29 June 2008
Hilary's Blog - 29 June 2008
Success! Well, partial success, at any rate. Toby has managed to rig up my old system, which has no autopilot features, but at least it will let me sail manually so that we can finish the leg from Bramble to Lymington today. I am writing this just before getting ready to go out for a few hours sailing. I can't wait.
Some time later... we had a fantastic sail. We had a slightly hairy start as the wind was stronger than we had anticipated and we had to put another reef in the mainsail to gain complete control of the boat. The trip up to Bramble Bank flew by as we were on a downwind run. Sean had freed the jib boom enough for me to "goosewing", which is the nearest I get to putting up a spinnaker! I touched 10.4kn (over ground) and averaged about 7-8kn, so it was all over far too soon for my liking. The plus side of arriving early was that I got a couple of hours to play around upwind.
It was great to have Martin Cox with Mike and Toby on the RIB as he was the Westbere skipper who took me out the very first time I went sailing.
A personal plea on behalf of all 'small boat' sailors - to large powerboat sailors: I was on course to hit a vessel travelling at speed which had decided to "come and have a look", which was fine. However, they came so close that, in the end, I had to put Arty through a 90° turn to port. They passed within the boat's length or so of me and then I received the shower I had been looking forward to on my return to port, except it was colder and saltier than the one I was anticipating! Please, please, give us some space or slow down as you go past. That way we will all be happy.
The wind freshened from the southwest until it was just too much for Arty, even with three reefs in. We made for the relative shelter of Calshot Spit, which was "interesting" as it meant putting the boat on the fastest point of sail, with the tide making her surf, and aiming for what looked to me like a very small gap between the Calshot lifeboat and a moored motor boat. We made it easily, as it turned out, but then I'm learning all the time. We transfered me from Arty to Sub and were pleased with our first boat to boat transfer at sea.
I think that it would be fair to say that I found the trip home harder than I had expected, sitting doubled-over on the floor of the RIB, but given the choice between getting home in a hurry and not making it home, I'd still choose Sub every time.
Page last updated on 5 July 2008 at 12:05