Night sailing

Back on the weekend of the 16th 17th May I'd planned a night sail to the Isle of Wight to meet up with Liam so we could practice with his cruising shute before the Round the Island Race.  I was really looking forward to this as the prospect on sailing with a full moon for visibility appealed to me.

The trouble with full moons is that they accompany the biggest tidal ranges.  I'd wanted to be off the mooring as the the tide ebbed but I could quite make it so ended up having a leisurely walk around the harbour.  

It wasn't a bad thing as it meant I could spend time stowing everything and setting up before setting off.

Waiting for the Tide

Below, in red, is an extract from my log,  I use the notes app on my iPhone to keep the log.

Poole to Yarmouth. 

 Off mooring 1935. LW 1818bst. SW F2 

Ripped genoa. I noticed this just after unfurling, there was an 18 inch tear along the edge of the UV strip.  My Genoa is turning into a patchwork quilt!

2000. At entrance on motor. 

2030. Engine off,  pushed flood through eat looe thenhave 1 knt with me.  Chat with Liam, arrange to meet at Yarmouth. Liam said he had some stuff to make a temp repair on the genoa.

21:20. 12 nm from hurst need 4knts to make gate, only getting 2.6. Started engine and motor sailing. 4.7 knts on idle. Aiming at TV mast on iow give heading 088. 

Auto helm works great but don't want to flatten battery. Will consider putting plug on outboard charging lead. 

Autohelm holding a steady course.

2200 5knts 080 motoring. 8.3nm to hurst.  Southborne aiming for Hurst light. 

2220 starting to get misty from south. Checked position. Confirmed bearing to Hurst. 5.6 knts motoring 080. 

2300. 3.6 nm from hurst.  4.7knts. 080. Mist held off seen phosphorescence for first time and have been rewarded with seeing orange moon rise over Tennyson down.. Stunning. This was the highlight of the trip and made the constant motoring worthwhile.

2330. 6.2knts (3knts tide) 1nm to hurst. Clear sky getting colder. 

I arrived at Yarmouth around 12:30 and anchored outside the harbour.  After spending sometime ensuring that the anchor was holding, there was a heck of a tide running past, i retired for the evening.  I set the alarm for 6am as I ran the risk of drying out if I stayed too long.

Beautiful sunrise at Yarmouth

The next morning, up with the sparrows, and after admiring the peace and quiet and the gorgeous sunrise, I pulled up the anchor and motored out into clear deeper water.  There was no wind and the tide was fairly slack so I just let her drift while I made tea and Porridge for breakfast.  Porridge is great to keep onboard as you can make it with water and it keeps the hunger away for quite some time.

I picked Liam up from Yarmouth quay around 7:30 and we made our way towards Cowes.  We had the sails up and engine off but you couldn't call it sailing. We just spiraled our way in the general direction of Cowes with the tide.  As more boats appeared we decided that it was too embarrassing to be floating backwards with the sails up, so we adopted the Solent trim (Jib furled and outboard on) and plodded on to the Folly.

My base for the weekend.

The complete lack of wind had us confined to the Folly, where we consumed what seemed like vast quantities of fried food washed down, first with coffee, then later with beer.  Later we decided to at least go out to Peggotty and go through the process of raising and lowering the Cruising Chute.  Amazingly when we did, although we could not feel any wind, it filled.  The chance to use it was with us so we motored out to the Solent and gave it a go.  It's a tremendous sail and not too tricky to use. We spent an hour or so hoisting, pulling it down again, gybing and generally getting used to using it.

Such a pretty sail :)

Liam at the helm of Peggotty

Sail bag clipped to pullpit.

Returning to the pontoon, I made arrangements to meet Liam and his good lady for dinner at the Folly, before taking the opportunity for afternoon kip.
After a splendid evening I managed to get my head down for another hour before motoring away from the Folly at 11pm.  I had another night passage planned and was hoping for a reasonable breeze to help me home. It didn't really happen and I ended up motor sailing back to Poole.  It's a passage that I will never forget as it was on this leg, around 3am when I stopped to make a brew, that I'd learned of my Mothers passing.  As I put the phone down I looked up and saw the space station arcing through the night sky.  It made me smile and think that it was Mum saying goodbye.

Entering Poole Harbour

The rest of the journey home was contemplative, I eventually picked up a mooring around 6am and got my head down for some proper sleep.  A few hours later, and wide awake, I was able to get back to my mooring.  
I noticed Bede was tinkering on his boat so decided to paddle over and say hello.  He was setting up his sails so I said I'd help, I think I was probably more of a hindrance :).   Seemed a shame to go home with the weather perking up and a good breeze present so we had a quick lap of the harbour on Shadow Fax before transferring me back to Ciao Bella so that I could take a few pics of Bede aboard.

Check out the Seagul!

Bede on Shadowfax cutting a groove.

RIP Mum x