New Year's Day Sail

The plan for the New Year sail was for Ishtar to have an all ladies crew, so Sheila, Angie and Elaine were welcomed aboard.  It was a beautiful morning although very cold, it was really hazardous on deck as it was very icy so you had to hang on while moving around.  We left the pontoon with a group of other yachts and made our way to the locks.  It was a bit of a squeeze in there but we got in.

 Once out, we raised our sails and began to goosewing towards Flatholm.

Once we got closer to the island some of the others decided to go around Steepholm too, but we decided to stick with the original plan.  Warmed up with some of Sheila's delicious curried parsnip soup we were a happy crew.

Galipette sailed past us looking well trimmed.

It was a good result for us, as we enjoyed a bit of peace and quiet away from our men folk, so we flew the pink flag with pride!

Vince and Tim on Alana were waiting for us so we could all lock in together.

Coracle and Chaussey were soon following us, with the slowly setting sun, having been around the two islands.

It was a good day for the ladies as we had achieved what we wanted, every trip out without the "support" of our men means we become better at planning, sail setting and making decisions.  We all felt a bit more confident and there were smiles all round.  An excellent start to the year.

Portishead

Weather still good, so why not?

Louise wanted to sail to Portishead for Friday night, back Saturday. Sheila and Vince would bring Alana, and Allan would bring Chausey, and meet Edwina at Portishead. The girls decided that they would sail together, and Vince and I would take Ishtar.

Bit of a panic to start. Louise was late getting to the club, having just done a night shift and cooked a curry, but we still made the 14:00 lock out from Cardiff.



It had been flat calm all week, with sailing hardly possible, but we raised the sails hust past the Outer Wrach buoy with a NE force 4. We were soon bowling along, 7 knots sog, and heeled at 30 degrees.



 We stayed to the North of the shipping channel, skirting the Southern edge of the Middle Grounds. I backed off the wind a little, and we crossed to the Southern side of the channel. I think we should have stayed high, as we struggled to point high enough after that, but Vince helmed well, and we rounded the breakwater at 17:00, about 10 minutes before the next lock. Allan had made the previous lock, and the girls were about 5 minutes behind us.

Louise brought Alana in, and Sheila sorted the lines. Perfect.





We had beer aboard Alana, and curry aboard Ishtar, prepared by Louise. Edwina had joined us, and we all enjoyed the evening.





On the way to the pub, we met with Mark, from Gemini Girl. We'd sailed with Mark in May 2009, aboard his boat Cafe Seerose in the Ionian. He was taking a break back in Bristol before returning to the Canaries to take Cafe seerose across the Atlantic. It was great to catch up with Mark.





The alarm went off at 07:00. Louise made coffee and started up the eberspacher heater. We were soon up and about on a clear, cold morning. We took Tigger for a walk and readied the boat. Louise and Sheila wanted to sail Ishtar back, so I loaded my stuff onto Alana. I also loaded Ishtar's spinnaker. The winds were light, and Vince was keen to give it a try.

We locked out at 09:30. Tigger had joined the ladies.



 Allan and Edwina got the crusing chute out aboard Chausey, and Louise and Sheila trimmed teh sails beautifully on Ishtar. The tide was running out and we hurtled downstream, in the light winds.





Vince and I tried to raise the spinnaker. Behind the genoa at first - that turned out to be a bad idea as it got tangled in the genoa when we wound that in. Then tried it without the pole, which didn't work. Finally tried it with the pole and up she went.





It felt great, and we got up to 9.3 knots. The wind held for an hour, then faded and died. We brought the spinnaker in just past Flatholm and reset the genoa. Louise and Sheila passed us, as did Allan and Edwina. The wind picked up again and we started to move faster in towards Cardiff.

We joined with the other boats just before the locks and headed in at 17:15.

Allan and Edwina prepared Chausey for the lock also.

The locks were 'interesting' and not everyone was prepared to wait their turn in the queue.

And a takeaway chinese aboard Chausey to finish. A thoroughly great weekend.

It's ladies day on Ishtar

[Louise] I had said for a while that I would like to go out sailing with some of the ladies from the club so I finally made arrangements with Sheila, from Alana, to go for a sail on Wednesday afternoon.

With very little sleep after a night shift, it was a bit of an effort to drag myself off to the club but with the sun shining, off I went.  After showing Sheila around our boat we set off from the pontoon with a vague plan of going out and trying to sail towards the Cardiff North buoy.  I wanted to try going through the locks alone so with Sheila at the ready in case of a disaster we left the pontoon.

Vince followed along in Alana and I managed the locks without a problem.  Once out into the channel we optimistically raised the mainsail and even got the genoa out but we only just got an movement, there was not a breath of wind.



 The fishing rods came out and Alana rafted up alongside us.  With Van Morrison in the background and the sun surprisingly warm for October, a very pleasant afternoon was had by all.



 I asked Sheila if she fancied taking Ishtar back into the locks and she was up for the challenge.  She really noticed the difference in handling and it makes you realise how familiar you get with your own boat, the pitch of the engine, the revs, how much throttle to give etc.

A little mishap leaving the locks meant Ishtar ended up drifting to starboard, but I think that was a lesson for both of us, I assumed that Sheila would do things one way and she was used to doing things with Vince on her boat another way.  Sometimes there are just different ways.   Anyway undeterred we are sailing to Portishead on Friday, girls on Alana, boys on Ishtar