Blechh..

Short old trip out - on paper the forecast had looked good but as so often happens it was not what we got.. 

NW'ly breeze, and there was definitely some bite in it, both strength and temperature'wise - Cambermet was showing similar at the bottom of the harbour..  Pondered while I topped up the fuel tank, and ended up putting in a small reef on the main as the problem was the gusts rather than the general strength..

Dropped the mooring and headed for the ditch, rolling out some genoa as I went down it - wind was on my left shoulder so no need to turn down some extra assist..  even so, on minimal rev's and against tide we were seeing 4.5 SOG. Went past Northney and turned back on myself to raise the main. before bearing away for a goosewing run to Sweare Deep.

The wind was being  bit..  "spicy"...  basically NW'ly, but in the gusts it was swinging 10' either side of that so the downwind run was err...  interesting! 😏

Bearing away as we went past the Beacon the wind came round more on our shoulder again, but in the lee of Hayling dropped, before building again as we approached Marker. Time to decide what we were going to do with the day..  I didn't fancy the bottom of the harbour after a long run/reach as it would be a beat all the way home, but the direction was interesting and warranted an attempt at the channel up to Emsworth (Fishermans on the track picture below marks the northern end of it). I thought it could possibly be done on a single tack

Turned and headed back, at which point the apparent wind honked up a whole force, and the swing in direction from the gusts became even more problematic. I didn't fancy being up that constricted channel, on a tack, with gin palaces either side suddenly being headed, oh, while the tide was still running..

"Sod it", quoth I..  it was grey, I was getting cold, I wasn't enjoying the sailing, so sails came down and I motored back.

Short trip - hour and a half'ish - blew the cobwebs out, but it was enough..

Interesting problem when I got back in to the tender to come back to shore - one of my rowlocks had gone missing! I reckon it had got caught on the tenders mooring rope and just pinged out as the tender moved around..  happily, I had a spare in the bottom of the tender, but otherwise I'm sure I could have lashed something up with some spare line..

Log:

** 2 litres added to the fuel tank **

Distance: 5.1 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): Both ends of a F4 ; NW
Sail Plan: Reefed main and genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots):  5.3 / 3.5