What does a "day sail" look like on your sailing boat

[Bosun Higgs]

I'm surprised at the relatively long distances covered by our Northern European forumites.

One of the things which keeps our usual distances in the Med quite short in comparison is that because of the heat it's often difficult to sleep at night so the crew tend to want a lie in until the heat starts to build around 9:00 and by the time we've been sailing for a few hours we are always desperate to arrive at our anchorage whilst the sun is still out and leap into the sea to cool off before settling down in the shade on deck to drink a few beers.

I'm wondering if the different weather in N Europe means that one might as well be enjoying the sailing rather than bobbing about on the boat at anchor?

Richard

Well it is a bit like asking how fast does your boat go / how many mpg does your car do. You will get some macho imaginative answers. But that said the distance sailed depends on how long the distances are between shelter and also how much wind and tide there is. Dont forget,, the UK is one of the windier parts of the world not in terms of how hard it blows but of the fact that its almost always blowing.

Distrance very much depends on where you are sailing . East coast there are lots of stops within short distances until you get north of the Alde. Then going south there isnt that much choice between Folkestone and the Solent when all of a sudden there are lots of short hops. Gets less going further west until round lands end into the bristol channel when there are few ports and a day sail can be 80nm. But in the Bristol channel you have decent tides that can take you 20 miles on their own.

We tend to either be passage making in which case its up to 140 miles over 24 hours or pottering when its 10 miles out to anchor for lunch and 10 miles back. We dont do leaping into the sea to cool off