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 pan 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, 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, and 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 homer 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