Kings Ransom delivery..

Just back from a stupendous day on the water delivering Kings Ransom (t'other Dave's ride) from the sailing club to Port Solent..

Dave is in the same sailing club as me, and over winter keeps her ashore there (as do I), but during the season, as mentioned, he keep her on a rented mooring in Port Solent. He was late going in for the start of this season  as he was replacing rubbing strakes and he needed it a bit warmer than May usually provides for glues to go off, etcetc. so had opted for the second, later, lift, which was this week..

As the rest of the Jolly Boys™ (😁) were otherwise engaged and elsewhere it turned out to be just the two of us, but Lord above what a glorious day on the water...

Met up at Port Solent to leave one of the cars there, and hot footed it off to the club arriving just in time. The lift in comprised 5 boats in total, and all being bilge keel'ers they were all dropped onto the mud to await the tide...

HT was 12:45 (an hour earlier at Portsmouth) and was a big'gy at 4.9 mtrs. Having had a cup of tea and a chat with other club members while we waited, we were on board by 11:00'ish, and my track starts at 11:30 so she floated fairly quickly. 

A lovely run down the harbour on engine, and we were at the harbour entrance about 20 minutes before HT so the transit through the harbour entrance was trouble free, but once outside we took full benefit of the west going tide, which to be frank provided most of the motive power on the day - wind was light, and we had a halyard wrap issue on the genoa so couldn't deploy it..

https://www.pnbpropertytrust.org/historic-boats/boatdetails/motor-gun-boat-81/68/ [clicky]

We took the outer submarine barrier channel and ate lunch as we drifted more or less in the right direction, just a puff of wind keeping us on track, enjoying the sites on shore and on the water, and in no more than an hour we were off Pompey heading to the small boat channel..  historic MGB #81 (pic above) passing us outbound as we were going in - lovely to hear those engines - the guns are replica's..  😀

One of the nicest harbour entrances visually there is I reckon...  😊

Similar trouble free entry to Portsmouth as well - must have almost been dead water and we were expecting it to be troublesome, but timed it just right before dropping main just about where we do when we're on "AmiLy" and heading up the channel for Port Solent, and a trouble free locking and (more importantly) berthing...

Thirty minutes then ensued sorting out the halyard wrap issue, which turned out to be caused by the (new this winter) run of the halyard missing a diverter at the mast head.. 😁 Wanting to avoid a trip to the mast head, and I could see Dave would have done it but wasn't keen as it is a faff, I had another idea...  We unwrapped the genoa (manually), and then unshackled the foot from the roller drum, which allowed us to hoist the genoa another 6-8" up the foil, and so the top swivel that much closer to the halyard exit point, we used a strop to reattach the now raised foot back to the drum, and fingers crossed we went for a roll in - it worked! Fingers and toes crossed we then rolled it out...  double success!! Good result, a mast head climb saved, and a fine end to the day..

Log:

 

Distance: 14.47 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top) 
Wind (Speed; Direction):  F2 gusting 3; SSE
Sail Plan: Full main
Speed (Max/average in knots): 9.4 / 3.9

Sniffing the Solent

Quick and dirty, but oh so satisfying...   and the sailing wasn't too shabby either..   😁

Early'ish tide, but the weather was extraordinarily good, and we had another interesting wind direction forecast..  prevailing round here is supposed to be SW'ly (straight off the Atlantic) but it's been an "interesting" year so far as the prevailing winds have been all but 'prevailing'..  so it was today with a Westerly for a change..

We're heading into Springs, so a large'ish HT at 10:30 would allow for some sailing until well after lunchtime without having to abandon my Sunday lie in too early..

Arrived at the boat 9'ish, and had dropped the mooring by 09:30, for an absolutely idyllic run down the ditch under genoa only, NW'ly very quickly went Westerly, so turned and hoisted the main just shy of Sweare Deep, before bearing off for a close reach to the bottom of the harbour..  the wind continued to vary very slightly north and south of West, allowing a very quick passage to HISC, which I passed, and then set course for West Winner (the partner to Eastoke)..

As the wind gusts increased I took her off auto pilot to hand steer as she was luffing heavily, so I decided to gybe at West Winner and head for home..

Nice reach/close haul to the top of the harbour in the sun with increasing wind, riding the lifts to get past Marker on one tack, before dropping sails at Swear Deep and motoring back to the mooring.. 3 hours of utter delight...

Log:

Distance: 9.85 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): W; both ends of a F4
Sail Plan: Full main and genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots): 5.3 / 3.1

Thorney Jubilee..

Blimey - that was unexpected... but I'm jumping ahead of myself.. 😀

It's a long Jubilee weekend here in the UK, celebrating the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, the 70th anniversary of her accession to the throne on 6 February 1952. Two days of national holidays on the Thursday and Friday, plus the weekends gives plenty of sailing opportunities, but despite it being June the weather would have us believe otherwise..

Forecasts for the Saturday and Sunday feature rain fairly heavily and also strong winds, so it was that with Thursday off the cards due to other commitments, I found myself on the boat on Friday in weather that was not quite what I was expecting.. 

More easterly's (unusual), and grey, and surprisingly little activity in the moorings..  tides were slightly neap'y, and after putting 4 ltrs of new fuel in the outboard tank (she was getting a little low last time), I eventually dropped the mooring at 12:30 and motored all the way to Emsworth Beacon before raising sails and bearing away for the bottom of the harbour..

Paused to take the reefs out of the main from the last trip out and there then ensued a truly lovely reach down harbour..  even against a strong tide she was doing 2.5/3...  shot past Marker in record time and I was thinking about a trip out to the Bar Beacon or Eaststoke, when almost like someone flicked a switch the wind shot round southerly (the weather charts show a 20 degree shift within 5 minutes) and I had to start tacking..  I had my first seal sighting of the season about here, it swam past without a concern in the world about 20 feet off my lee quarter, fantastic..

Change of plans, and as I reached Fishery, I bore away for Itchenor Reach and East Head ..

Busy East Head ahead..

Wind now on the beam again, and with the last of the tide giving me legs, I had a gentle reach past the busy beach, past the entrance to the Prinstead Channel, past Camber weather station, drifting gently on (tide was cancelling out wind which had gone light) before finally deciding that enough was enough and gybing to return...   

Tacked off Thorney spit (the water was very shallow!) to get some deeper water, and then bore away again for HISC as I passed Snowhill ("old friend")

Delightful almost run through all the anchored yachts off East Head, before having to endure the motor boat induced chop across to Fishery for another (brilliant) reach up the Emsworth Channel back to the mooring...

Rammed..  (as in 'lots of boats', not impact damage 😀)!

Dropped the sails near the Beacon, motored to the mooring on auto while I cleared the gear away, and I was in the Sir Loin of Beef drinking Summer Lightning by half 5..  stupendous day!

My mate Julian was on had to record events for posterity on the way back to Emsworth and sent me this (among other pictures), thanks Julian..  😀

Apropos of absolutely nothing by the way, that's the longest single tide cruise I've had since this  epic sail [clicky] in May 2016 (!) Also apropos of absolutely nothing, it just goes to show what you can do when the wind direction is other than the prevailing SW'ly

Log:

Distance: 13.93 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): Bottom F3 gusting bottom F4 ; E going S going SE (!)
Sail Plan: Full main and genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots): 5.5 / 3.0