First sail of 2015

The May bank holiday is living up to it's reputation :)   I'd planned to head towards Weymouth on Sunday but the weather has other plans.   Saturday was a great day to make sure the boat was in fine fettle and with a solid force 4 gusting 5 from the South East it would show up any faults quickly.

The day didn't start well, before I left the club one of the paddles broke, I wedged it together with a stick to get me out to the boat and made a better repair when I got there. 

While loading stuff from the dinghy to Ciao Bella I also managed to break the screen on my Hudl.. Humph!

I left the mooring with one reef in the main and no jib.   Even towing the rubber dinghy and the engine leg down she was making over 4 knots through the water.

The engine went on to get me through the entrance and I left it on all along the training wall.  The waves out in the bay were pretty big and a lot of the had white tops.  Into Studland bay I killed the motor and with a less than half of the Genoa out I had 5.8 knots through the water.

Picking up a mooring under sail was interesting, it took me quite a few attempts; guess I'm a little rusty after the winter.

I took a stroll up to the Bank's Arm to celebrate the first sail of 2015 with a pint of Oxfordshires Bull'ox... Very nice.

Back to the beach and time to paddle back to Ciao Bella,  unfortunately the other paddle snapped as I left the beach.  I spent ten minutes trying to paddle out with one paddle but was getting nowhere fast.   I eventually went back ashore and bodged the broken paddle back together.  I didn't have much faith in it so I dragged the dinghy along the beach to the windward side of the boat to give me the best chance of getting out to her.   With a strong South Easterly the waves were rolling onto the beach.  This time as I paddled away, wave after wave filled the dinghy... eeeyewk.

Back on board and I'm glad I had a change of clothes, some food and a hot drink..  The cabin by now looked like a Chinese laundry.   As soon as I recovered some core body temperature I set off back for the harbour.  There was still plenty of daylight so after a rocket ride back along the swash channel, I decided to take the scenic route back through the harbour and explore south deep.
Inside the harbour I had a bit of a faff with the jib,  after an involuntary gybe one of the jib sheets got caught under the front hatch, the genoa then got tangled.   It was flogging so hard I didn't know if the Genoa or the rigging would give up first! I found some clear water where I could get up on the foredeck and start to unravel it.  Fortunately I got it sorted before any damage was done.  The rest of the trip was uneventful.  Picking up my mooring under sail proved to be just as fun filled as the mooring in Studland... I'm sure by the end of the season I'll have it sussed.