alistairedw
New member
Got back yesterday evening from a trip over to Cherbourg from Chichester. We set off on Wednesday evening with the wind directly out of the south. Just to make life really interesting we had to contend with a horrible motion caused by the combination of a southerly swell and a westerly one. Not much food was consumed en route. I was OK until I went below to plot our progress at the chart table. I had to hurry back up sharpish because I was feeling nauseous.
We had to beat all the way and as a consequence the passage took us 23 hours!
Crossing the shipping lanes we see a small freighter on a converging course. We stand on and wait for him to turn but nothing happens. We slow down and let him cross ahead of us. No sign of anybody on the bridge.
En route we noticed that the port side mast stay had a strand of wire unravelling. No problem we thought. 8mm multi strand wire. Still plenty of strength left. We subsequently notice a second strand is unravelling.
Once in Cherbourg we ask a rigger to take a look. He confirms that he can produce a new stay and that we can remove the old one without jeopardising the mast. I winch the skipper up to remove the stay and he finds that two additional strands have also broken. The other stay looks OK.
We met up with some friends who had made the crossing from the Hamble (20 hours). We had some good meals plus an excellent session of ten pin bowling.
We had planned to return early on Sunday morning, but the weather for Sunday was not looking too good so we decided to head back on Saturday morning. What a contrast with the trip out! We had a perfect westerly F4 on our beam and we charged across averaging well over 7 knots.
As we had decided to stop overnight in Gosport we did not want to get swept too far east of the IOW by the tide. The IOW came up faster than we had allowed for so we had to run downwind along the SE corner of the island. With the wind now dead behind we goosewinged towards Bembridge. The swell kept pushing us slightly off heading causing the genoa to collapse and then inflate with a massive bang every time the genoa sheets straightened out. We had a gybe preventer rigged so there was no real danger but I found it quite alarming feeling the boat shudder every time the genoa reinflated.
Our run in to Gosport from off Bembridge was perfect. A fast close reach with no tacking required. Despite our unintended close inspection of the SE corner of the IOW we still made the crossing in less than 11 hours.
On Sunday we had a very wet beat in a south easterly F4 back to Chichester. Visibility very poor and loads of rain.
All in all a great trip. Only my second channel crossing.
We had to beat all the way and as a consequence the passage took us 23 hours!
Crossing the shipping lanes we see a small freighter on a converging course. We stand on and wait for him to turn but nothing happens. We slow down and let him cross ahead of us. No sign of anybody on the bridge.
En route we noticed that the port side mast stay had a strand of wire unravelling. No problem we thought. 8mm multi strand wire. Still plenty of strength left. We subsequently notice a second strand is unravelling.
Once in Cherbourg we ask a rigger to take a look. He confirms that he can produce a new stay and that we can remove the old one without jeopardising the mast. I winch the skipper up to remove the stay and he finds that two additional strands have also broken. The other stay looks OK.
We met up with some friends who had made the crossing from the Hamble (20 hours). We had some good meals plus an excellent session of ten pin bowling.
We had planned to return early on Sunday morning, but the weather for Sunday was not looking too good so we decided to head back on Saturday morning. What a contrast with the trip out! We had a perfect westerly F4 on our beam and we charged across averaging well over 7 knots.
As we had decided to stop overnight in Gosport we did not want to get swept too far east of the IOW by the tide. The IOW came up faster than we had allowed for so we had to run downwind along the SE corner of the island. With the wind now dead behind we goosewinged towards Bembridge. The swell kept pushing us slightly off heading causing the genoa to collapse and then inflate with a massive bang every time the genoa sheets straightened out. We had a gybe preventer rigged so there was no real danger but I found it quite alarming feeling the boat shudder every time the genoa reinflated.
Our run in to Gosport from off Bembridge was perfect. A fast close reach with no tacking required. Despite our unintended close inspection of the SE corner of the IOW we still made the crossing in less than 11 hours.
On Sunday we had a very wet beat in a south easterly F4 back to Chichester. Visibility very poor and loads of rain.
All in all a great trip. Only my second channel crossing.
