The racing fleet were in the bay, hardly moving in the light winds. They looked like a photograph, so little movement could be seen. The lock was similar:
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Locking out"]
[/caption]Engine off at the Outer Wrach buoy and we set full sail. With the wind a few points to the West of South West, it was a close haul to clear the West of Flatholm and then run around with the flooding tide. Louise helmed. Tom seemed to be enjoying it.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Louise and Tom"]
[/caption]The tide was flodding, but was a very small neap. Trying to pass West of Flatholm on a flooding tide, with the wind in the West was quite a task, and the GPS suggested we would not do it without a tack. Tom took the helm and his experience showed. We passed very close to the island before turning East and then back North, around it.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Flatholm from the West"]
[/caption]Tom seemed very concerned about the depths, 3 and 4m and so on, and the rips over the Bristol Channel sand banks. Blue water sailors! Never happy with less than 2 miles under the keel. It was interesting to remember back three years, to when Louise and I were exactly the same. Local knowledge has taken away almost all of that fear.
The wind picked up as we turned for Cardiff, and Ishtar began to sing, her bow cutting the waves. She's not the fastest, nor the prettiest, by far, but she does make me smile when she bristles and champs, then lurches forward, chasing the wind.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="...and the East"]
[/caption]A warm Saturday afternoon in late September, and everyone seemd to be enjoying the weather. Tigger was guarding below decks.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Warm"]
[/caption]Catastrophe struck as we neared the Outer Wrach buoy! A huge pool of oil in the bilges and the engine would not start. When I remembered I had tightened the alternator belt before leaving, I found that I'd moved the starter motor fractionally. Easily solved and I tighted its loose nut. The huge pool of oil turned out to be water from a leaking cockpit lid, dislodged by our sail, with a thin film of oil over the top, I relaxed.
One of those days when you get back to the pontoon wishing you were still out sailing.
