Stocker and back..

Far too long since the last sail on Sparrow, but I blame the delay on getting, and fitting, my lovely new engine, a week in Greece, and then a succession of trips out with the Jolly Boys..  so lots of sailing but not enough on Sparrow!

A bit of a spur of the moment trip this one - it was a late tide (16:45) but having completed the chores, I was looking at forecasts for the the next day and rest of the week and it is beginning to get windy so I thought I'd take advantage of what turned out to be an absolutely quintessential F3 and sunny day in the harbour - glorious!

So on the boat about half two'ish, cleared everything away, fired up the new donkey (so quiet, and purrs like a sewing machine), dropped the mooring and headed for the channel - overtook a Leisure 17 as I was heading down the ditch looking very nice (I do like small sailing cruisers), raised the main and rolled out the genoa just off Northney marina and then started the now traditional beat against the tide towards Marker. Lot of fun as Sparrow was shifting very nice in the top end F3..  3.8/3.9's against the tide is very pleasing...  bit of fun tacking and racing the Leisure 17 before he headed off back to Emsworth and I continued beating down to Marker.

New genoa sheets are a success, tacks are much quicker, and the sheets are not too thin that they cause discomfort to the hands. Tacking on the 1mtr line each side of the channel helps as you get bigger tacks, and also the benefit of less current in the shallow bits - even with the Emsworth dinghy fleet out in force and racing across the main fairway, in 8 tacks I was past Marker, and once past Marker the channel widens further, so even longer tacks.

A beautiful evening and the wind was staying with us, so I finally turned for home and a glorious down-wind run just after Stocker (which despite having sailed in the harbour for years I didn't know was named after either Stocker's Lake, a deeper water pool only revealed when the tide is out, or the sands that sit between the lake and the main channel)

Spotted this beauty heading for home, as I got towards the bottom of the harbour..  this is Freya [clicky]

Lovely sail up harbour, goosewinged from just after Verner, until I dropped the sails in an increasingly lightening breeze just shy of the Beacon, and then motored home putting everything away as I motored back (got to love a tiller pilot 😀) 

Back on the mooring just shy of two hours after HT, and I wouldn't have wanted to leave it much longer..

Log:

Distance: 11.95 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): Both ends of a F3; SWxS
Sail Plan: Full main and genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots): 4.3 / 2.8

Engine hours: 45 minutes