Bus sick Steve.

My Bruva came down to see me today,  Steve has the well deserved nick name of Bus Sick Steve.   We have often talked about going for a leisurely sail on a fairly benign day to see if he can cope with the sailing experience.
This morning was beautiful so we set off for the Club about 9.30. As my tender is still sat on the front garden awaiting fibreglass repairs we were going to have to go out in my diminutive inflatable  ... unless we could scrounge a lift in the rescue boat :)  We were kindly transported to Ciao Bella with the inflatable under tow.  Once aboard we made ready to sail and were soon underway.  Initially we just had the main up to let Steve get the feel for being on the boat.  After a while we unfurled a good chunk of Genoa and were soon scooting along at 4 - 5knots.
The breeze was really starting to pick up and we were moving along nicely, into the wareham channel, above  rockley park we decided to drop the hook and get a brew on the go.   The wind was coming straight across open land and was making the anchorage a little lumpy.  I went into the cabin to Fry up some sausages and make a cuppa, I have to say, the Origo stove is fantastic.    As I appeared with a plate of sausages it was clear that Steve wasn't going to partake.  The sailing motion was fine but he really didn't like the anchoring part :(
Back underway, after breaking the keels out of the mud... not impressed with the Nasa Duet, we headed back down the wareham channel with a reef in and a small amount of Genoa showing,  the speed over ground was regularly over 6 Knots.  We had plenty of time so decided to return via the back of Brownsea Island.   As soon as we entered the channel and out of the wind the speed dropped and we barely ghosted along.
While we were hid in the shadow of the island the wind had been really ramping up. Out in the main harbour again and we had to hold on.  I furled all of the Genoa away and she was still flying along faster than I wanted her to go.  We found some clear water and I pulled the main down while Steve kept her motoring into wind.  It was good to be back in full control.  Even though the wind was strong  we were able to motor up to the buoy and easily pick it up.
What do you know, as soon as the boat was secure the wind dropped and the sun came out!  All that was left to do was paddle back in the tiny inflatable :))

Well done to Steve for getting through this, we'd been through no wind to almost knock down wind and sun to hailstones... even better was later in the evening after walking to the pub, Steve wondered why the pub was swaying.  Sailing,  You've gotta love it :)