Visit by a good friend Rob. New AIS fitted and needed testing. Rob has his commercial yacht masters ticket and quite a bit of experience so we decided to go out and try the boat out in strong winds. The forecast was South-westerly, force 7, increasing to force 8. We headed down from our mooring, at Noss on the Dart and put a reef in the main, then headed out. We broad reached out and believe it or not, we were the ONLY boat out in Start Bay. The seas weren’t all that large but it was blowing off the tops of the waves. We practised tacking, making tea and such like. We then hove-to and drank our tea and ate our sandwiches. Brixham Coastguard came on the radio to warn of a strong wind, force 8. We put another reef in and set off for another sail. The anometer was reading 43, gusting to 48 knots. I rang the Coast Watch Lookout Station to see if we were registering on their radar and the person on watch confirmed the conditions and told me we must be MAD. No way, we were enjoying every minute of it. We even got the old girl up to 8.4 knots, which is about her maximum speed. We came back into Dartmouth with a lot of confidence in Fai Tira, an exercise we needed to do.
First Trip This Year. New chart plotter fitted and needed testing. It’s the kids’ holidays again and we were lucky enough to have my (Pete’s) brother -in- law and family down for a few days. The ladies didn’t want to sail, so it was just the boys; me, Simon and Edward. John was otherwise engaged. We decided to head for the River Yealm and Noss Mayo. It’s a great place to visit and I like the Ship Inn with their excellent food. We set off with brilliant weather, although the wind was a bit light. We motor-sailed part of the way, enjoying the Spring sunshine. We had a bit of downwind sailing so we decided to try out the brand new spinnaker. We had the pole out and the spinnaker up the mast but try as hard as we could, we couldn’t get the snuffer up. We had to take it down most disappointed. We duly arrived on the Yealm and moored on the visitors’ pontoon to be rewarded with a great sunset. Edward rowed us ashore and we spent a nice night in the Ship Inn.Wednesday 15th April 2009. Weather not so good. The wind is from the East which meant close- hauling back. No sunshine. It was all quite uneventful until the wind completely dropped just as we entered Start Bay. The visibility suddenly dropped to about 50 yards and we heard thunder. It was very eyrie. The thunder got louder and louder until the heavens opened and we were surrounded by a full on thunder storm. “Simon please let go of the shrouds and come in the cockpit”. Being a steel boat we are much better off if lightning strikes because the boat acts as a faraday cage. We arrived in Dartmouth soaked to the skin just in time for the sun to come out. A nice couple of days.
Visit by a good friend Rob. New AIS fitted and needed testing. Rob has his commercial yacht masters ticket and quite a bit of experience so we decided to go out and try the boat out in strong winds. The forecast was South-westerly, force 7, increasing to force 8. We headed down from our mooring, at Noss on the Dart and put a reef in the main, then headed out. We broad reached out and believe it or not, we were the ONLY boat out in Start Bay. The seas weren’t all that large but it was blowing off the tops of the waves. We practised tacking, making tea and such like. We then hove-to and drank our tea and ate our sandwiches. Brixham Coastguard came on the radio to warn of a strong wind, force 8. We put another reef in and set off for another sail.
Wednesday 15th April 2009. Weather not so good. The wind is from the East which meant close- hauling back. No sunshine. It was all quite uneventful until the wind completely dropped just as we entered Start Bay. The visibility suddenly dropped to about 50 yards and we heard thunder. It was very eyrie. The thunder got louder and louder until the heavens opened and we were surrounded by a full on thunder storm. “Simon please let go of the shrouds and come in the cockpit”. Being a steel boat we are much better off if lightning strikes because the boat acts as a faraday cage. We arrived in Dartmouth soaked to the skin just in time for the sun to come out. A nice couple of days.
