abandoned summer cruise again - is it just us?

It's been a very mixed bag for me this year too, don't feel too bad about it.

the first five days of a seven day Scottish trip were spent deiselling.

It took four days to get from Gosport to Yarmouth on one of my trips. we then got a weather window and enjoyed a pint in the Divers before making a return via Cherbourg.

A weeked trip to Lulworth Cove was a struggle down in light winds followed by a gallop back with a 5/6 under our tails.

Even a single daysail went from a 4 through to a 7 in short sharp stubby seas that knocked the boat about enough to require me to put into Cowes to effect a repair. Followed by a gentle sail back that wouldn't have distirbed a baby's sleep. We had sun, rain, sleet and then more sun in the space of six or seven hours.
 
Very interesting. I have not given up yet but the weather is truly diabolical. I have 200 mile to sail in mostly protected Baltic waters heading for Lubeck and the European canal system but F6 headwind puts me right off.

The main problem though is the seven day forcasts that almost always promise a fair wind in four or five days. As the promised day arrives the forecast changes to the usual F6 on the nose with the promise of a fair wind in (you guessed) five days so I wait.

I will give this another week then I will totally ignore those type of forecasts and go with the daily forecast. They are addictive though.
 
Not just you. I was meant to be off this week but have given up in the face of the forecast – it just does not look like much fun - and I am sitting behind my desk now, second time this year it has gone pear shaped

Have you noticed how it always seems the case that on the few good days there have been, there is always some family event on which has to take precedence?

On this basis you should all rest assured that next weekend will be perfect, as I have a wedding to go to on Sunday
 
Nope, not just you.

We have just come back from the boat having spent the last two weeks pottering about on the S. Coast rather than France and CI, as planned.

Excellent weather for the first week, but we decided to hold back for a couple of days until the wind veered out of the south. Then our daughter came down with tonsillitis and by the time that was clearing up they were predicting last week's gales, so we -thankfully- decided not to bother.
 
Yes - have just abandoned the summer cruise for the 2nd year running - this year I've got no further than the local Suffolk/Essex rivers - very disappointing - if it continues this way I'll be selling up & going back to dinghy sailing!
 
I dunno - a very odd one this year.

Last year we were heading from the East Coast towards the Channel Islands... the day the weather broke. We spent the better part of two weeks holed up in Ramsgate and Ostend.

This year, once again, we were headed for the Channel Islands. It became obvious very early in the trip that we were not going to ge there. Well, we could have gotten there, but it would have been a long slog. Day in - day out passage making... we've got two kids. Not much of a holiday for them.

So, I decided to 'cut our losses' early on. Once in Brighton we just headed south. And spent a brilliant 10 days in Normandy and had a very good time in Ostend on the way back. The weather was at times brilliant, at times less so, but never that bad.

Weatherwise we had everything - becalmed with temperatures in the high 20s and 'sporting weather' with temperatures in the mid teens.
Twice we sailed in 'less than ideal circumstances' because worse was on the way. We learned a lot, about the boat and ourselves.

Not the best holiday I've had afloat, but not the worst either. 7 out of 10.
 
We were on holiday the last week in June and the first two in July.
We abandon the Channel crossing part way across and after 10 days fighting the wind and rain gave in to the weather and flew to Santorini for the final week.
The hot Greek sunshine was just what we needed.
 
For contrast the Baltic was quite OK. Three weeks on the boat, a bit cold during the nights the first two, third week was all sun and warmth and no wind. Still, most peculiar season as weather forecasts were concerned: they could not be trusted. Talked to several sailors, who all had given up on them and reverted to "looking at the skies". Also this summer Baltic had Med winds: either half a gale or none at all...
All in all even here: not the best but not the worst of seasons either.
 
We're in the last week of a 5 week 'summer' cruise. Have had some good weather (this week on the Clyde for instance has been good so far), but also spent 4 days in Howth waiting out bad weather and 7 days in Bangor (NI) waiting for a low pressure system to pass. Can't expect much better from the weather over here can we?
 
Georgeham? Braunton? All the surrounding areas. Just this evening I was showing someone my Boscastle Balls which arrived on Putsborough Sands after the flood! Lovely places. Just no where to take a boat!!!!
 
That was our problem, I lost complete trust in the forecasts, it did not stop raining, proper cold sheet raining for 3 weeks, we had 2 days only without rain.

As the 3 weeks dragged on, the opportunity for going anywhere under a weather window diminished as the likelihood of the poor weather breaking was fading away and leaving the boat on a foreign mooring as we would not be able to get her back home was enough for me to decide to remain local. It is a nice bay, but we went no further than a normal weekend jaunt. shame.
 
I was lucky in that we went to Holland for 2 weeks (departed 8th June & came back on 22nd June).Had good sailing over there & a good trip back with 12 knots apparent on the quarter coming back.However the rest of our group(Woodbridge Cruising Club) who were staying longer had to leave their boats in Middleburg for a couple of weeks due to the bad weather on the way back.Other members have been stuck in Dover for some weeks & the ones in Brittany spent a couple of weeks in one port.However our most intrepid member did round Britain (the long way including Outer Hebrides & Orkneys) single handed in 32 nights away in a 28ft Vertue.Some sailor.
 
I'm ever so sorry guys but I think its time for me to admit that this is all my fault:

Do you remember when we used to get winters with lumps of snow that lasted for weeks on end? well the year that ended was the year I got a sledge for christmas.

In my early 20s I took up snowboarding but every year I went to the Alps it was declared as the worst year for snow on record.

This year I packed all that in and bought a yacht. Sorry.
 
Nope - its not just you.

We've managed 5 days sailing this year due to a combination of the weather being pants and problems with the boat.

The July cruise became a few days in a caravan in Norfolk.

If I divided the amount of money we've spent on the boat this year by the likely number of sailing days, I think the Samaritans would be working overtime.....
 
Yes, in this corner of the baltic it was the same. Plenty of sailing has been possible, but better to look at the sky than trust the forecast. Only in the last 2 weeks have we been suffering from light winds. Most days in July were breezy, sunny intervals and heavy showers.

Anyway, not a bad summer, but not as good as last year or as bad as it seems the UK has been!
 
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is it just us as tonight it certainly feels like it !!

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Not sure I'm adding anything not already said, but we've been the same. Abandoned our late June/early July break and every weekend since has been work or family commitment or bad weather. I'm really trying not to do that awful calculation of cost of boat divided by days of sailing.

We going to try again first week of September, but neither of the kids can join us, so takes the shine off before we even start with the weather!
 
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