John and myself arrived in Southampton to bring her home We set off at 11.00am into a brisk south-westerly. The forecast was force 4-5, occasionally 6. After a testing time trying to get her out of the marina in reverse we set off for the crowded area of the Solent. The tide was with us but
the wind was against us.We had a fantastic beat down to the Needles and out into the open sea where we encountered a large swell and strong winds. We had a great sail until the tide changed. Spring tides meant we had a 4 knot tide against us as we passed Swanage. We were progressing across the ground,
with the engine on, at 1.5 knots for 6 hours. After listening to the weather forecast on the VHF I made the decision to push on overnight to Dartmouth rather than putting in at Weymouth as planned. We had the tide with us as we passed Portland Bill and we were travelling at 8.5 knots across the ground. We arrived in Lyme Bay in the early hours of Friday
morning. John and I did 3 hours on, 3 hours off watch system. As dawn broke the wind dropped and backed to the south giving us a good sail into Dartmouth. We arrived home exactly 24 hours after setting off from Southampton, thoroughly exhausted but jubilant. Fai Tira had proved herself to us in some testing conditions. She went well to wind and we felt very safe on board.
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