At last...

Between this..

Result of a small contretemps with the ground when I came off Gertrude, my electric bike..
..rest easy she came off considerably better than I did.. 😀

...and this...

..bye bye 48 hours I'll never get back (where I slept and took paracetamols alternately)..
but thankfully, very thankfully, that was about it for me..  "trust in the science", damn right..

...and also to be fair a weekend of almost flat calm windless'ness, I was more than a little ready to get out on the boat!

Huge tide weekend then, Springs with a vengeance, 4.3Mtr tide, but along with atmospheric pressure (sky high) easily higher than that..

Nothing outstanding then, on the boat for 1300'ish, aforesaid HT at 14:45'ish, so a lot of water sloshing around, and the pub across the way were having their annual raft race for the first time in two years so all in all, damn busy!

Old oyster boat Terror was out giving rides..  she's surprisingly quick..

No plans for the day, which was sunny, and very warm with a decent breeze, that you could tell was being assisted by the heat..  motored to Emsworth Beacon, and with the wind almost directly up the harbour, carried on motoring to Marker (or I could have said good bye to the rest of the afternoon just tacking to get there against tide) where the laundry went up, and I launched off across Pilsey Sands, tacking  back to the main channel when the depths went to sub point seven of a metre...  with two hours to HT even if I'd touched I would have been OK.

Arrived off East Head on roughly HT less 30 minutes, picked my way gingerly across the main channel (every man/woman and his dog/cat were out, on anything that floated), rounded Snowhill..

...and then had an absolutely delightful goosewing run on the tiller pilot all the way to the top of the harbour..

Dropped the sails in Sweare Deep, and back on the mooring after almost exactly 3 hours of  very relaxing sailing..

Brilliant..

Log:

Distance: 11.58 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): F3 gusting F4; SWxS coming around more southerly as the afternoon went on
Sail Plan: Full main and genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots): 4.9 / 3.1