NW7 in Oostende
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FullCircle
Well-Known Member
NW7 in the bloody Roach this afternoon.....
Athene V30
Well-Known Member
Things got exciting when I got to Colne Bar about midday on Monday - 38 kt prolonged squall and my port aft lower became detatched!
Marmalade
Well-Known Member
3 men in an AWB
Don't ususally write logs, but went sailing at the weekend - sitting here in St Katherine's (damn it - spoiled the ending) I have some time to write it down.
After a curry in Ipswich and a quick snifter in Fox's bar (Marmalade had been in for some work) we turned in - not before we'd run into Sailorman and his mate who advised us that St Kat's in a day was easily on with the forecast wind. As the marina there had told me not to get there before Monday as they were full, I wasn't tempted.
Sunday was horrible. It rained hard all day and it blew a hooley. We flew down the wallett under a scrap of headsail with 34-38knts solid on the wind thingy gusting over 40knts (top = 47) on a regular basis. From behind! Only the fact that it was NE - ly made it thinkable and we rocked and rolled down vomit-ally at 9-10kts (11 kts + SOG) which for a solid ol' Moody ain't half bad.
Things got bad when we got to the spitway however. "Why didn't you go outside the gunfleet?" you sensibly ask. Well we figured that the seas would be a lot rougher (several days of northerlies) out there and we hadn't factored in the extra speed which got us to the wallet spitway buoy earlier than I'd expected. The sea was running at 2m. My calc said there was 3m of water in the channel. We draw 2m.
None of us fancied hanging around out there - let's be honest: it wasn't sunbathing weather. I didn't fancy sliding into a trough with only 1m under me and the beam-on sea meant I wasn't totally confident I could get through without getting pushed off course onto the sand.
That's how we came to be sitting that evening in Kovalam eating the second curry in 2 days and anxiously checking every possible forecast for the next day.
Monday was a pussy. Nothing more than 30kts really - the sea had settled right down and a 5am start saw us through the spitway with bags of water and a calm sea. Tide was still against us for a while but once it turned we made such good time that we ended up stopping for lunch (thanks to Thurrock Yacht Club whose visitors' buoy we picked up for an hour) and then wending our way up to St Katherine's - whence I write my tale.
Not sure I'd want to sail in that kind of wind very often - but glad now I've done it. SW3-4 for the return in a couple of weeks please.
Don't ususally write logs, but went sailing at the weekend - sitting here in St Katherine's (damn it - spoiled the ending) I have some time to write it down.
After a curry in Ipswich and a quick snifter in Fox's bar (Marmalade had been in for some work) we turned in - not before we'd run into Sailorman and his mate who advised us that St Kat's in a day was easily on with the forecast wind. As the marina there had told me not to get there before Monday as they were full, I wasn't tempted.
Sunday was horrible. It rained hard all day and it blew a hooley. We flew down the wallett under a scrap of headsail with 34-38knts solid on the wind thingy gusting over 40knts (top = 47) on a regular basis. From behind! Only the fact that it was NE - ly made it thinkable and we rocked and rolled down vomit-ally at 9-10kts (11 kts + SOG) which for a solid ol' Moody ain't half bad.
Things got bad when we got to the spitway however. "Why didn't you go outside the gunfleet?" you sensibly ask. Well we figured that the seas would be a lot rougher (several days of northerlies) out there and we hadn't factored in the extra speed which got us to the wallet spitway buoy earlier than I'd expected. The sea was running at 2m. My calc said there was 3m of water in the channel. We draw 2m.
None of us fancied hanging around out there - let's be honest: it wasn't sunbathing weather. I didn't fancy sliding into a trough with only 1m under me and the beam-on sea meant I wasn't totally confident I could get through without getting pushed off course onto the sand.
That's how we came to be sitting that evening in Kovalam eating the second curry in 2 days and anxiously checking every possible forecast for the next day.
Monday was a pussy. Nothing more than 30kts really - the sea had settled right down and a 5am start saw us through the spitway with bags of water and a calm sea. Tide was still against us for a while but once it turned we made such good time that we ended up stopping for lunch (thanks to Thurrock Yacht Club whose visitors' buoy we picked up for an hour) and then wending our way up to St Katherine's - whence I write my tale.
Not sure I'd want to sail in that kind of wind very often - but glad now I've done it. SW3-4 for the return in a couple of weeks please.