The bank holiday weekend was the first EDSC cruise of the season. The plan was to go to Lymington.. the racy type boats would race there and the bimblers would bimble. Being in the later group I didn't wait for silly things like starting signals, I knew that I'd have to leave earlier than the others to make the tidal gate at Hurst.
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| I'll keep out of the way then |
I left the mooring about 0920 and made my way to the entrance. The Condor was just leaving it's berth at Port of Poole and there was other shipping around as well as the usual harbour ferries, chain ferry and bank holiday leisure traffic.. all a bit busy.
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| Maris Otter pops by for a chat |
I motor sailed out of the harbour and heard the foghorn voice of Mike on 'Maris Otter' hailing me. They were doing a PYRA race to Bembridge. After a quick chat and turning down the offer of a cuppa, we went our seperate ways.
The sailing across Bournemouth bay was pretty good. The winds felt light but I was maintaining 4.5 to 5.8 Knots most of the way... can't complain at that. :)
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| Racing fleet sliding by Hengisbury head |
By 11am the sky was clouding over, plenty of bigger yachts were also starting to overhaul me. Into Christchurch bay and the wind started to mess around a bit. Dropping off completely at times and changing direction, I had been expecting northerlies all day. Seems bizarre watching the windex spinning! The rate of progress really started to drop off. As I only had a day pass I decided to cut it short and go to Totland bay on the Isle of Wight. It has a good pebbly bottom, I know how it feels :O, which holds the anchor well and a cafe type thing on the beach.
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| Ciao Bella anchored at Totland |
The cafe on the beach didn't really look my thing so I took a walk up to a country pub just outside the village. The High Down had a good selection of real beer and some pretty tasty food, although £14 for bangers and mash and a pint felt a little steep. While sat inside the rain came poring down... not looking good for the return journey. It was still drizzling as I walked back to the beach but soon cleared up. Back onboard, I stowed the inflatable, made a cuppa then set of back to Poole. With full sail I was only making 3.5 knots into the North Westerly... a few minutes later the wind really picked up.. I heavily reefed the Genoa and hurriedly put a reef in the main. Things were very uncomfortable for a while.. although the speed did pick up :)
Out near the needles the wind just turned off again and went fluky. I un-reefed every thing, still no movement, so the engine went on. Five minutes later and there was breeze to push us along at 5 knots again, great, off went the engine. The engine went on and (mostly) off all the way back. When there was breeze it was great but when it stopped it wasn't gradual, it just stopped! About a mile from the entrance the engine went on again and stayed on as it was getting late and I had to be somewhere. I was back on the mooring around 8:30 so 12 hours give or take from climbing aboard to jumping off again.
The table below is the windspeed & Gusts in knots and the direction at the needles during the day. As you can see, lots of changes :)
| 30.04.2016 21:00:00 | 5 | - | NNE | ||
| 30.04.2016 20:00:00 | 10 | 36 | NNE | ||
| 30.04.2016 19:00:00 | 7 | - | ENE | ||
| 30.04.2016 18:00:00 | 3 | - | WNW | ||
| 30.04.2016 17:00:00 | 19 | 31 | N | ||
| 30.04.2016 16:00:00 | 3 | 37 | ENE | ||
| 30.04.2016 15:00:00 | 12 | 25 | WSW | ||
| 30.04.2016 14:00:00 | 10 | - | WSW | ||
| 30.04.2016 13:00:00 | 8 | - | SW | ||
| 30.04.2016 12:00:00 | 9 | - | NNW | ||
| 30.04.2016 11:00:00 | 8 | - | NNW | ||
| 30.04.2016 10:00:00 | 9 | - | N | ||
| 30.04.2016 09:00:00 | 11 | - | N |
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| Track of the day |
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