...and we're out.. that's a wrap..

...and that's it for the 2025 sailing season..  Sparrow is now out..

12:57HT and a mahoosive 5.2M rise saw me on Sparrow, having cadged a lift out on the club launch, at about 11'ish - big Springs like that take their time coming in, and then it's like someone switched the light on and they are just there..

Waved goodbye to the rest of the Jolly Boys (who were going round the island for lift out on Dave's boat) and I thought I'd have a go at retrieving the top tackle from Sparrow rather than have to come out again in the tender, so I slipped a mooring line through the top shackle of the buoy, hauled it in, made it fast so as to make reaching it easier, and applied largest spanner and wrench that I had to the shackle that secures the swivel to the mooring buoy shackle...  and bugger me if it didn't come undone! 👏

Very very good indeed.. clearly application of lithium grease at the beginning of the season had done the trick!

Much cheered, I deployed some fenders, rigged mooring lines, and dropped the mooring for the last time for the motor under the bridge - tide was flowing fast and rising rapidly, I reckon I got under with no more than 30 minutes to spare..

Picked a spot on the pontoon, pulled her back to make room for the big boats, and waited my turn..

..really could do with a mid-ships cleat..

...we're trying a new system this haul out - which is to pressure wash the boats as they are lifted... it saves turning the hard standing into a boggy morass, as normally we would all pressure wash once we get put down, but that also slows us down - the lift team were planning on only about 10 boats a day for this one..

..and a wash..!😁

..three boats later and about an hour after high it was my turn..  no fouling video (again) this year as the lift out and pressure wash were so quick, no damning evidence could be filmed - suffice to say she was hideous...  a solid carpet of barnacles on the inside of both keels and the hull between, with weed and slime all over..  no wonder she was slowing down towards the end of the season...

..awesome skies for lift out, but warm'ish and more importantly no rain..

I've got a good spot this year, top of the yard, right next to power and water, and more importantly away from the spot I've had last few years which always seemed to form a puddle - most irritating when you have to work under the hull.. 😏

So - first ticks..

• outboard is off the boat, has been flushed, and is now safely on it's trolley in the garage
• cockpit locker lids have been swapped out for the (over winter) temporary ones - they're also in the garage awaiting the first sand, and primer
• the windex bit the dust sometime during Storm Amy - with the mast down, a windex will always get lateral wind force, and Amy was too much - the direction arrow/pointer has gone.. 😒
• new boom cover has arrived

Catch up - deliveries, boatshows, mast drops

Been a bit busy, so by way of a catch up...  

First - the Southampton Boat Show..  much chat and blather on the so'shuls (sic) about how the show is 'a mere shadow of it's former self', 'much smaller', 'full of expensive food emporiums', blah blah blah, but I would say that the event is one of my favourite of the year, and after this years attendance, is still one of my favourites..

...busy cruise liner port is Southampton..

Yes, the surface area is reduced over what it used to be three or four years ago, but I still managed to spend the entire day there and come home feeling like I'd rushed bits - well done the organisers, another cracking show..

Stand outs - the Halberg Rassy 69 without a doubt

Second main cabin..

Main main cabin.. what you don't see is the mahoosive (40"??) TV mounted on the cabin wall facing the bed..😁

LOL...  the Jolly Boys can only dream..

Full colour!

..there you go - yours for about £4.5M, plus VAT, plus any extra's you want to kit her out with..😏

Next ..this caught my eye (following) - very futuristic (reminded me of a Star Wars storm trooper).. 

More here.. ALARIS™ 6.0 [clicky]

While I correctly identified it as electric, I quite incorrectly assumed that the 6 referred to a HP rating..  it's not, it's to do with the Kw power rating - 6Kw is the equivalent (if I understand it) of a 9.5HP petrol engine..   looking at the price list it's about £8K (including VAT), tiller version is available (which I suspect will cost more), and you will also need to source your choice of battery..  this is as far as I can tell, cutting edge for Tohatsu, as I think it only hit the markets at the beginning of the year - be interested to see if they release some other sizes..   it needs to be cheaper if it's going to get general acceptance..  I can buy five of their brand new petrol 6HP's for the same price as the engine alone...  never mind the battery's as well..

