Brightlingsea Cruise

Club cruise to Brightlingsea, only three boats there, one didn't make it out of The Medway.

Early start, 4:30 AM from MCC moorings and made every gate. Sun rise over Grain was spectacular.

The wind was on the nose the whole way and died as we cleared Swin Spitway. Made it into Brightlingsea by 14:30PM and on to the pontoon. Engine on the whole time but worth it.

A good fun evening with the other skippers and crew. We were entertained with card tricks by one of the younger crew. 

Set off back the next day, Sunday 4th May, with the wind behind us. The wind was F3 N to F5 gusts and the new boom worked really well. Reefing was much easier and overall control was great. Gybing seemed more secure. Still need to sort out the preventer lines attachment point.

Just over 8 hours to get back to the HNYC moorings and almost no engine hours.

 

Lovely early morning sail

Left the HNYC moorings just before 6AM, I had moved Louisa to a swinging mooring the evening before. I only saw a couple of other boats on my way to Queenborough, they were heading up stream. I turned at Queenborough all tide landing at 9AM. The wind had been a very pleasant F3 WSW breeze. On the way back the wind increased to F4 with very occasional gusts. The only fly in the ointment was the 15 or so MYC boats, all looking grumpy, and sailing or motoring back to their moorings. I was back on my mooring by midday. Back in time to remove the boom and sort the boat out. After the frustrations of trying to rig a new topping lift, this was a very welcome break.

Heavy Weather Sails

 The mast track is finished and the weather was suitable to check the sails.

The fit is good, some small adjustments and fixed clew lines are required but overall I am very happy with them. I need to add an extra halyard for the trysail so that I can change main sails more quickly. The trysail has about half the sail area of the main with the third reef in and as the overall sail plan is lower and closer to the mast I am hoping that she will sail better and heave too as well as before.