Post by allan on May 9, 2011 8:42:43 GMT
On Saturday I had a nice sail on Chausey, leaving on the 0930 lock and sailing down to Barry with Martin from Bright Flyer. We had hoped to see the Pilot cutters but I now know they had left at 0900. We then had a nice sail over to off Minehead before turning for home.
During the sail I received a phonecall from Catherine, the owner of Moonshine. Catherine and Georgie had been driven back to Swansea by an electrical storm on Friday and wanted a hand to bring Moonshine back.
On Sunday I left the club with Bill, who had left his car in Swansea after going down to pick up Sanibel and picked up Ian, the hippy looking bloke.
Catherine waved off Georgie, Ian and myself as we left Tawe lock and headed down to the Nash channel. There was still some east in the wind so we had to motorsail. As we got closer to Nash we could see the waves breaking all the way down Scarweather bank. We motored through the little gap between the Cardinal and the ledge off the headland just after low tide with solid water coming over the bow for about 50m. This then calmed a little and after another 2-300m we were out on the race. Moonshine handled all of this wonderfully and Georgie did a great job on the helm.
When we had cleared the Nash we had turned enough to get some of the genoa out. Moonshine then proved what a great little boat she is, as we sailed along the coast. With two reefs in the main, half the genoa and a good tide we had a SOG of 8kts. She also has a really nice motion even when going across the chop and is not stopped the way some small boats are when pushing through the waves. We had left Swansea at 1230 and locked into Cardiff at 1945, pretty good going for a 26 footer.
A great day. Thanks to Catherine for the chance to sail Moonshine and to Georgie and Ian for listening to my ramblings all the way back.
Allan
During the sail I received a phonecall from Catherine, the owner of Moonshine. Catherine and Georgie had been driven back to Swansea by an electrical storm on Friday and wanted a hand to bring Moonshine back.
On Sunday I left the club with Bill, who had left his car in Swansea after going down to pick up Sanibel and picked up Ian, the hippy looking bloke.
Catherine waved off Georgie, Ian and myself as we left Tawe lock and headed down to the Nash channel. There was still some east in the wind so we had to motorsail. As we got closer to Nash we could see the waves breaking all the way down Scarweather bank. We motored through the little gap between the Cardinal and the ledge off the headland just after low tide with solid water coming over the bow for about 50m. This then calmed a little and after another 2-300m we were out on the race. Moonshine handled all of this wonderfully and Georgie did a great job on the helm.
When we had cleared the Nash we had turned enough to get some of the genoa out. Moonshine then proved what a great little boat she is, as we sailed along the coast. With two reefs in the main, half the genoa and a good tide we had a SOG of 8kts. She also has a really nice motion even when going across the chop and is not stopped the way some small boats are when pushing through the waves. We had left Swansea at 1230 and locked into Cardiff at 1945, pretty good going for a 26 footer.
A great day. Thanks to Catherine for the chance to sail Moonshine and to Georgie and Ian for listening to my ramblings all the way back.
Allan