Next - delivery time...  the first of the Jolly Boys boats to leave the post season water was AmiLy, a much reduced contingent of just me and the skipper took her round from Whale Island to her winter quarters in Port Solent...

..always a bit of a downer if I'm honest - just a reminder that we now have 6 months of dark, cold, and rain before the boats hit the water and we can start sailing again.. 😔

Trouble free trip - including filling the tanks ready for the winter hiatus..

😍

Then next it was time to drop the mast on Sparrow [clicky]

I'd tried (and tried!) to slip in another sail, but a combination of tides, weather, and unavoidable commitments elsewhere meant it just wasn't going to happen, and with time slipping on, and Jolly Boy availability being key, there was no time left. The mast has to come down before lift out, and with some pretty dire weather in the forecast for this weekend, I went for it while I still had time.. 

So it was that Dave, Rodders and I (as Smithy had an unavoidable appointment with a tree surgeon) conjoined on Sparrow for the now traditional mast drop, beer, and pork pie combo..

One of the best drops we've done I think - no issues - certainly one of the quickest as I'd had time to do a lot of the prep before they arrived..  always a relief when it's done though, and what a gorgeous day to do it on, warm, sunny and no more than a light breeze..  perfect..

..and then last of all, the winter refit starts here ..

..the one it's replacing did as well as the one before it, having also lasted about 6 years - which works out at about a tenner a year..  I can live with that. The old one was paper thin, beginning to split, and generally had had it's day..

Next stop, my lift out which is next Wednesday.. 

Kissing the putty..

Just a quicky - I had a feeling it would be, before I even left, but with the lift out fast approaching (week next Wednesday) and the need to get the mast down (probably next Tuesday), and a long winter of no sailing and dark days approaching it had to be done..

HT 13:59 and another massive Spring at 4.7m, but the forecast was telling me it was going to be a NE'ly which would be good, but unfortunately a F4 gusting F5..  yeah, more wind...😏

...and so it was - the forecast was spot on - and it was a northerly, and I've said it before, they can be a bit fractious, and so was this one...

Chose to go with just the genoa once I got to Sweare Deep, and then do a run down to Marker before I assessed what to do (go further or turn for home) - it worked, but I had to roll some back in as conditions were indeed fractious...  wind over (considerable) tide was creating a little swell'y roll. and I eventually bailed out about a 100 yards short of Marker - I wasn't enjoying it, it was cold, and it was grey - time for a beer..

Gybed and headed back - wanted to see if she'd go under just genoa, and because of the tide we were seeing 4's SOG!

One beat though and it was time to tack, and she (or rather I) missed stays.. gah...! Too far over, too thin in the water department, and the depth hit minus zero (an ever so helpful "out" message 😁) and the engine went on pronto, the sheets let fly and we reversed out successfully..  phew..

...and that was it - slow'ish motor back to the mooring, and home for aforesaid beer... now  can I get one last sail in????

Log:

Distance: 4.85 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): F4 gusting F5 ; NE
Sail Plan: Full/reefed Genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots): 4.7 / 2.6

Really, really, the last sail of the season..

...well...  on AmiLy anyway..

....in the midst of what seems like named and unnamed storms ("Amy" has been and gone, but most of them have been yellow weather warnings so unnamed) the Jolly Boys had spotted a keyhole window of opportunity..  one single day in a sea of hideousness...  so we grabbed it with open arms - but regrettably, only two of us made this one as one of the team was on holiday, and one was otherwise unavoidably detained..

So it was that just Rodders and I cast off from Whale Island at about half ten, on what seemed like an unfeasibly large and empty AmiLy, about an hour or so after HT. If the forecast was to be believed we'd have a day of sunshine and F3 southerly's, and bugger me if it didn't go and deliver that (again!). That's the second time the forecast has been right which must be something of a record..

With as much water as we had we exited the harbour accompanied by paddle ship Waverley - we took the inner swashway, she didn't.. 😏

...coffee and pain au raisins in the surprisingly warm sun while we considered our options for a day sail, but with the wind occasionally light, and very southerly, we soon ruled out Hamble/Itchen (we'd have a long beat to get out of the rivers for the return trip), Beaulieu (nowhere really we wanted to go and eat at), and Newtown Creek (no food on board), and so it was that (again.. 😏) we wended our merry way to Cowes.. we're not pushing the boundaries but we really do like the Lifeboat for food, and East Cowes Marina is 'nice people' (hope it remains that way now that Boatfolk have been bought out by Premier) and easy boat parking as well ..

