Summer is a Comin’ in – but no cuckoo yet !
It’s summer ( or at its mid May so it ought to be) ; time to go a wandering.
We had planned Mon 14th as our departure date , but much to our relief a nasty little low chose this time to come whizzing up the channel ; I had as ever underestimated the time it takes to organise the 101 things you need to do before leaving for any length of time and a safety training session in a breezy Solent led to a torn mainsail which added to the jobs! But by happy coincidence, by Wednesday lunchtime the “to –do” list and the weather both agreed we could go…….. so we did!
The boisterous SW winds in the tail of the blow gave us a great start , surfing us down the inside Channel at Selsey Bill , and then gradually easing off and running out off Dover . We had no definite plans for this opening trip , but the forecast of 6 hours of Easterly, becoming fresh North East (with rain!) had us heading for our favourite anchorage in the Walton Backwaters , off Harwich, to wait for a more favourable slant.
At present it looks like another little low is tracking from N Germany towards Hull , laden with lots more rain ( ugh) and followed by strong Northerlies again , so our current plan is to use the brief interlude of SW winds on its southern flank to head for Amsterdam to fortify ourselves with cheese , museums and Dutch apple cake before heading on to the Baltic.
Meantime we are snug at anchor with the heater at full blast to ward off the cold Northerly winds. Summer next week perhaps?