Over and Out
It was the forecast that decided us. If we left L’Aberwrach at tea time , we could take a gradually veering SW until just past Portland bill, drop the hook somewhere off the Purbeck coast and take the next days sea breeze all the way home in time to see Bryony before she left for her dolphin study.
And that’s how it turned out, with just a few bits of excitement thrown in. First of all a Frenchman ran amok in the marina , bouncing from boat to boat like a pinball wizard and giving us our first ding of the year. Then the first few hours of the passage were pretty foggy and we discovered that the crowded Channel is much harder work than the Atlantic , but with the help of radar we slalomed our way between the blips until a front arrived, magically clearing the mist and revealing navigation lights all around us. With visibility now excellent the rest of the sail to Portland was a brilliant spinnaker run , with the wind just giving out at dusk as we crept into the Mupe anchorage at the West end of Warbarrow bay. The scenery here is simply world class and we got the feeling that coming home was perhaps not going to be such a chore after all.
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| From Coming home |
At midnight our thoughts were less charitable. A light Northerly caused huge catabatic gusts to come tumbling off the cliffs and we were awoken by frantic shouting. A small boat had dragged , tripping the anchor of a heavy engineless cutter . He saw himself drifting towards the cliff and unrolled his genoa , forgetting that he had a wind generator in the rigging which promptly chopped it up! The remnants caused him to thrash around on the end of his anchor rode , and he gave us a couple of heavy thumps before drifting just astern and thankfully holding. 30 mts later the wind died completely and we re-anchored clear of the chaos, reflecting ruefully that we had now collected 2 biffs in the last few days of our trip – but thankfully nothing too horrendous.
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| From Coming home |
The next day England produced its very best weather for the sail home to Hamble via the Needles channel; bright sunshine and a warm sea breeze and a spinnaker all the way.
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| From Coming home |
We drifted up the river to the mooring enjoying the familiar sights and reflected together on a great year , a good trip and ( I hope not too smugly) a job well done.
Over and out.
Glad you have safely completed your mission!! I am one of your ex-patients and your exploits have helped keep me chuckling and silently cheering in admiration over the last year. My husband died last Sept. so you have still helped me over a difficult period. We did a lot of cruising and I particularly had a chuckle about the boatmen at Souffriere – its a very weird place. Where next? Wherever – God Bless and Thank you.
Wecome back Philip and Lynda. I hope it’s not too much of a shock. We’ll be pleased to have you back in the Sigma 38 fleet. While you’ve been away your children’s performance has been a constant reminder of how well you sail!
Welcome Home and Well Done !!!! We will look out for you now you are back love C2 xx