Harrison Butler...

Funny old day but a midday tide is not to be sniffed at...  after the glorious weather on the Saturday (wall to wall sunshine, warm, and a breeze) the weather gonks were predicting a bit of a damp end to the day, and the weather apps were all showing pretty much the same..  F4 or 5, gusting 6, SW'ly, cloudy, ending in rain - when I got to the boat though, it was warm, sunny and no more than a 3!

Unpacked everything, thought long and hard, and decided to take the reefs out I had put in last weekend, the tiller pilot is a bit of a game changer...  if I needed to put them back in then the pilot makes it a lot easier to do.  Then I had a problem getting the outboard to start, I suspect that I had caught the choke cable when I put the engine cover back on, as it was not working - managed to start it under throttle, took the cover off to check all was ok, the choke was then working (hence the assumption), put it all back together again, left it to run for 5 minutes and as there were no further problems, dropped the mooring and we were off..



Like I say, funny old day, definitely not what was forecast..  the wind did come up, but Sparrow was never really pressed as the gusts were short duration. I rolled away a bit of jib but that was it, and then it was a single tack to the bottom of the harbour and I just kept going..

I wasn't quick enough, but this came past at a rate of knots and was a thing of beauty - I think she's a Harrison Butler, and I think this may be her..  http://www.harrisonbutlerassociation.com/PhotoArchive/Vindilis/Article0044.html

Past HISC, I could see the West Pole and the Bar Beacon and was considering going for them but it would have meant tacking in the entrance to the harbour on a busy Sunday, or putting the engine on, and to be blunt I couldn't be faffed with either..    Bore away and with the last legs of the tide under me had a lovely reach up the harbour before being headed and having to pull all the string in to get to Emsworth Beacon (at the bottom of the Emsworth Channel)...   pilot on, head to wind (which was straight down the cut), sails down, engine under pilot to the mooring, job done...

Chris with his new (to him) Centaur "Iris Blue"..

Beer in the cockpit for me, and a cup of tea for fellow club member Chris, to talk about his new Centaur ended the day very nicely..

Log:

Distance: 9.74 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction):  Top end F3 gusting F4 ; SWxW
Sail Plan: Full main / full and reefed jib
Speed (Max/average in knots):  5.4 / 3.4