Emsworth to Marker

Neap tides this weekend, just 3.5m of tide, and they were early as well, 09:45, but the needs must so I got down to the boat at about 8'ish (I'd planned earlier but a lay in finished off that idea!) and headed down the channel for a few hours mucking about...

With only a few hours either side of HT to play with, the south westerly wasn't the best option for either direction, but as the sun had come out I decided to go for a "drift" down to Emsworth..  I have a particular fondness for this trip as it invariably requires some technical tacking to get back to the top of the Emsworth channel..

I love the challenge of finding the gaps between the moored boats to allow the use of the full width of the channel whilst also taking account of the tide... this trip was no different...  decent breeze, slackening tide, Sparrow was going well, plenty of boats to look at (there are some crackers)... tacking angles were good, some improvements would make the transitions better - the new genoa sheets are matt finish, normal finish would allow them to run faster; Arun have fitted their tradition leach line fitting on the genoa which (in the same way as the last sail!) sometimes catches on the baby stays stopping the sail from shifting across..  bloody irritating, think I'll remove the fitting on this sail as well....


Sparrow was going so well in fact that with just an hour still to go I went on and tacked up to Marker to the south... superb...  turned and ran for home and only put the engine on when I got to Northney....



What a cracking morning...  came home a with a smile as wide as a bus...

Log:

Distance: 8.1 miles (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top of the page)
Wind: Force 3 gusting low end force 4; SSW going round WWS.
Sail Plan: Full main and a few rolls out of the genoa to help with fast(er) tacking - engine to manoeuvre...
Speed: GPS track says the max speed was 4.9 knots (which would have been under motor) - average speed 2.9 knots...

Zoom zoom

...fantastic day on the water on Sunday - best of the year so far - true to form though it's back to grey wetness today but just for once, the two days were in the right order... 

Forecast was for a fairly cloudy, but breezy day - what we got was a fairly sunny, but even breezier day. Cambermet reported fairly solid force 5 all day, and from a most advantageous direction - starting just north of west, and ending just south of west, which gave fast, fun, reaching up/down the harbour...

Clouds - what clouds? HISC on the horizon - this was the first time I think...

So, got to the boat just under 3 hours ahead of high tide, and as it was clearly blowing put two sliders of reefing round the boom (I have roller boom reefing, which I don't mind, but slab reefing would be preferred one day.. ), at that stage I was expecting the forecast (4 gusting 5) so two slides worth would have been fine..

A quick run down the channel, hoisted the main off the entrance to Northney, and headed for the top of the harbour - it was clear even then that their was a lot more wind than they were forecasting. Pushed on and was making some good speed (4 knots plus against a 2 knot tide) but as the wind continued to build, I decided I needed to roll in a bit more....  time to heave to for the first time this year, and there she sat, sweet as a nut, all quiet while I got on and rolled in another sliders worth - possibly the most reef I've put in...  most chuffed with the heave to....

Lots of reef.... (sail is borrowed by the way if you're wondering why the sail number is wrong )

Turned and headed further towards the bottom of the harbour and noticed I'd rolled the retaining line for the boom jaws into the sail...  feeling of chuffed'ness diminished, but another quick heave to and all corrected (lesson - look behind you when rolling in a reef..!)

..and that was largely it - apart from two and a half hours of super fast sailing and enjoying the whole thing immensely...  got to the bottom of the harbour, and then turned to head up to the top - had thought to go up to Emsworth, but the lure of the speed (I saw a 7.4 as I came up the harbour this first time, as the tide still had some legs) meant I turned and headed back down towards Hayling Island Sailing Club (HISC)..  this time I took the inner route through the boat moorings

HISC moorings

Turned for home, and as the tide was beginning to disappear, and time was getting on, headed back to the mooring for a little rest and repair (whipping coming loose on main halyard).

Superb day, and much needed - not been a brilliant season up until now...

"Terror" - an Emsworth oyster transfer boat from the old days - rebuilt/refurbished with lottery money (nice to see it spent well) in 2005/6

Log:

Distance: 13.45 miles (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top of the page)
Wind: Force 5 (both ends of...) NWW going round SWW.
Sail Plan: Reefed main (3 slides) and half the genoa - engine to manoeuvre...
Speed: GPS track says the max speed was 6.5 knots (which would have been under sail) - average speed 4.2 knots (fast afternoon!). Saw 7+ consistently on one of the runs up the harbour where tide was still with me...

...blechhh....

...the season continues it's triumphant start... after a quite lovely Saturday (windy, but lots of sunshine) Sunday dawned... errr.. grey, miserable and shi**y...needs must though, and with an early'ish tide (10:43 local) I hop skipped and jumped down to the boat for 8'ish so as to take full adavntage of the water for an extended sesion ..

...t'was not to be...  no wind when I left so motored down to the entrance to Northney, watched it getting greyer, picked up a spare mooring off the marina and put the kettle on while I watched it getting even greyer...

...sat and slurrped coffee (in the cabin, to cold to sit out) while the breeze came up and it got even more greyer, watched the rain coming in over the hill, and thought "sod this for a game of soldiers"..

...packed up, short sail back under genoa, motor on, I was in the pub by 1...