Windy Wednesday

I had planned to do a shakedown sail this evening after work, as the tide was timed right and the weather had been fine for the past couple of days.

Then this morning the shipping forecast mentioned gales. Great. I don't really want to push the newly-tensioned rigging through anything extreme on a shakedown run so sailing was off the schedule.

I still persevered and even though it was blowing force 6 I rowed out to Sprite for a brew and a quick check over of a few things. Force 6 in the dinghy doesn't really faze me now after rowing out in a similar gale when Sprite was on the deep water mooring.

I checked my re-glued locker top and the rigging from the weekend. I can now adjust the mast because above the baby stays it has a slight kink in it. I also ran the outboard with some Redex in the petrol as it was not sounding right last weekend. Probably a bit gummed up from not being run.

I brewed a cuppa and came off the boat as the Wednesday night club from ECC were running up and down the harbour entrance which gave me some entertainment. Even the big boats were finding the wind a bit strong:Through the entrance to the harbour where it was more sheltered from the wind the y were upright, but once they had got clear and entered the harbour proper, they went over as the wind caught them.

A couple of boats went out of the harbour with heavily reefed sails. Brave souls!

There were a couple of strays at Eastney too, probably blown off course:

Then Jim and his other half turned up, they'd just been to the chippy and had come down to check on the boats and have dinner.

This weekend I want to put Sprite on the beach at low tide and scrub off the bottom, ready for next month's week-long cruise. The weather looks wet but I have a tarpaulin I can put over the cockpit to keep things dry. I also have a decent waterproof coat. I've ordered some oxalic acid crystals off ebay so I can have a bash at removing the water staining on the hull. There's some rust stains on the transom that could do with being removed too.

Morning high tide on Saturday is 09:16 (4.4m), the low is at 14:47 and the late high is at 21:53 (4.7m). Hopefully I can stick her on the beach two hours after the high and float off two hours before the next high.