Wednesday whizz around

Blimey, what a different day to Sunday.  Still blue skies and glorious sunshine but with some power in the wind.  I am determined to continue with my mid week sailing ambitions, so with my sailing kit now permanently stowed in the boat of the car I can go straight to the club and jump on the boat.

Paul was at the club when I arrived, patching up his tender.  With such good conditions, we both jumped in my (Borrowed) tender and went out to the boats.  I jumped off first as Lapwing is moored further out than me.

Ciao Bella is easy to get underway, particularly when I don't have to faff with the tender.  I was quickly underway with the full main up and no genoa.  I whistled past Lapwing on her mooring at over 5 knots... time to put a reef in I think :)  Even with a reef in it was overpowered at times and the sudden wind shifts of up to 90 degrees didn't help.  It made using the tiller pilot a bit of a no no.

I had to sail back and forth for a while until Paul was ready to caste off, once underway properly it felt ok to unfurl a bit of Genoa, just to maintain that 5 knot mark.

It was lovely to be out in some proper wind, I later had it confirmed that it was towards the top of a force 6, but without big waves making it uncomfortable it felt good.  I'm really getting to feel confident with Ciao Bella.  Sailing single handed, I don't seem to be getting the problems with tacking that I used to get.  I don't know if that's down to practice or maintenance or a mix of the two but it certainly feels more natural as time goes on.

Paul and I both had an appointment at 7pm so the pressure was on to get back to the club.   We were a little late but I think sailing is always a good excuse or lateness.

I also tried out the sailing log app which  Daisy Grace Julian has been trying.  It seems to work well.  The only downsides that I can see immediately are; 1) It is punishing on the battery of the iPhone.  I had to stop it working as it seemed to halve the battery life. and 2) I don't seem to be able to delete tracks.. it comes with a example track already loaded which doesn't relate to me and also when  caught the ferry to the Isle of Wight the other day, it automatically recorded that :)

I will have to remember to take the USB connector if I intend to use this app.