The GPS Blog| Activity | Activity date | Activity description |
|---|---|---|
| SYC cruisers lunch | 2017-03-25 | A short ride down to SYC for the yotties lunch. A strong following wind on the way back.
Tags:
SYC
|
| Bike ride to sailing club | 2016-10-23 | A bit windy for us to be sailing today (maybe F6) so a short ride down to the sailing club to watch the hardier sailors battling with the conditions.
Tags:
SYC
|
| SYC boat fettling | 2017-05-20 | Down to SYC to do a little bit of boat fettling |
| Topsham and back | 2017-02-26 | Round to Topsham to help Derek H put some lines back on his Fulmar. Met up with Liz on the way back and stopped at SYC for a bit. Windy - very windy on the way back. |
| Exmouth Marina to SYC | 2017-05-09 | Bringing Derek's Fulmar back to SYC from Exmouth Marina. |
| Thalmia moored at SYC | 2017-04-06 | Helping Derek put Thalmia on her mooring at SYC for the first time. In fact, when I missed getting the pick up on to the cleat, we proved that Derek can moor her OK single handed anyway! |
| Sail on Nigels Dart 18 | 2013-09-02 | A super sail out to the beach cafe, out to sea and back via the Warren. A bit of everything in the wind - well from F2 to F4 - and lots of sun. Ideal. GPS battery died on the way back. |
| Darting about in light winds | 2014-07-21 | Down river and out to sea (a little bit) on Nigel's Dart. Light, and sometimes non-existent, winds suggested that venturing too far on an outgoing tide might be a problem. Interesting tacking back up the estuary against the ebb tide - couldn't do that in the Wayfarer. |
| Lympstone and back | 2017-01-22 | Round to Lympstone on a lovely winters afternoon. Enough wind for the sailors at Starcross Yacht Club but not so much as to make the cycling unpleasant. Photos are from Lympstone looking at SYC and from SYC looking at Lymptstone. |
| SYC beach cafe sail | 2015-08-01 | We haven't been out on the Wayfarer for quite a while. That sounds bad given that it's the height of summer but a quick check shows that I've actually sailed over 490 nautical miles since our last Wayfarer trip so I haven't exactly given up sailing! A breezy sail down to the beach cafe - we put in a reef for the way back which wasn't too cowardly as there were a couple of capsizes on the way back. Big tides which is the main reason for the quite fast average speed. |
| First paddle of 2015 | 2015-06-07 | Up the Exe stuary to Topsham and under the motorway bridge. |
| March Safety Boat | 2016-03-13 | Shamefully, this is the first time we'd been on the water in 2016. A safety boat duty at SYC. Very little wind to start with but it filled in to be a nice south easterly (after half the fleet had given up due to lack of wind). First sailing photos with the new camera.
Tags:
Safety boat
SYC
|
| Another day, another drift | 2015-04-06 | Bank holiday Monday promised a little more wind. There was some for about 20 minutes. Then Liz paddled us back. |
| Another 26 miles | 2016-11-06 | Round to Lympstone and back again. Another windy ride. Stopped at SYC for the AGM. |
| Exeter and back | 2017-04-17 | In to Exeter on the Marin bike. Stopped at SYC on the way back to watch Liz and Nigel on the safety boat. About the same strength and direction wind as yesterday so it seems that the posh bike makes me about 1.5 mph faster. |
| SYC safety boat | 2016-11-27 | A last minute replacement safety boat duty at Starcross Yacht Club. No boats to rescue except us when the rather nice 50HP fuel injected outboard stopped working. Towed back to shore by the other safety boat!
Tags:
Safety boat
SYC
|
| Free sailing at SYC | 2013-05-06 | A really steady F3 to F4 wind made for some great sailing on bank holiday Monday. The sea fog cleared intermittently to even give some sun. The average moving speed of 5 knots is none to shoddy for a 30 year old beaten up Wayfarer.
Tags:
free sailing
SYC
|
| Safety boat at SYC | 2013-11-10 | Safety boat at SYC on a pleasant autumn morning. Not a lot of wind so not much work for us on the safety boat (apart from trying to figure out how to make the race marks stand upright). Some GPS data anomalies... hence max speed figures out...
