You have to pick your days, but there are some sunny ones in amongst the not so sunny ones and this weekend was no different. The weekend started with a busier river than normal. This I understand to be due to the Isle of Wight Festival being held near Newport the main town that the last of the navigable Medina flows through.
Saturday afternoon my skipper arrived and spoke to the small yacht that had been sitting in the vacated space of Polly Agatha's having lunch. Once on board he fired up my electrics to discharge my battery bank that had been and still was, being charged by the Marlec wind generator. With the radio on and the VHF in the back ground, each of my four winches were taken apart, cleaned re-greased, re-assembled and tested. Two pins that failed to come out plus the electric winch drive gear, stopped him from getting to my parts 100%, but at least they were re-greased if not completely taken apart. Am sure he'll not let that rest and will soon have them apart again.
Next he was in the engine bay checking the oil in my iron sail and topping up the coolant level, finishing off by cleaning around the engine.
Before he left the pontoon, he checked the Craftsmans Art, the ketch behind me. It had been pulled tighter in to the pontoon so hopefully if I was to go out it wouldn't be such an obstacle as it was last weekend.
Sunday started misty, come 1030 and my crew arrived and got me ready to slip. With the wind to the north west and no Polly Agatha in front, my bow was soon blown off, with the stern slipped, we motored out. There were several large schooners and other wooden gaff rigged boats in full sail, shortly followed by two lound bangs from the start cannons from the Royal Yacht Squadron. It's said that those cannons were gifted to the then newly formed RYTS and that they were the cannons from Henry VIII's childrens minature galleons he had had made for them.
The wind was coming from the north by north west and so pointing to windward, my main was raised until it reached the first reef, put in whilst on the pontoon. Once my course was set the sails were adjusted and off we went, westwards. The wind was fickle and the sun threatening to come out. Within an hour the reef was shacken out as the wind max'd at 12 knots. Salopette's & coats too came off as the sun burned through and by the time I was crossing the paths of the Yarmouth to Lymington ferry's the wind too had dropped to between 3-5 knots. The iron sail was re-ignited and I was motored in to Totland Bay.
With little wind and glorious sunshine my crew had lunch in the cockpit, the tranquillity only broken by a RIB towing a water skier near the beach. They had time to relax, although my skipper chose to service the pulleys and jib furling system and did the washing up. With the last of the ebb slowly making its way between the narrows at Hurst Castle, my anchor was raised. Whilst my skiper was stowing the anchor, a process of swing it up in an arc and down in to its locker, using the hydraulic dampers and springs, the rib appeared saying that I was dragging an orange buoy. Once the skipper worked out what they were saying he pulled said buoy out of the bucket and showed them ! This he uses tied at the front of the anchor to show others where my anchor is and so hopefully avoid anchoring close by. Also if the anchor fouls on something then it can be towed backwards and away from the problem.
With the anchor stowed, the main hoisted, a back eddy was used to push me in. By the time we reached the narrow gap between Hurst Castle and Fort Albert the tide had indeed begun to flood. The wind however was more fickle than ever in its direction and only by adjusting course could he insure that the sail didn't gybe over. Polly Agatha was back on her berth and I was lined up facing both wind and tied and soon was directed at my spot between the two.
Next time out is for the Round the Island Race I heard and my new sail may be ready in time !
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