Scuttlebutt Cherbourg Cruise 2015

Little Grebe said:
The rain, no real wind and leftover swell experience this morning didn't really appeal so we turned back around Ventnor, of course it's pleasant sunshine now.:/QUOTE]

We had a similar experience on Friday morning on the east side of the iow. It was a good sail from Chichester to off Sandown Bay but slow, too slow. Tide against us at this point too. by then my only crew was in a nil by mouth state and glued to cockpit seat. Decided not to go and instead popped into whitecliffe bay for 30 mins where the swell was present, then had a stair rods rain cloud burst on us as we headed back to Bembridge. Next day crew recovered and had a lovely potter to beaulieu for the night. Then again an excellent sail back to Chichester today after the fog cleared.
Click to expand...
 
...then slept through the flood anchored in Swanage (mahoosive headache from too little sleep and too much coolant antifreeze), and went with the afternoon's ebb to Weymouth. Coolant still leaking but containable if revs kept down. Dorset beer and fish pie on The Cove and yesterday a super cruising-chute sail all the way to Newtown Creek. Will work the morning flood back home... and stop later at Beta engineer in Universal for a quote on repairs or replacement heat exchanger.

So although we didn't make it foreign, had I not planned to go, I'd have stayed at home, seen The Squeaker, and caught his horrible bug!

Cheers

Jon
 
Thank you Roger and Fergus, what a brillIiant weekend that was :encouragement:. It was great to put faces to the names on here and as a newbie I have to say the welcome was fantastic, thanks all.

We motored most of the way back to Bembridge ledge and then had a cracking sail up the Solent yesterday. This weekend was my first Channel Crossing, and handling most of it solo on the way back was awesome (those who were partying with my skipper on Saturday might guess why it was mainly solo :D)

Skipper also asks for those who have photos of Saturday night, how much do you want not to post them?
 
Photos! I will pm a link to the original files.

Dom somewhere just south of Needles Fairway:

Dom01.jpg



Angele just outside the Grand Rade:

Angele01.jpg
 
Haven't got the faintest idea how long my son and my friend played guitars until but everyone that came on board Janes Buoy seemed to enjoy it.
The 5.00 start though didn't happen with the first of my crew waking me up from a solid sleep at 7.00. Quickly left and motored nearly all the way back. All my crew had long journeys ( one to Ipswich) so kept motor sailing for speed but about 2hrs off Poole I tried just sailing and was pleasantly surprised to find boat did just over 7kts in the light wind- it obviously likes a broad reach.
Overhauled colhel and Fergus which enabled us to do some close quarter work and return Fergus's jacket that he left at the yacht club in Cherbourg!
Always open to ideas to improve the event but at present I think it's the best arrangements and just have to accept how much the sunny weather makes it so much better.
Sad for those that were put off by the Friday forecast as we had about 12 - 15kts W most of the way over and it just got up to 18-22kts max just outside cherbourg. No F7 and really a F4 reach all the way. I had 4 X channel virgins as crew and they loved the sail.
Will let this thread get completed and later start a new thread for the future date of Scuttlebutt Cherbourg cruise 2016 It will be the first weekend in September with neap tides so those that want can put it in the diary and plan around it.
 
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Agree about the wind strength on Friday and the midnight shipping (current when we left) was giving SW5-6 going W4-5 then NW3-4 later. So we had to go out and give it a try. The sea state was more of a problem with a SW swell left over from the strong winds of the previous few days and a choppy beam sea on top of it. We had a little bit of rain as we left Yarmouth just before six in the morning then slowly clearing skies the rest of the way.

First crossing on the new boat and she was about 2 hours faster each way than the previous one. It would have more than two hours on Friday if my navigation had been better.

Thanks again to Sailfree and Fergus for all the organising. See you next year.
 
Splendid weekend, thanks to those who organised, and great to meet "the scuttlebutters".

We had a clogged fuel filter about 3hrs out on Sunday, so I had to do a quick filter-swap and bleed mid-channel!

Will post my pics as soon as I've got them off the phone.

Bob
 
Qualiy isn't up to much (zoomed in on an iPhone), but here you go...

Angele, Jungle Jim, and Lady in bed.

angele.jpgjunglejim.jpgladyinbed.jpg
 
Hi all .... Many thanks to all the organisers for a lovely weekend .... Like most set off yesterday to cross to Gosport , no wind and engine on , crew set about the ships stores and drunk it dry ! ... Left Gosport this morning to get back to Brighton , it was blowing a hooligan out there ! Fast sail ..... See you all next year and many thanks ... Ken
 
Just picked up buoy in Yarmouth after one of the wettest, windiest and wildest crossings I have ever had!!!!!! Snark due here at 22:30 owing to problem mid-Channel. Don't know what yet. Impressed with Lady In Red getting a gert big tanker to alter course for him half way across.
 
Strange day, left in 5 ikts of wind with Lady in Red and Giblets & Co, rounded Bebbridge with 25-27 after five hours in pouring rain ...only caught sight of land 2.5 miles out. Fab w/e and once again many thanks to Sailfree and Fergus for organising - great to meet everyone again and boy can Sailfree's crew play their guitars, unbelievably good! Bit of a headache on Sun morning so decided to stay in Cherbourg another day :nonchalance:

PS: Hope Snark gets in okay after what must have been a long and wet day at sea.
 
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Just got home, cracking sail back, even had to reduce the genoa by a couple of rolls. I'm not used to these fast passages, the course I set was to allow for my normal plod across, so ended up far to far east, then the sun came out, the wind swung NW and dropped off, so ended up motoring in.
 
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