Good season?

Plenty of evenings on the water after work, which seems to be where my sailing happens now. It makes for a weekend feeling in the middle of the week. Probably had my last midweek sail last night.
 
5 weeks on the boat this year - 1 each Easter, Whitsun, end of June and 2 in August - seemed to hit all the good weather as well :) Also nearly every weekend as well. Best season in years.
 
What a great year

Its been great .. Two weeks in June .. Deben to Ramsgate .. Deben to Southwold .. Great weather .. Pirate weekend .. Hot and SUNNY .. We seem to have been very lucky with the weather .. A couple of white knuckle rides into the Deben .. But on the whole a really good year .. We try to manage every other weekend as we have a three hour drive .. This weekend looks good .. Boat cleaning though in preperation for trip to Burnham .. Last weekend was a raft up on the Orwell .. Invited aboard the boat we were rafted to and spent a happy couple of hours .. Found CliveG and daughter and had a great night .. Not much sailing though and alot of empty bottles and cans ..
 
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Best sail this season being the crossing from Hythe to Cherbourg on the Scuttle trip. Bit lumpy and had a few localised blowy moments but averaging say 5 to 7 from the NE, was interesting the whole trip.
First set out of Brighton at midnight on the thursday, heard some strange noise from under the boat which turns out to be the rope cutter becoming loose. Sailed back in for 3am and set off to Hythe to slip mooring at 6am on Moondance, a reliable Moody 346.
Sun shone most of the day, had a good meal and a few drinks and then joined in the Scuttlebutt meal on the saturday. Was not an overly heavy session as previous years as most boats planned a 4am start due to the forecast of NE 7 later on the return. Plus the
Most of this being posted already on the Scutt Cherb thread but hey you asked Bilbo.
Main thing was the sail over and at all times adding to ones knowledge.
 
It was the best of times it was the worst of times.
Really enjoyed the new(to me) boat this year.
Great weather at the start of the season then around the 2nd week in July it rained almost every day for 2 months. Still managed to get a couple of 5 day trips and a few weekends away rounded off with the Scuttlebutt Clyde Cruise last weekend.
Still time for one more I hope.
 
new boat here too - season 1/2 over before we got on the water ... still managed twice across the channel and a nice trip to Gurnsey & Alderney - not far by many ppls goals - but quite happy at the 750Nm so far this season ...
 
Cracking good season, even if I didn't sail much!

Started the year a widower, will end the year a married man again. And my new wife is a sailor; I've taken her out on Capricious in pretty uncomfortable conditions and she's still keen.
 
Great season, which was unexpected really. Although we kept her in the water over winter, first 'proper' sail was from Kip round the Mull to end up in Oban in April. Blue skies, gentle breezes, hardly a boat in sight. Few half-sun, half-rain weekends then the scottish islands peaks race back round to Troon in May - that was a bit of a rain/gales/survival epic. A couple of breakages kept us off the water until we got back from a trip to Europe in June, then plenty of really nice sunny weekends on the Clyde. Back over to the west for West Highland Week and since then....almost nothing bar a cracking trip to Jura a couple of weeks ago. Think it's probably only going to be one more weekend out before she comes out for the winter and gets her first proper dry-out in 2 years.

Best bit? Any of the times we ended up doing things we'd never done before, or learning new things along the way. And there were hundreds of those!

Worst bit? Steering failure on the Clyde with 3 kids on board and a reasonable blow.
 
Possibly a good year for those without kids but ... it seemed to rain all through through the summer holidays - abandoned all ideas of a week's cruise, only managed short trips a couple of days at a time :(
 
Not too good

What with two weddings and a funeral, the year has been hopelessly compromised as far as the sailing is concerned.

SWMBO spent the first few months of the year nursing her Dad until the end and then, first a son and then a few weeks later, daughter got married! Nightmare running round the country and hosting.

Checked the boat mileage last weekend (since finally launching in late June) - we're up to 357 miles. Or about half the usual mileage - and we're planning a lift out soon as we have to be away again in October/November!

Roll on next year when normal service might resume?
 
Too much stuff, not enough weather

.
We have had a lot of family stuff and a shortage of dogsitters, so not much done this Summer. When we did organise dogsitting the weather did not co-operate, so I reckon we have only done 600 miles this season.

However - we did get those first two glorious weeks in June and get out to St. Kilda, which was very special.

Overall, much better than no season at all!

- W
 
Not the best...

Had a lot of either too light or stronger than we would choose windwise. Also a lot of family interruptions and conflicting calendars. So not the best so far. Not over yet, hoping the autumn/winter dinghy series will be good.
 
No bad but it should have been much better if the weather had been reasonable.

Woke up News Years day on the boat in Yarmouth IOW, freezing weather but a good experience.

Left Haslar in April due to another annual price hike, a month at Royal Clarance then onto a cut price private marina berth. A few long Solent weekends. 9 days for second bank holiday. Brighton, Itchenor, Cowes and then 3 days at the Old Gaffers ralley Yarmouth. First time experience, what fun.

First time cruise to Brittany.

Missed that long period of stable easterlies in early June. Last minute dash singlehanded to SW Brittany to pick up swmbo from Nates. 1 night sleep in 4 days of sailing.

Poor weather marred the Brittany sailing. Rained on 13 days for the first 15 days of the hols but mostly at night. Not reasonable for July but at least it was warm rain. Bastille Day in Vannes = excellent.

4 days on the freshwater Vilaine river = wonderful.

Another 8 days of solo sailing to get home. Chalked up loads of new ports that I had been reading about for 20 years.

Boat is going on the market very soon, because it does not make sense to live 3 hours away from the mooring. After 5 years I am looking forward to some ordinary holiday travel.
 
Summer cruise spent sheltering sheltering from the rain under the cockpit tent and sheltering from the howling wind under the cockpit tent on alternate days. Loved every minute of it and can't wait to do it again next year. Last weekend was perfect, and made the entire season a complete success.
 
Best year ever.

First year with Chausey. About 500 miles covered before June, then off to France from Cardiff. One month in Plymouth on the way back. Arrived back in Cardiff at the begining of August. Set off for Ireland at the start of September but only made it to Milford Haven, where we had a great week. Now up to nearly 2000miles and still 3 months of the year left. The real highlight was, after changing her name to Chausey, motorsailing on mirror calm water past Les Iles Chausey sat on the crosstrees.
Allan
 
We have had some good use out of our new little ship.

I can only remember missing 2 W/Es due to bad weather but there may have been a couple of others.

We have had a few trips away to sail on other boats and been lucky with the weather for those trips too, and met some good folks.

And the year isn't finished yet.......
 
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