Pete Tong - (went wrong)

Skip had been talking to his friend Jeff (Escalon), who’d enquired why he always went West and not East, with Brighton being a similar distance to Weymouth.  He wasn’t wrong, from Cowes, it’s slightly less distance to Brighton than it is to Weymouth or even around the Island for that matter.  So with this in mind, he text his youngest, who tends to visit Brighton quite regularly with his girlfriend and suggest a meet up on the Sunday with a cabin to stay overnight so enabling them to drive back Monday, if they so wished.  He got the usual standoffish reply ‘I’ll check with AJ!’ meaning it wasn't likely to happen.

Anyway Brighton was the plan for the bank holiday and the wind was looking a tad light but from the SW, which isn't a bad thing and a possible option to put up Thor.

Skips crew, had a slight turn the last time we hoped to make Weymouth but this time all appeared good to go and so we set off, later than planned of course, but skip had been down to me the previous day to prepare, open the lazy Jack bag, connect the main halyard, put the log in and various other things to save time.  We left and even entered the small ships channel, skip having attended the CHC AGM the previous night to learn that it’s now dredged to 2.0m below chart datum, at low tide we had 1.3m below us.  He put the main up as he did the motoring cone, dialled in my autopilot and dobbed on the sun cream.  Jeff skips friend came on the phone and so by the forts, he spun me round till we pointed directly at him to locate him from the rest and then went to have a chat.

 

Having already decided by then to head to Shanklin instead, due to the lack of wind, anchor there before continuing up and close to the coastline on Sunday.  Enabling them to actually see the coastline and have a look at Freshwater Bay before stopping in Totland for the night and heading back home on Monday.  As soon as we left Jeff, the wind kicked in and we had 22kts of apparent wind and had a cracking sail up to the Nab Tower before tacking back to Sandown Bay.  Full main and we were pushing 8-9.0kts of boat speed and the tide pushing us back towards Portsmouth. So we tacked a couple more times to make the far end of the Bay and stopped near Shanklin Chine.

We always seem to take an age to get to where we want to anchor and we seem not to be as close to the cliffs as Skip would like and be out of the wind, but hey apart from one other yacht we had the whole Bay to ourselves.  Skip opted, as he often does, to send 5.0m of chain on the back of a leaded line over the back to slow our swinging and tied it to the Davits to keep it clear of my rudder. As the wind was pushing us Skip opted to secure the Davits to the small winch on the starboard side to provide support.  However, the tide changed which took me the other way and so the untied side then took the load and bent one of the Davits beyond repair, as the chain appeared to catch on a rock or something, which once the strain was removed seemed to disappear and be easily hauled in!

A box jelly fish passed me as skip continued with his fish survey (Non-successful fishing).

In the morning the forecast was for 5-6 occasionally 7 at first southwesterly and so a reef was put in my main and we set off.  However, I think the new jib and the power that it brings requires a re-think as we were so overpowered that we nearly broached twice trying to get beyond the headland.  In fact, a bit shell shocked, we turned back only to accidentally jibe and the lazy jack supports popped on the starboard side.  The jib was brought in and as the wind remained at 170° Skip gingerly headed back out to get passed the headlands the other side of Sandown, without jibing again, assisted this time with the tide pushing us out.  We got ourselves back into the Eastern Solent and nearer Lee on Solent before tacking back to port to put the main on the good side of the Lazy Jacks, where Skip jury-rigged something to get the other side of the Lazy Jacks back up and dropped the main into it. We motored home.

So not quite the weekend he’d hoped for and whilst he was expecting an expensive one, taking four out for a meal in Brighton Marina, plus marina fees, it turns out a new set of Davits instead at £350. And of course an inquiry as to why they couldn't sail to where they wanted to go.

Skip returned today (Monday) to wash down the white bits of my deck and also managed one side of my hull.  Force 4 has a set of Davits in stock so Skip will pick them up from Lymington on his return from Romsey on Wednesday.

Pete Tong is a Cockney rhyming slang language for gone wrong!