Goldfish
Active Member
Had been looking forward to having Pete Cooper stay with us for a long weekend and showing him there is more to Essex than bus shelters, underage mothers and white sock wearing yobs.
However the weather forecast did not look promising, Friday looked quite horrid with 22kn with gusts of upto 33kn with maximum winds around high tide and Saturday although marginally less windy still appeared to be a 6 most of the day, Sunday winds were reducing and by Monday they were gone I pointed this out to the skipper who said I was looking at the wrong weather sites and he had found a much better forecast so not to worry about it and go play with some fluffy bunnies.
We set off Friday and had a wonderful sail out of the Crouch and I thought yep National Met Office/Windguru what do they know?
Trust in Jim and his trusty weather forcasting stone on a string, cat gut feeling and ability to divine wind direction and speed from observing seal behaviour on the Buxey Sands. Sadly the tide had covered the sands, the cat retained it's guts and the stone was left at home, not long before the Ray Sand bouy there was a strong winds and gale warning on the radio mind you by that time we already had 1 reef in and the sky was darkening and even I could see that it was not going to be a nice sail up to Levington.
Skipper decided to change plans and head for Brightlingsea. Half way across the sands the wind really got up and the tide went against us so we now had wind over tide, the waves height was increasing and the wave length decreasing and I knew it was rough when the men consented to put lifejackets on. In went the 2nd reef to main and gib. After a few waves over the bow that hit the skipper in the face he even consented to a life line although the Scot was made of sterner stuff or possible he could'nt hear me over the howling wind. Its always a sign of bad weather when the banter stops and the only conversation is about tracking the main up and down.. Mind you even he put one on when he had to go up to the anchor locker to secure it after our two ball fenders suddenly burst out of the deck like a massive pair of very cold boobs 'a la Jordan' apparently the locker had not been secured correctly and was entirely full of water and thats a lot of water as the skipper can get lost in the anchor locker.
We endured hours of slamming. Bashing and getting periodically drenched until we reached the safety of the harbour, where we got a prime spot since no one else was due in that day( I wonder why??) a hot cup of coffee and a large scotch. I then discovered that the fore hatch had been leaking and the nice warm, cosy duvet I wanted to crawl into was a soggy,cold wet mess.and what was worse it was my side of the bed that was affected, there is truly no justice in the world.
So What have I learnt from this trip? If I don't like the forecast don't go! Leave it to the mad buggers. Make sure the anchor locker is secure. Keep a tarpaulin handy to cover your bed just in case a hatch leaks. My new Gill oilies ( with ladies salopettes) are fabulous and the ridiculously cheap Harken trainer type deck shoes purchased at the boat show are far superiour to traditional deck shoes when its cold and wet. Was I looking forward to a quick sail to Bradwell on the sunday in only 24kn wind? No.
However the weather forecast did not look promising, Friday looked quite horrid with 22kn with gusts of upto 33kn with maximum winds around high tide and Saturday although marginally less windy still appeared to be a 6 most of the day, Sunday winds were reducing and by Monday they were gone I pointed this out to the skipper who said I was looking at the wrong weather sites and he had found a much better forecast so not to worry about it and go play with some fluffy bunnies.
We set off Friday and had a wonderful sail out of the Crouch and I thought yep National Met Office/Windguru what do they know?
Trust in Jim and his trusty weather forcasting stone on a string, cat gut feeling and ability to divine wind direction and speed from observing seal behaviour on the Buxey Sands. Sadly the tide had covered the sands, the cat retained it's guts and the stone was left at home, not long before the Ray Sand bouy there was a strong winds and gale warning on the radio mind you by that time we already had 1 reef in and the sky was darkening and even I could see that it was not going to be a nice sail up to Levington.
Skipper decided to change plans and head for Brightlingsea. Half way across the sands the wind really got up and the tide went against us so we now had wind over tide, the waves height was increasing and the wave length decreasing and I knew it was rough when the men consented to put lifejackets on. In went the 2nd reef to main and gib. After a few waves over the bow that hit the skipper in the face he even consented to a life line although the Scot was made of sterner stuff or possible he could'nt hear me over the howling wind. Its always a sign of bad weather when the banter stops and the only conversation is about tracking the main up and down.. Mind you even he put one on when he had to go up to the anchor locker to secure it after our two ball fenders suddenly burst out of the deck like a massive pair of very cold boobs 'a la Jordan' apparently the locker had not been secured correctly and was entirely full of water and thats a lot of water as the skipper can get lost in the anchor locker.
We endured hours of slamming. Bashing and getting periodically drenched until we reached the safety of the harbour, where we got a prime spot since no one else was due in that day( I wonder why??) a hot cup of coffee and a large scotch. I then discovered that the fore hatch had been leaking and the nice warm, cosy duvet I wanted to crawl into was a soggy,cold wet mess.and what was worse it was my side of the bed that was affected, there is truly no justice in the world.
So What have I learnt from this trip? If I don't like the forecast don't go! Leave it to the mad buggers. Make sure the anchor locker is secure. Keep a tarpaulin handy to cover your bed just in case a hatch leaks. My new Gill oilies ( with ladies salopettes) are fabulous and the ridiculously cheap Harken trainer type deck shoes purchased at the boat show are far superiour to traditional deck shoes when its cold and wet. Was I looking forward to a quick sail to Bradwell on the sunday in only 24kn wind? No.
