A fantastic morning and the forecast was just what we needed as it was 4-5 veering westerly Ha Ha We left at 10:30 in a flat calm and motored from the islands, The wind came in at lunch time a sw F4 and had 8 hours of superb sailing as we waited for it to veer westerly, as the 16:00 forecast reinforced.At 21:30 as the chilli and rice was being served the boat gybed , I caught my finger in the door ( it looks like I will lose the nail and hit my head hard, ads covered the galley in chilli. By 22:00 the gusts were 25 knots from the south and we were making 9 knots. and the cloud cover was total , but visibility was good.At 2 in the morning it had got up to 40+ knots a true force 8 , by then the auto pilot was being overwhelmed and I took over hand steering and the visibility closed in with the heavy rain .
It was time to practice my down wind sailing for the upcoming dinghy race at Southwold, the boat was hitting 17 knots with long surfs in total darkness sometimes even the bow was not vi sable through the spray. What an adrenaline rush, image driving your car at 20 mph for 4 hours with the lights off.
Landfall at Milford was at 6:30 in the rain and still force 8 , the radio forecast was still occasional force 6, we almost phoned them to complain.
So two hours sleep and the rest of the day cleaning up the chilli :(
610 miles covered so far and off to Arklow in Ireland on Saturday . That should then be the end of the rush to get to Troon for the end of the month.
Sounds as if you had a rough time the pair of you.
ReplyDeleteSounds awful, but you were very brave about your thumb! Why on earth can't they get the forecast right?
ReplyDeleteI'm a little worried about your decision-making, sailing in such conditions. Are you sure chilli was the wise choice?
ReplyDeleteLynda :-Got your voicemail, I gather you're out of phone contact .
ReplyDelete