Hello old friend..

..been close, but it's the first time actually going round it this year.. but I jump ahead of myself..

Second trip on the boat in as many days - what's the world coming to..  either way the tides are beginning to get later now (13:58HT) but no smaller (a 4.73 Mtr tide!)

Winds forecast was F2's or 3's, with the wind was due to go SE'ly'ish, so I think it fair to say that the biggest pull for me was to get out on to the water where it was considerably cooler than ashore where we were having one of the hottest days of the year..

On the boat by just under 3.5 hours before HT, and got everything ready to go - engine warmed - we dropped the mooring just shy of 11:00.

Wind direction was poor, and I eventually pulled the main up just past Northney at around the same time I caught this little fellow - juvenile/adolescent bass

Wind was indeed on the light side and I was seeing 2 or 3 knots of adverse tide so the decision was taken to motor sail to the bottom of the harbour - the genoa wasn't working so I rolled that back again after a short experiment...

...and that was largely it for the whole of the trip down the harbour until I ducked away from a HUGE dinghy fleet at about Verner to cross the Pilsey Sands towards East Head..  where I then met another huge fleet...  I hadn't realised that its Fed Cup week in the harbour - they'll be racing every day in their hundreds...

..until I finally made the Itchenor channel and turned the engine off for a quick sail towards Camber and Bosham and then turning back to round Snowhill ("old friend") and a glorious goose wing run back up the harbour on the tail ends of the incoming tide...

...dinghy central... 

..brilliant day out, but at the same time hard work with all that engine duty.. 

Log:

Distance: 11.04 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): F2 gusting F3 ; SSE
Sail Plan: Full main and 95% genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots): 4.8 / 2.8