With the Medina River being the only highway for boats travelling to and fro, it was a very busy place to be as boats came in the hope of places to stay and those that had booked looking for their spots. Needless to say it was busy all week and only quietened down when the weather took a turn for the worse and people sought other entertainment in Cowes, be that East or West.
Skip's been back and forth a few times, replacing the last of the batteries and re-wiring the Rutland turbine back to both banks. Now it appears to be working as it should, although the display unit is still suggesting that power is being generated by solar panels that I don't have. Still, I understand that this may be solved by another software update and the unit will be exchanged at the Southampton boat show in a few weeks time.
My Webasto heater has been removed and skip is in discussion with the specialist in Swanage. It appears as though the ST unit was never intended to be used for marine use and especially for boats of my size. Likewise, the ducting as installed by Hanse is not the most efficient and skip is now scratching his head as whether to go to the lengths of replacing the ducting to its most efficient, as described by the specialist and leave it at that. Or go the whole hog and buy a new unit that can cope with the length of ducting needed to heat the Master Cabin.
Skips also been looking at the possibility of fitting a top down furler for the Code 0, but having seen the price baulked at going any further, let's just say it's nearly the same price as the sail. So it goes on the wish list for now. What benefit it will bring, well it will enable the tacking to be much simpler and crisp, but then it's not as if I'm taken racing and need a quick tack. So it'll be a case of working out which is the longest tack and have it set on the one side only, still it's early days and maybe once skip is use to it he'll get the hang of 'bagging' it switching sides and releasing the beast on the opposite tack.
So after all the razzmatazz of Friday's Red Arrows and fireworks, Sunday was the start of the Fastnet Race. The race that skip and his watch protested when two yachts sailed across the TSS near the Scilly Isles, they lost the appeal at the time due to the fact that 70% of the fleet would have to be disqualified, but the racing rules have since been amended and you are no longer allowed to enter such zones, world wide. So Saturday morning skip & crew turned up and we headed out westerly on the ebb tide, in a fairly blustery breeze on the nose. So blustery that my occupants looked at each other and decided to run me to Totland under engine in a short choppy water caused by wind over tide. It did test the Rutland however, whether it did what it is supposed to do but it failed and remained in baulk charge mode, rather than going through the three cycles of charging.
With the slack period over and the flood starting to fill, I was positioned much closer to the shore line than before and once sure we were secure, we all chilled out. Skip had bought some lug worm so gave that a try and Alex having forgotten her book, prepared the evening meal. The predominant wave pattern in the bay from West to East, with a slight bend in it as it comes round Alum Bay was not unusual, but the wind swinging more Northerly was, and so on occasions, I was turned broadside to the waves, making it quite rolly below. Needless to say, skip never caught anything and my occupants waited for high tide and any subsequent shift in my anchorage before retiring to bed.
It was a fairly noisy affair, skip not yet sorted out all the culprits, but it was good to be away.
In the morning, the Fastnet fleet started to appear pouring past Hurst Castle on their way to the rock that gives the race its name. With the wind fairly blustery and the anchor stowed, we headed back to Cowes on just the jib on a very pleasant afternoon.
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