Last sail of the season... soldiers wind!

Last sail of the season...  

The weather fronts are marching in off the Atlantic and up the Channel like a metronome - a cycle of westerly based (sometimes with some south, sometimes with some north) over the next week in varying degrees of strength, and with varying degrees of "dampness", mean that I have had to pick and choose carefully to get the last sails of the season in, and I reckon today was it...  

I have two windows left and they are allocated - one to take the sails off (tomorrow/Monday as I write) and one to drop the mast (Smithy and Rodders are rocking up Thursday morning), and then she comes out a week today...  the summer is over...  

Jumping ahead of myself though - looking at forecasts my best bet was Saturday for a sail, but even that was 50:50, as the forecasts looked a little 'brutal' for a 20-foot day cruiser (apropos of evidence, the club dinghy racing the same day had 5 DNF's out of 9, and by all accounts was a bit "full on" 😁). 

Winds were top end 4 gusting 5 all morning according to the weather station at the bottom of the harbour, but the clincher/decider for me was the westerly, as that brought with it the last warmth of the season, and it would be back to shorts/tshirt for this sail.

On the boat by 13:00, 16:00 HT and a big one, so once again there was a lot of water slopping about - winds were as per the beacon, so the reefs from the last sail were left in (and I toyed with the idea of putting some more in the main but didn't). Pausing only to top up the fuel, I dropped the mooring and headed for the ditch, putting the main up early, by the bridge as it was an almost dead westerly, straight down the ditch.

Something wicked this way comes...

I'd learnt my lessons - engine was on so it made sense to do the main then, rather than worry about getting it up later in a blow when the engine is off, and the genoa is rattling round your ears. Cracked 75% of the genoa as I bore up at the end of the Emsworth channel, and then tracked the starboard channel markers close reaching towards the bottom of the harbour, spilling the gusts as and when they came through..

...and then buggers off 10 minutes later!

The wind was pretty full on and was building the closer I got to the bottom of the harbour, looking over my shoulder I could see ominous black, and showers of rain running over the Downs, happily they all passed without dumping, but it was getting colder, and in the end enough was enough, and I headed back to the mooring,,. saw no more than half a dozen cruisers all day - surprising considering the forecast today!

Back on the mooring there was an interesting swell running - pretty rare and I put it down to wind over tide, both of which were high side..  fingers crossed there's none of that nonsense on Thursday when the mast comes down 😀

• oil checked and topped up (need to get that fixed before next season)
• 2.5 litres fuel added

Log:

Distance: 7.19 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction):  F5; W
Sail Plan: Reefed main, 75% genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots):   5.9 (and that was under sail!) / 3.2