.."easy boat parking"..

Cracking sail over, just enough wind to pull us along nicely aided by the west going travelator tide. We hugged the north shore to allow full effect of those southerly's blowing over the island.. and we were also treated to a flight of four Spitfires overhead, coming into Daedalus for an airshow - what a sound and sight...  four Merlin's! 😀

Another excellent lunch, a snooze, and it was time to head for home - the east going tide was kicking off at about 15:30, and with dead low water at 16:00 in Portsmouth a departure then would coincide with about a couple of hours of water at the home end, which is just about the minimum/required depth...

The sun shone all the way until right at the end when ominous haze began to develop over the Isle of Wight, and it got cold..  amazing sky though..

...and then just as we were coming into Pompey, we had another fly past - but not Spitfires this time, it was an honest to goodness Catalina - never ever seen one before, what a treat - was too busy to get my own shot so this is courtesy of the named photographer who had taken the shot at the airshow..

Picture courtesy John Pace

Fantastic day out, but that really is it for AmiLy - we took the main and stack pack off on the pontoon, and she comes out of the water next weekend..  what an amazing season it's been, and what a brilliant sail to end on..

Log:

Distance: 21.93* (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction):  F3 going F4; SSE going SWxS
Sail Plan: Full main and genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots): 8.2 / 2.7

* bit more than that to be fair, as the GPS was playing up at the start of the track and didn't start recording until we were off Browndown

Spicy tack-o's

So close to not going as it was tipping down at the time to leave the house but I was keen to get out in what are now turning to autumnal days - and with the lift out only weeks away..

Huge tide today of 5mtrs at 13:30 and my goodness it showed..  it was also (despite my heartfelt wishes) a dead southerly so I was already set on the trip just being a 'sail back and forth' kind of a day - and with a F4 gusting showing on the forecast I chose to leave the reefs in the main from the last sail - good job as it turned out..

Either way - showers out of the way I was on the boat at about 12'ish..  engine warmed, sails made ready and I cast off to head for the ditch..  it was a bit "spicy" wind-wise in the mooring pool, so I chose to head down the ditch on just motor, eventually putting the main up off the entrance to Northney marina.. 

Motor sailed to Sweare Deep before rolling out about 2/3's of the genoa and switching the engine off for the first of what turned out to be 28 tacks...  yeah, I gave up on the idea of just sailing back and forth and went for Marker - which was dead upwind, and with a 3 knot tide against... as I went round the NE corner of Hayling, we started getting gusts and in the end the whole trip turned out to be F4 gust F5

I've said it before but tacking against a 3 knot adverse tide can be either humiliating, or hilarious, depending on your mood, but check these...   with wind sometimes veering 4 or 5 degrees, and the tide, on at least two occasions, probably more I ended back where I'd started! 😂

No tide lasts for ever though, and an hour or so later and it was slacking and as you can see in the track the angles started getting better..  roared past Marker, tacked and bore away for home for a lovely goose wing run home..

Fantastic sail despite my initial forebodings, and just goes to show that sometimes you just have to say "f*ck it", and go.. 😏

Log:

Distance: 8.56 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): F4 gusting F5 ; S going SxE
Sail Plan: Reefed main / reefed genoa (75% and 66%)
Speed (Max/average in knots): 4.4 / 2.6

Tall Ships kind of a day..

The end of the season is fast approaching and the Jolly Boys are extremely aware that we're about to enter the six month fast, the desert of no sailing, light, or sunshine - so an opportunity with a not quite quorum was grabbed (Dave was otherwise occupied at Duxford) as it could quite possibly be the last sail of the year on AmiLy (bar the delivery for lift out which Rodders already has booked at the end of the month). 

No news yet on Sparrow's lift, though I have already received two duties for the lift out week in the first week of October so I know it's not far away

Anyway - we've had weeks of wind in the aftermath of Hurricane Erin - she is now well gone but the "aftershocks" seem to have lasted for weeks...  it's been day after day of F5's and 6's, including a memorable day last week of F8's gusting 9, so the opportunity for a day out on the water was grabbed with all hands - and it turned out to be a keyhole as the wind was back the next day...