Tags:
Safety Boat
SYC
|
| Fishing for anchors at low tide | 2013-06-30 | So in the days racing, the race mark buoy wouldnt stand up straight due to the shallow water. So we removed the weights below the race mark buoy and shortened the lines. We then carefully re-attached the weights to the anchor and slowly fed the weights and anchor back over the side of the boat. At which point we noticed we hadnt re-attached them to the race mark buoy. Whoops! A visit to the GPS marked scene at low tide about 5 hours later and the missing items were recovered. Thanks John! |
| Brixham to Exe | 2013-06-02 | A light wind sail from Brixham to SYC on the Exe Estuary. Light winds but that was better than the forecast of next to no winds. |
| Exe Estuary dawdle | 2013-05-12 | Not quite the F4 gusting F5 that was forecast. That and the fact we managed to get the furling line wrapped round the head sail furling drum means that we didnt go very far.
Tags:
Exe Estuary
SYC
|
| Safety boat at SYC | 2017-06-18 | Safety boat crew for Bob J at SYC. Three races in a gentle sea breeze with not a cloud in the sky.
Tags:
Safety Boat
SYC
|
| Lympstone and back | 2017-02-04 | A cycle ride with Liz round to Lympstone. Stopped at Topsham and Derek gave Liz a tour of Thalmia. Stopped at SYC on the way back - the club was starting to fill up with boats ahead of tomorrow's Starcross Steamer. The photos show the rather sad sight of the old Finnish navy motor torpedo boat - for so long moored in the canal - sunk on her moorings. |
| SYC to Topsham SC | 2016-06-11 | A paddle up the Exe from SYC to Topsham Sailing Club and back. First paddle of the year - a poor do indeed! |
| First dinghy sail of 2016 | 2016-04-02 | Weather forecast was for F5 gusting F6 and that was about right when we got to SYC. As this was the first dinghy cruise of the year, it was cancelled and replaced with a sail near the club. Put lots of reefs in so the crew didn't mutiny and then banged about across the estuary and back a few times. Turned out to be a fun sail. |
| Breezy day's sail | 2015-04-13 | A decent wind. Started mostly about F5 ending up more like a F4. One reef in and a great sail. Anne Knight joined us for the second half of the sail. With 3 on board, we took out the reef in the genoa. Quite a good average speed for an old Wayfarer and no tidal assistance. |
| Bouncy safety boat duty | 2014-04-20 | A very wet and bouncy safety boat duty in mid April. About a force 6 on the estuary with waves of about 1 metre. Meant there was a lot of water coming over the front of the rib. Just the thing to help clear out a cold.. Forgot to turn the GPS on! |
| Paddle from Cockwood Harbour to SYC | 2013-09-01 | Light winds forecast so we took Scooby for a paddle from Cockwood Harbour up to Starcross Yacht Club and back again. Watched a boat sink (again) and it is not the one in the photographs!
Tags:
Cockwood Harbour
SYC
|
| Sunny summers evening sail | 2013-07-10 | A lovely summer evenings sail. Just enough wind to go down estuary against the incoming tide.
