Both ends..

After what seemed like weeks of cr*p weather (and in fact it was - as the last trip out had been a fortnight before 😁) the weather gods finally played ball and had a day off from the almost constant wind (F7 and 8 is pretty much the norm for July) and rain and gave us an "OK" day..   nothing outstanding, and not as good as the forecasts promised, but not far off..

Mid afternoon HT and we're currently experiencing one of the two "super moons" this month will feature so the water levels were high..  a 4.8mtr tide, which is about as high as it gets in this part of the harbour, meant that it was always going to be hard work getting anywhere against it, but an early start and a promised NW'ly meant that a quick transit to the bottom of the harbour was possible, and that direction would also allow some fast sailing on the last legs of the incoming tide..  hopefully... 🤞

...and so it largely was, brisk wind had me thinking reefs might not be a bad idea, but in the end I decided not to and play it by ear..  motored to Northney - turned on myself to put the main up, then engine off and bore away, rolled out the genoa and goose winged down to the Beacon before bearing away for a long very broad reach to the bottom of the harbour - unfortunately with the wind dying as we progressed..

Got to Fishery on the last breaths, and turned with the tide for the top of the harbour - target in this wind direction was Emsworth (the local fishing village) for the first time in a while. Long beats as the wind gusted and didn't, and swivelled between 10 and 15 degrees but the reward was a single squeezed tack to Fisherman's, before a fluky and heading wind caused me to bail out, gybe and run for home..

So good to get out, but we have another named storm rolling through this weekend, and another Met Office yellow weather warning.. 😒

Notes: 

1. Fuel top up required...  
2. We've reached 4 hrs of run time on the engine.

Log:

Distance: 11.23 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): F4 going F2 ; NNW going N
Sail Plan: Full main and genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots): 4.3 / 2.6