The Ageing Four go to Cowes (again)..

Not quite the 'Famous Five' (one of the Dave's was otherwise occupied 😏), but, with apologies to Enid Blyton , the 'Ageing Four' hit the waves again this week, for the next in our series of fortnightly sailing trips...

The easterly's continue - it became a feature of last summer and so far this year it is very definitely a feature of this one too..  it has been noticed, and there is much discussions on the various forums, but in essence we have a high pressure area north of the UK which is generating day after day of sunny weather here in the mid south coast, but the winds are easterly, and they can be a bit on the cool side..  the other decider is the jet stream which is currently split north of that high pressure, and way down south over north Africa...  so for the time being nothing changes until the high and/or that jet stream shifts, we get the sun, and the Med gets the rain.. 

As a result of all that though, it can "limit" the one day options in the Solent - in a NE'ly then Bembridge/Seaview/Priory Bay are still options but the anchorages are exposed, same for Osborne Bay, Lymington/Yarmouth is too far - we could easily get there but the return trip would be a long motor slog back to the east..  Southampton/Hamble/Beaulieu were all options, and we did talk about them, but we like Cowes, so there you go..   we did agree to go East Cowes this time though, otherwise Island Sailing Club might offer us loyalty cards.. 😁

So - the team conjoined at Rod's gaff at 08:30, on the boat by 09:00, slipped the pontoon 30 minutes later - you might almost think we knew what we were doing..   slipped down harbour under jib, slipped round the corner onto the inner swashway, and once we had sea room turned and put the main up - as we were running mostly broad or dead downwind we didn't bother with a reef.. 

Two hours pontoon to pontoon and we were there - fastest trip I think we've had, but the sailing was marvellous - sun glittering on the water, good breeze, tide under us, mid to high 6's all the way on the SOG

Lunch was in The Ferryboat and was very good, and very large... 🍔

Not surprisingly there was an amount of snoozing once we managed to roll back to the boat, and besides, the sun was shining and we needed to wait for the tide to turn anyway..

Carbohydrate poisoning... 😅 

The trip back was also awesome - as per the track below - lonnnnnng boards, only tacking when the wind veered enough to head us away from our eventual goal..  five tacks and we were at the main channel and ready to bear away for the harbour entrance - just as the wind decided to start building...  shot through the harbour entrance, jib away by the ferry, main away at the turning and we were back on the pontoon drinking tea and eating Smithy's scones (with fresh cream foresooth!) before heading for home... what an awesome day and I'm already looking forward to the next one!

Log:

Distance: 29.39 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction):  F4 gusting F5 ; NExE
Sail Plan: Reefed main and full jib
Speed (Max/average in knots): 7.4 / 2.6