Hamble
I paid the bill and we said our good bye's to Nick and Maz and headed out of the Harbour for Hamble. As soon as we had departed from the protection of the harbour I pulled up the pink sail and we were off. I noticed on AIS that Batfish V was 4 miles ahead and immediately announced that a race was on. Batfish whilst a much smaller boat was a racing boat a Comet 41 and would be hard to catch in light winds. During the night the winds had moved slightly further south so the direction was just aft of the beam. We were doing seven knots and Batfish was only doing 5.3 but they had their black sails up I am not sure why but after thirty minutes they deployed their asymmetric and the speed difference dropped to one knot. after three hours we were still two miles away.
The wind dropped and suddenly they we matching us, but I am sure we were the only one racing! then we had a wind shift and the wind was now very much on the beam but this put the apparent wind forward. We were able to sheet in our sail and keep the speed up, in fact we went faster and faster. When our pink sail was first delivered to us I thought that Peter Sanders had made a sail that was too small, but what he has made is a marvel. It works from 60-125 degrees apparent it is so versatile and is so easily handled two up it is a marvel.
it had taken us six hours but as we approached Hurst we were finally going to pass Batfish, who could not hold onto their spinnaker and were by this time back to black sails. I soon realised that this was the best opportunity to get a good photo so I called them on the VHF and asked if they would take some photo's and I could not he happier with the result. We pass them doing 10.3knots and went straight through Hurst. I am so grateful to Bill Blane and his crew for the photo's - thank you.
Just before Gurnard we were finally headed and the sail came down; not bad Portland to Gurnard with the spinnaker up all the way. At this point we were reaching the end of our holiday and so we dropped the sail and motored the rest of the way in. It has been a holiday to remember; the worst weather we have ever had and the most socialising we have ever done. We made closer friendships with people we had in the past not got to know quite so well. It was lovely.
Back to work tomorrow :(
The wind dropped and suddenly they we matching us, but I am sure we were the only one racing! then we had a wind shift and the wind was now very much on the beam but this put the apparent wind forward. We were able to sheet in our sail and keep the speed up, in fact we went faster and faster. When our pink sail was first delivered to us I thought that Peter Sanders had made a sail that was too small, but what he has made is a marvel. It works from 60-125 degrees apparent it is so versatile and is so easily handled two up it is a marvel.
it had taken us six hours but as we approached Hurst we were finally going to pass Batfish, who could not hold onto their spinnaker and were by this time back to black sails. I soon realised that this was the best opportunity to get a good photo so I called them on the VHF and asked if they would take some photo's and I could not he happier with the result. We pass them doing 10.3knots and went straight through Hurst. I am so grateful to Bill Blane and his crew for the photo's - thank you.
Just before Gurnard we were finally headed and the sail came down; not bad Portland to Gurnard with the spinnaker up all the way. At this point we were reaching the end of our holiday and so we dropped the sail and motored the rest of the way in. It has been a holiday to remember; the worst weather we have ever had and the most socialising we have ever done. We made closer friendships with people we had in the past not got to know quite so well. It was lovely.
Back to work tomorrow :(
