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.

Flatholm and back, with spinnaker

The nights are drawing in, and everywhere you go there are signs of winter. Dale yacht club are having a 'laying up party' this weekend to mark the end of the summer, and the compound at Cardiff yacht club is fully booked.

Pointless sailing on this late in the season then.

So off we went, leaving our pontoon berth at 09:00 for the 09:30 lock, half an hour after low.



Met some friends from Cardiff Bay yacht club in the lock. The cod were about, evidently, and they had four rods ready. The water level dropped and we were out.Leaving Cardiff locks



I was determined to try and fly our 'cruising chute' for the first time in these light winds. We'd taken it off the boat as too complex when we bought Ishtar, but now felt confident enough to give it a try. Louise helmed, taking us down past the Ranie buoy and out past Lavernock spit, whilst I set up the blocks, and tried to work out the rigging.

The wind picked up, Southerly now, so I put the spinnaker away, unhoisted, and set the genoa and main. Sailed SW, thinking we could run back up towards Barry using the spinnaker.

The time had come, so I rigged it again. I was really nervous, expecting all sorts of horrors. Oh, to hell with it, pull the Halyard and give it a go.

And she flew.

I quickly realised that it was a tri radial, and that rigging it as a cruising chute was wrong. Managed to keep it up though, despite changing wind direction, and actually sailed. I could not help grinning from ear to ear.

OK, now could i douse it? I didn't really know what I was doing, but just dropped it a bit at a time, stuffing it into the bag. Seemed to go fine. I'm a big believer in trying to keep things fun, when learning new skills. This certainly was fun.

Louise sailed us across to Flatholm. We had bought a new anchor, a Delta. New  to us anyhow.

We dropped the hook in 7m off the beach at Flatholm. I've never really mastered going astern with Ishtar, but the anchor dug in, and we had a cup of tea.

We were not there long before we got a VHF call from Vince of Cardiff yacht club. He was out on Alana, near the North Cardiff buoy, and would see us shortly.

Louise wanted to try setting the spinnaker, and did it well.

We didn't have it up long. The wind was now westerly, and we needed to go North West. She doused the spinnaker, put it away and we set genoa and main and neaeded for home, both delighted.

We could see Vince, on Alana headed our way, and it wasn't long before he was with us.

He turned, with the Holms behind, and we both headed back for the locks.

Half an hour or so later and we had locked in with 7 other boats and approached our spot on the pontoon.

A lovely day, and it seems so strange to think of so many boats not being used in such weather.