Blustery round Brownsea.

Today I should have been setting off bright and early across the channel to Alderney, but the great British summer has put paid to that. Fortunately a chance meeting with Roger at the weekend hatched a plan to go for a potter today instead.
The forecast had been for F4- 5 but it turned out to be F6 for most of the day. We made our way out to the boats at about 10:30. First onto 'Big Easy' for Rog to check all was ok. She still looking good inside, Rog has made a great job of refitting her. We then slid across to 'Ciao Bella' and prepared to set off.
With two reefs in the Main and no Genoa we fair flew across the harbour.

Once settled down I unfurled a small amount of Genoa just to help with going to windward. We practised a few tacks, getting better with each beat, then made one long beat towards the town centre.

I had considered meeting James in Town for a bite to eat but the conditions had got our blood pumping so we carried on, tacking away from the town towards pottery Pier. Beating into this wind was quite exhilarating. As we passed the commercial dock I noticed that there was a new marina near the ferry terminal. I had heard that there was going to be one but hadn't realised it had been built.
Once into Blood Alley, I never did like that name, we had the wind on our tail and the whole feeling changed, it was now almost serene. We were still tanking along at over 5knots but it just felt calm.
We moved in towards the beach and dropped the anchor and spent a pleasant hour eating our lunch and chatting.

The sky looked much better, almost summer like, however the wind was still blowing.  Pulling the anchor up was a chore, it had really dug in and it was like tug of war trying to break it free. it eventually came up with a huge clod of mud on it.  By the time I'd got the anchor stowed and the chain away Roger was steering us towards the harbour entrance at 5knots with just the reefed main up.

Back around the bottom of Brownsea and the harbour was busy,  we deviated to avoid the Condor catamaran.  We were back at the mooring before we knew it but picking up the mooring was not going to be easy. Eventually we sailed out to open water and dropped the main sail before motoring back to the mooring. Even without the sail up it was hard to get the mooring on board and secure.

Well it hadn't been my big adventure to Alderney but we had had a great day... Cheers Rog.