Folk boats and genoa runs..

Fresh from the Boatshow and time to get out on Sparrow as the end of the season is fast approaching - my lift out is the 9th October, which is just the weekend after next, but add in some time to drop the mast, and also time to get the sails/boom off her, and I have a little over a week of available sailing time.

Weird old trip, in a weird old wind direction, but needs must...  😏

The strange wind directions continue, this time NE'ly, and as ever with winds with east in the direction, it was fractious and slightly bad tempered...   the temperatures are dropping as well - suspect the final trip(s) will now all be long trousers, and ..  intake of breath... socks...  😕

Remembering the last trip, I decided to do a genoa run down harbour - a northerly is almost dead downwind for a trip to the harbour so a main sail will always shadow the foresail rendering it useless...  I think in hindsight it wasn't the best decision, but that's sailing and learning...

So - engine on, warps off, and down the ditch again - I shall miss it over the winter, but I've done it dozens of times now... autopilot on while I sorted out ropes and halyards, and singled up the sail ties on the main ready for when I'd need it...

Just past Northney I rolled out almost all the genoa, and gradually edged further off the wind as I progressed - tracking the starboard channel markers. Main still down and stayed down until I eventually got to the bottom of the harbour. A long old run, in the sun, coffee in hand, fishing rod deployed, chatting with other boats as they passed.. lovely.

What a beauty - passed me as I was running down wind on just headsail..

All good things come to an end though - and as I've said before, for every downhill there's an uphill, and the wind was freshening (local weather beacon saw it edging into a F5), and undoubtedly I would need reefs in main and genoa for the beat up the harbour. 

Rolled in some genoa, engine on, turned into the wind, pilot on to keep her head to, main up, reefs rolled in, and then bear away slightly for the first beat... sounds simple, it wasn't...😁 

Few lessons learned, next time I'd roll all the genoa away - it easy enough to roll in or out, and means it's not flapping like a banshee, while heading into the wind and you're focussing on reefing. I also didn't have enough rev's on the motor to keep her head to wind properly - a few more would have helped, and when I later dropped the main to head home, proved to be the case. 

Cracking beat up harbour - tide was running so they were quite flat, but every tack was good for 200 or so metres towards the goal - four tacks, and we roared past Marker, spray over the deck, few more tacks and I was at the end of the channel for Northney and rather than drop sails in a confined space I headed into the wind and took everything in..

My mate Julian was out on his boat and got the following, which is always very nice...

Clean bottom apparently...

Neat as a pin...

Back on the mooring and the aforesaid Julian came past on his tender - club bar was still open - seemed rude not to!!  😀

• Oil levels checked - mid line..
• Couple of litres left in the tank - will need a top up

Log:

Distance: 8.2 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction):  Both ends of a F4; NNE
Sail Plan:  Genoa down, reefed main and 60% genoa back
Speed (Max/average in knots):  4.5 / 2.3