Anyway - convened at Rods gaff at 9, and we were on the boat with sails ready, engine warming, and mooring lines singled up by quarter past 10 - HT was approximately 10:45 so we were looking to take advantage of the west going tide..

Initial concerns focussed round the lack of wind - it was forecast F3 but there was precious little about as we motor sailed past SHABAB OMAN II, moored alongside in the dockyard  the first of two tall ships to be seen that day..

...all the signs were that there wasn't much wind about as we passed through the harbour entrance...

...when bugger me if not half an hour later it filled in. 

NW'ly as promised, and we then had a most excellent beat all the way to Cowes - how nice for it to be (not quite) on the nose as it normally is - and a healthy F3 gusting occasional F4 saw us turning in a solid stream of 5's SOG before we dropped the main off Cowes at 1'ish for lunch at the Lifeboat (it couldn't not be really, given this was likely to be the last time we got there until next year)

Quite possibly the finest burger in Christendom - the "Greek One" at the Lifeboat in Cowes..  11/10...

A quick nap after lunch, and we were back on the water at about half three, heading home in time for the change of tide - the main was raised just after we passed this beauty (built in 1869) - our second tall ship of the day..

TS Belem - not my photo unfortunately

..and we were then on our way - the wind had switched while we were eating and for the trip home it was a (slightly stronger) SW'ly that saw us turning in tidal assisted 6's SOG almost all the way home, and that was after we rolled the genoa away as being no more than an irritation behind the main....

Back on the pontoon at about half 6*, we had to agree that it was one of the best sails we've had this year - almost wall to wall sunshine and a decent breeze all day..  fantastic..

*slight delay as we were waiting for this understated number to depart, but they took so long that "bugger it" quoth we, and snuck in while they were sorting out.. 😏

Virgin Cruises "Scarlet Lady" - which allowed Rod the final snigger "it's not every day you see a scarlet ladies arse"... 😁

.."a scarlet ladies arse"..

Going to SO miss these Solent trips over the next few months.. 😕

References: 

• SHABAB OMAN II - Sail Training International
• BELEM - Sail Training International

Log:

Distance: 28.26 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): F3 AM going F4 PM ; WNW AM going SW PM
Sail Plan: Full main / full & no genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots): 6.8 / 2.9

Seals!

Fantastic morning out with the family this week with Chichester Harbour water Tours [clicky] on one of their seal watching trips..

I've seen the seals many times on my various ambles round the harbour, but this is without a doubt the closest I've been to them..

..but not too close - most impressed with the instructions from the boat skipper on the day to 'keep it quiet', 'don't move too fast', but most of all to 'enjoy the views of these Grey (they have the longer noses) and Harbour seals'..

..most impressive herd (??).. colony..  I counted 36+ minimum, all sizes, and some still out swimming..

..they pull themselves out on to the sandbanks along the edge of Thorney on low tides - apparently to digest the 7-15 kilos of fish a day they eat - they hunt on the high tides..

Very much recommended..  and fascinating to go further into Oar Rythe than I've been before - skipper reckoned he had a metre or two under the keel at dead low water...

Log:

Distance: 10.9 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction):  n/a
Sail Plan: n/a
Speed (Max/average in knots): 8 / 6.5

Marker to Emsworth..

Another 'hard work' one...

13:37 HT and wall to wall sunshine so despite the fact it was a Sunday (mistake #1) I decided to go for a sail..  forecast was for both ends of a F4 and as it turned out that was upper half of a 4 to top 4, so some reefs were the first order of the day when I got on board. Having made a dogs dinner of that (she was lying to tide rather than wind so it was awkward indeed) I dropped the mooring and made off down the ditch..

Forecast was also for a SE'ly (mistake #2) and coupled with a big tide (4.7 mtrs) it was always going to be hard work...

Needs must though so engine refuelled, we cast off for an adventure - I ended up motor sailing all the way to Marker - with the wind and tide dead on the nose most of the way - when just before Marker I hit a solid wall of Opi's coming up harbour on a dead run - very exciting playing dodge the Opi for a while

Optimists...!  'fasands of them...! (said in your best Colour Sergeant Bourne/Nigel Green voice)

Once past Marker though, I could see that the bottom of the harbour was wall to wall dinghy's and a long motor sail away - so "sod it" quoth I, turned, gybed, and for a change headed off up the Emsworth Channel to Emsworth...

