge in the distance, Eastoke point in the foreground..

WNW is not without some disadvantages of course, and most unusually, to get back from the bottom of the harbour you have to beat up harbour..  feels weird but there you are..  but what a sail, top end four and more all the way back and backing and veering occasionally, so I had to put in a swift tack to make Marker...

...just shy of the bottom of the Emsworth channel Terror came past and I got this - sums up the day to a "T"..  big clouds, big skies, and breeze...  she was absolutely motoring...  love this picture..

...with this direction of wind the chance of a trip up the Emsworth channel was on the cards, but as you can see in the last picture the clouds were closing in, the wind was building (and there are a lot of boats up that channel..  a target rich environment indeed) but we were also getting the occasional spot of rain, so a decision was taken to drop the laundry and head for the mooring.. sods law of course, the sun came out once I was back on the mooring...  never mind, quite possibly one of the best mooring pick ups I've ever done put a smile on my face!

....and that little trip takes me through the 100 mile barrier for this season.. 😏

Log:

Distance: 10.79   (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind: WNW; F4 gusting F5
Sail Plan: Reefed main; reefed genoa.
Speed: 4.5 / 3.2 (max/avg)

Harbour dash...

Out for just shy of 3 hours on a work day, can't be bad..

Breezy and blustery old day, but humid, warm, and occasional sunshine, meant for a pleasant interlude dashing from one end of the harbour to the other..  southernmost point reached just shy of West Winner (but past HISC)..

So, top end four gusting five, but from a pleasant almost dead west, which meant easy beating to the bottom of the harbour (I even spotted one of the foiling Moths almost at the entrance of the Emsworth channel so they were enjoying the direction)

Put the reefs in on the mooring (roller reefing and rolled down to the first batten) then put the engine on to warm up while I prepared all the other ropes and lines, dropped the mooring, motored to the bridge which was dead into wind so I out the main up, and then motored to Marker. As I came around the 'Northney corner' the breeze began to come on, and as I looked up from sorting out various ropes a seal was looking at me from about 20 yards away..  magical..

Met Pete in his immaculate Trident half way up the channel - he'd been out for the whole tide, and had beached her for a good scrub - something which I think I will need to consider soon, as I notice Sparrow is getting a good growth, probably a scrub on the water rather than a beaching..

Very busy day in the harbour, lots and lots of dinghy's out by East Head...  huge fleets!

PS. Thanks for the piccie, Pete..

Log:

Distance: 10.13   (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind: F4 gusting F5; WxS
Sail Plan: Reefed main (first time this season) and reefed genoa (75%/80%)
Speed: 5.7/3.1 (max/avg)

Solent jolly..

What a cracking day...  the Solent at it's finest - perhaps a tiny bit more breeze would have been welcome, but I enjoyed every minute...

0600/1800 HT and only just over 4Mtrs so an early start was called for - left the house at 7, quick stop at the garage for a full can of fuel and some supplies (a BLT - I'm on a diet so the Full English Breakfast Triple was ignored..) and I was on the boat and getting ready to cast off by 8..  I have found that the new outboard arrangements, by the way, while at first a worry, are making for faster prep time when it comes to sailing...

Pushed off down the ditch towards the end of the Emsworth channel, and then motor sailed to Marker doing over 4 knots over the ground with the tide..  switched off the engine for a quieter sail down the harbour, and then put it back on for a quick motor out of the harbour before finally switching off by the Bar Beacon.. was shot out of the harbour like a cork out of a bottle of fizz..  6.5+ knots SOG..  thank you very much

Glorious weather - force three breeze all day, east to start with and then slowly went south as the day progressed and the sea breeze kicked in, and ideal wind for heading west (or east come to that, but there isn't really anything worth seeing that way, though I may have to try it one day..), so in terms of destinations I decided not to bother with the Nab, but go for a mini cruise along the north shore of the Island (of Wight..) or as much as I could do anyway..

The sail over was one of the best I can remember - by 10:30'ish I had already made landfall just to the south of the Bembridge life boat station..

Landfall - Bembridge life boat station.. click to 'embiggen' this or any other piccie on the blog by the way...

I toyed with the idea of continuing along the south shore of the Island but decided my original plan was good, so came inshore, and then turned north rather than south to run down to Bembridge and Seaview..

...was tempted to follow the coast to the south of the island - that's St Catherine's in the far distance.. Culver Down cliffs nearer, and just under the pulpit you can see the Yarborough Monument.. 

...and enjoyable hour or then ensued as I ran slowly down wind towards St Helens Fort ..   lots to see...

...it really is a very pretty island..  that's Priory Bay and Seagrove Bay in the distance with the start of the "built up" area of Seaview..

...just past 1 and I decided it was time to head home, BLT consumed, the Kindle was deployed, and I had another superb sail across to the West Pole..  half a force more and it would have been perfect...  saw this beauty on the horizon - always nice to see the tall ships with the sails out - no idea who she was..

Got to the West Pole about half past or quarter past 2, and then turned for the harbour in what was now almost a dead south run - rolled away the genoa for the last time - main was shadowing it and it was doing nothing but flapping..  just past the West Pole the engine went on for a quick push into the harbour, but was switched off again just as we passed HISC.

There was no way we were going to get on the mooring before 3 so a gentle run with the wind and tide up to Northney - the fishing rod was deployed (no bites), and after an aborted attempt at the ditch to the moorings (I could see the bottom so turned back) I picked up a spare mooring off Northney, tidied everything away, sat and watched the world go by, and then finally dropped that mooring and was back on mine by half 4 - job done...

Brilliant day - and if it wasn't for the fact we still have 11 weeks to lift out I reckon this would be a shoe-in for the trip of the year...!

Log:

Distance: 28.62 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind: F3; started ENE going dead S over the course of the day..
Sail Plan: Full main and for once, full genoa
Speed: 6.5 max/3.1 avg

Tack, tack, tack, tack, tack... err, tack...

Despite the glorious weather I have to confess it's been a poor sailing year so far, looking at my mileage for this time last year I am well down..  reasons??  The aforementioned weather - you don't get day after day of warm sunny weather with not a cloud in the sky with wind unfortunately, so when I've got out we haven't gone far; couple that with a period in hospital (nothing serious), some weekends where the tide has been stupid o'clock, some weekends where it has been blowing old boots (last weekend!) and the sum total is where we find ourselves..  que sera, it is what it is... 

Yesterday was quite possible the hottest day of the summer..  a 'Saharan plume' the weather gonks were saying..  either way I was knackered from too much work, so took the day off to get some (hopefully) sea breeze coolness..

It was a good day despite the fact it was 8 miles of tacking against a foul tide...  no matter, it was so good to get out on the boat, and it was cooler out there than on shore.. a cracking day even if I didn't catch anything and got nowhere.. 

Tides are good on Sunday for an all day'er..  stand by your beds..

Log:

Distance: 8 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind: SWxS; F3
Sail Plan: Full main usual genoa
Speed: 4.0 max/2.3 avg