Glorious...

Glorious only begins to describe it..  these are the kind of sailing days you dream abut in cold January and February..  sun glinting on the water, full sails, tshirts, shorts and bare feet sailing...

A 16:00 HT but on the boat by 13:00, and away by 13:30 as they are big springs at the moment..  sails up in Sweare Deep and then proceeded to go backwards for half an hour! 😀  Winds very light, and the easterly's are back, and the aforesaid spring HT was pushing some serious amounts of water about (it was a 4.7mtr tide today) - check those tacks in the track below and you can see how little progress was being made, every time I tacked I was making about 3knts SOG but in the wrong direction..  still , who cares, the sun was shining..

Wind started to build about the time I was finally getting to Beacon, it also started flicking round 10' or so every now and again which gave a welcome lift..  winds definitely stronger over towards the Thorney shoreline, and for one tack I got an enormous lift that almost took me past Marker before dying and flipping back more southerly..  all in all though, very encouraging, she was moving well, and pointing well - some unofficial competition against a couple of Shrimpers was encouraging...

Started playing around with the genoa tracks and moving the fairleads back seemed to help with getting the genoa in a few extra notches..  really need to read up on how to use them better.

Turned for home just past Mill Rythe port marker buoy and then had a fantastic broad reach up the harbour (the 5.1 in the log, and a whole load of others, was on this reach back) with the wind building solidly all the time until by the time I turned the corner at Beacon going into Sweare Deep she was getting heavy on the tiller. 

One last goose wing run, and then engine on at Northney, sails down, and a lovely run under motor back to the mooring - more please!

Log:

Distance: 10.53 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction):  F2 and building ; SExS going SExE
Sail Plan: Full main and genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots):  5.1 / 2.6