Fairly rare sight at the top of the harbour - wing foiler..

Lots and lots of boats about, moving and on moorings, and with a couple of boats up my chuff waiting to go through (probably to the marina) I exercised a little due caution, turned, tacked and headed back for home..

It was good to be out on the water, but I crave something with a little less 'south' in the next wind, please... 😁

Notes:

• 3.5 litres fuel added

Log:

Distance: 7.94 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction):  Mid to top F4 ; SSE
Sail Plan: Reefed main and 75% genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots):  4.6 / 2.8

Laying in Lymington...

The Jolly Boys have been on their first overnighter this season...  and very definitely the best sail we've had this season..

Destination was Lymington which is the far end of the Solent from us, though having said that it's still only 25 miles'ish pontoon to pontoon..  in order to do trips like this, and Rod's (Captain my captain) passage plan reckoned on 6 hours, we really do need to do an overnight.

The team convened at Rod's gaff at 07:30 as the plan was to be on the boat and motoring by half 8 in order to take advantage of that near mythically good Solent travelator (tide) which was west bound from about then and good for 5 or more hours of extra oomph..

As it turns out my plot says we left at exactly that time - amazing.. 😏

Forecast was for F3 gusting 5 (really!)  and NE'ly, and all of us had looked at that, remembered all the previous crappy forecasts, made a mental note of "oh, yeah", but bugger me if it didn't deliver it exactly as described!

Hooning...  Pompey in the distance..

What a sail...  four and a half hours to Lymington blew the passage plan out of the water - we shot past Gilkicker within an hour, and were off Southampton only a short while after - we were absolutely flying! Wind wide on the beam (so the genoa was getting good exposure) and a couple of knots or more of tide with us, and we were regularly seeing 7.5 plus SOG

Just after lunch saw us tied up in Lymington Yacht Haven - booked purely because in the personal opinion of the Jolly Boys they are the nicest showers in perhaps the entire Solent - if not the world.. 😁

(On one of our previous trips, by the way, we had been stormbound in Lymington for a couple of days, and as it howled with rain, and blew like fury, most of us ended up having a half dozen or so showers over the two days just because they were so nice and we were bored.. 😂)

Dinner that evening was Indian and tasty, and trust me, we slept well..

Over breakfast the next morning we discussed the plans for the return trip...  forecast was for F3 gusting 5 again, but if we were to believe it, this time SW'ly..  if that came off it would mean we'd had a decent breeze on the quarter in both directions so despite the fact it had been right the day before, there was still a healthy amount of scepticism - the forecasts showed the wind going round 180' from NE within an hour.. 

There's some serious sausage action going on in that picture...

...and bugger me if it didn't!

In order to make the travellator though we'd have to wait, and it really is a hard hard slog going that far in the Solent with an adverse tide...

We eventually left at about half 2 in the afternoon, and even that was a little early as the tide wasn't due to turn until half 3'ish, but the berth in the Marina was needed, and we'd already moved once, so it was time to go...

First hour was indeed hard work, the wind was doing it's thing but the direction was a little more west than we would have liked, so the genoa was making hard work of it behind the main - a pole would have helped..

Tide turned just as we were coming up to Gurnard, and then we began to fly with a steady succession of 7+'s as we rocketed past Cowes..  we were on home waters now - the Spinnaker Tower clear to see

...the first of two...

More champagne sailing as the sun shone, the sea glinted, and we dodged the liners coming out of Southampton water. We rolled the genoa away and went with just the full main..

Took us an hour longer than the day before but we were still on the home pontoon by half 7'ish to end two days of the best sailing we've had in an age!

Now..  can we get another in before the end of the season???🤔

Log:

Blue out, yellow back, and either side of the Bramble Bank.. 😁

Distance: 47.04 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)

Wind (Speed; Direction): Almost perfect 😏 

• Day:1 F3 gusting F5 / NE'ly
• Day 2: F3 occasional gust of F4/F5 / WSW

Sail Plan: Full main and full genoa (on the way back, just main most of the time)
Speed (Max/average in knots):  7.7 / 4.2 (averaged over both days - actuals above..)