November Sailing
Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2012 5:10 pm
Our 2011 season finished rather early due to a combination of weekend work commitments for me and poor weather with our last sail being the Scuttlebutt weekend on 15/16/17 September 2011.
This year has been a bit better, but not by much. Since Scuttlebutt we've had 1 weekend in September and 1 at the beginning of October but nothing since due to work.
We had the weekend free so were looking forward to getting a (maybe the last) sail in.
At lunchtime on Friday, XC Weather was predicting 11 / 12 Kt winds with 16 / 19 kt gusts for Saturday afternoon. I confess that I didn't check anywhere else or anything more up to date before heading out at lunchtime so the biggish waves and white horses came as a slight shock.
Hoisted the main with the first reef in and left a few rolls on the genoa and set off upwind. We were going OK but after a couple of tacks the crew commented that it didn't feel much like fun, and that we weren't trying to reach any particular destination anyway. I did advise that motoring home at the end of the afternoon against the wind and waves might not be very pleasant either before turning round and heading for the Cloch.
Kept the same sailplan and alternated between having the wind over the starboard quarter and goosewinging with boat speeds in the 6's. One combination of waves provided a mini surf which the GPS recorded as a max speed of 7.8 Kts.
Once round the corner, the seas were flatter and the wind more on the beam so it was good sailing along to Kempock Point and back.
Conditions were just starting to build again as I met Ali Cat and one of the red ferries at the same time. Ali Cat was 45deg off my starboard bow and aiming to pass in front of me whilst the red ferry was on my starboard beam and aiming to pass both behind me and Ali Cat. I was just trying to hold my course!
Met Spirit of Fairbridge just after, she was heading in towards the river.
Rolled away the genoa and motorsailed in tight tacks towards Kip. Keeping some sail up seems to hold the bow down, or maybe motorsailing means that I'm at a better angle to the waves. Motoring head on into short steep waves without any sail has the bow rising higher with each successive wave till it crashes down on the 3rd or 4th. On this occasion the bow was staying down and breaking through the waves such that now and then the spray was flying the full length of the boat.
Listened to the forecast on Sunday morning and the CG were talking of Strong Wind warnings. We weren't planning to go out as we were going home early but we had a walk along the shore road from the garden centre to Clock lighthouse first and it was all very calm.
We're planning to use the boat as a caravan for few weekends this month and maybe get a sail on 16/17 before winterising in December.
Ash
This year has been a bit better, but not by much. Since Scuttlebutt we've had 1 weekend in September and 1 at the beginning of October but nothing since due to work.
We had the weekend free so were looking forward to getting a (maybe the last) sail in.
At lunchtime on Friday, XC Weather was predicting 11 / 12 Kt winds with 16 / 19 kt gusts for Saturday afternoon. I confess that I didn't check anywhere else or anything more up to date before heading out at lunchtime so the biggish waves and white horses came as a slight shock.
Hoisted the main with the first reef in and left a few rolls on the genoa and set off upwind. We were going OK but after a couple of tacks the crew commented that it didn't feel much like fun, and that we weren't trying to reach any particular destination anyway. I did advise that motoring home at the end of the afternoon against the wind and waves might not be very pleasant either before turning round and heading for the Cloch.
Kept the same sailplan and alternated between having the wind over the starboard quarter and goosewinging with boat speeds in the 6's. One combination of waves provided a mini surf which the GPS recorded as a max speed of 7.8 Kts.
Once round the corner, the seas were flatter and the wind more on the beam so it was good sailing along to Kempock Point and back.
Conditions were just starting to build again as I met Ali Cat and one of the red ferries at the same time. Ali Cat was 45deg off my starboard bow and aiming to pass in front of me whilst the red ferry was on my starboard beam and aiming to pass both behind me and Ali Cat. I was just trying to hold my course!
Met Spirit of Fairbridge just after, she was heading in towards the river.
Rolled away the genoa and motorsailed in tight tacks towards Kip. Keeping some sail up seems to hold the bow down, or maybe motorsailing means that I'm at a better angle to the waves. Motoring head on into short steep waves without any sail has the bow rising higher with each successive wave till it crashes down on the 3rd or 4th. On this occasion the bow was staying down and breaking through the waves such that now and then the spray was flying the full length of the boat.
Listened to the forecast on Sunday morning and the CG were talking of Strong Wind warnings. We weren't planning to go out as we were going home early but we had a walk along the shore road from the garden centre to Clock lighthouse first and it was all very calm.
We're planning to use the boat as a caravan for few weekends this month and maybe get a sail on 16/17 before winterising in December.
Ash
