Winter Sailing, rugby and beer

[ishtar]

Vince kindly invited me for a sail on Alana yesterday. Ishtar is having a new UV strip fitted, so it seemed a good idea. With Wales playing Scotland on offer in the bar at 17:00, and a ridge of high pressure offering lighter winds and sunshine for 25 hours in between two troughs and Gales, it was a perfect day.

We locked out at 11:30, a few other yachts and fishing boats with us, intent on enjoying the good weather.



Vince had said that he wanted to practice with his spinnaker, but as we passed Sospan Dau, dredging the channel on our way towards the outer wrach, we both felt like just going for a sail, a chat and a cup of tea.

[ishtar]

Pretty soon, we were cutting through the water at over 5 knots, on a beam reach, heading for Newport. I hadn't even bothered to put my sailing gear on, it was so mild. The forecast was for the wind to back and build from a Westerly 4 or 5 to a SW 6 or 7, occasionally 8 overnight. It was very benign at the moment though



So Vince went below to make the tea.



We tried to calculate whether we could make Newport and return in time for the game, but that didn't look possible. As we passed the buoys leading towards Newport, we felt the wind strengthening, and noticed a chop start to build as the wind over tide began, the tide ebbing towards the Westerly wind.

We turned around at 13:15, and began beating back, Vince using his racing experience to plan the tacks.

[ishtar]

We'd expected a soaking beating back into the chop, but it didn't happen, and what we had instead was a pleasant sail upwind at 4 knots. The apparent wind was peaking at 23 knots and Vince talked about reefing, but we didn't need to in the end.

We sailed back with what we thought was another club boat, Shoshanna Rose, which we thought was a Westerly Centaur? She certainly locked in with us and sailed back to the club



We finished the day with a few pints in the bar, a good win for Wales in the rugby, and the news that there was a promotion on, it was only £1.50 a pint whilst the games were on.

A really enjoyable day. Thanks, to Vince for the sail.