Tags:
Exe Estuary
SYC
|
| Brixham to SYC | 2016-07-24 | Back from Brixham Marina to SYC via lunch at anchor in Anstey's Cove. Playing with the cruising chute on the on the sail across Torbay. |
| Beach cafe dinghy cruise | 2015-10-17 | A mid October dinghy cruise to the beach cafe. Winds of mid F4 forecast but mostly a bit lower than that. Broke the tiller extension universal joint which made sailing back a bit different to usual. |
| First beach cafe sail of the year | 2013-05-25 | From SYC down to the beach cafe and back. The forecast said next to no wind but a lovely sea breeze kicked in. Top sail. |
| March safety boat | 2013-03-24 | Safety boat at SYC. A cold march day - two degrees centrigrade. The windchill factor made it feel like minus four. GPS data anomalies account for the three or four short peaks in speed. |
| Plymouth Sound with SYC | 2012-09-22 | With SYC on Plymouth Sound out of Mount Batten Sailing Centre. A bit windy for Liz on the Saturday so we went out on the safety boat taking piccies. GPS still on when we landed and went to the cafe - whoops. Sunday was a F7 blow out. |
| Second Wayfarer sail of the year | 2017-04-14 | A short sail in the Wayfarer. Sail somewhat shortened as replacing the forestay with a new one took longer than expected - the mousing line was shorter than the mast so we ended up with no stay or mousing line in the mast! Light winds so we practiced some on water reefing. |
| Exeter and back - quite fast | 2017-02-18 | A very fast (for me) ride out to Exeter (averaged 16.2mph - would have been faster but for the hordes of pedestrians on the last couple of miles) and a somewhat slower ride back into quite a strong head wind. Stopped briefly at SYC to watch the dinghy instructor pre-prep course. Fastest overall average I've managed on the 20 miles "Exeter and back" ride. First time averaging over 14 mph! |
| Last time on Amelie? | 2016-10-15 | Helping take Derek H's Sadler 26 up to its winter quarters in Topsham - via Trouts Boatyard pontoon. Could be the last time on Amelie as Derek is thinking of a possible change to a Westerly Fulmar |
| Back from Brixham to the Exe | 2015-07-19 | A slowish sail back from Brixham to the Exe after the Drew Trophy Race. Wind was up and down a bit from 5 knots to 15 knots but mostly around about 8 knots. Sailed past the practise race for the 2015 Wayfarer nationals being sailed out of Brixham Yacht Club. Only 7 boats of the water??? Managed to sail the whole way - whenever we threatened to put the motor on, the wind picked up a bit. Very nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon listenening to Genesis and Pink Floyd on the boat cockpit speakers with the sun out. |
| Safety boat for cancelled dinghy cruise | 2015-05-16 | The weather forecast was for F4 with F5 gusts and that is pretty much exactly what we got. The NW F5 gusts were too strong for a safe down river dinghy cruise so it ended up being replaced by a quick sail near the club
Tags:
Safety boat
SYC
|
| Estuary sailing in the Wayfarer | 2015-04-10 | A near enough perfect spring breeze made for an ideal morning's sailing on the Exe Estuary. Maybe 12 to 14 knots of steady south to south easterly wind made for a great morning's sailing in the Wayfarer with Liz's brother Julian. Chose the right day to take off work for once! The average speed isn't too bad but reduced a little by having to sail back up the estuary against the tides. |
| Cycle ride and SYC | 2014-01-26 | A basic cycle ride to the A379 and back again with a stop at the sailing club to watch the death and destruction. Some very big gusts of wind going through led to a few capsizes. |
| Sunday evening sail | 2013-07-21 | That rare occurrence - plenty of water, plenty of wind and plenty of sun. A lovely evening sail on the Exe Estuary.
Tags:
Exe Estuary
SYC
|
| Canoe training at SYC | 2017-04-22 | An excellent days canoe training from Rob McInally at SYC. Even had Liz jump out of the canoe as part of some capsize training. Thoroughly recommended. |
| Beach cafe sail | 2016-05-07 | Wind forecast was for a F4 gusting F5 and, after a slow start, that's what we got. Stopped half way down to put in one reef. Top choccie ice cream at the Beach Cafe. With the wind well behind us on the way back, put two reefs in the main and had full headsail on the way back. Still went quite fast on the way back. The top speed of 9.8 knots - in a Wayfarer - is a clue to the size of the tides. |
| Drew Trophy race to Brixham | 2015-07-18 | A sail from the Exe to Brixham in Derek's Sadler 26. The annual SYC Drew Trophy race and we did quite well. We were the first mono hull over the line by quite some way but 2nd overall on handicap. Helped greatly by the pointing ability of Derek's Sadler and its ability to sail with full sails up in a F5 (albeit on its ear a bit at times!). Top sailing with the sun putting in a decent appearance. Met up with the Topsham Sailing Club rally and then dinner at Brixham Yacht Club. Average speed pretty good considering the wind was just about on the nose and there was some "wave action" stopping the boat. |
| Brixham to Exe | 2014-07-27 | A cracking sail back from Brixham to the Exe. From Brixham, we went to Anstey's Cove for lunch as did many other SYC boats. After lunch there was a cracking sail back across the bay to the Exe - winds ranging from 10 knots to about 18 knots Excellent sailing. |
| Safety boat at SYC | 2013-02-17 | Too windy for us to go out sailing as we havent been out for a couple of months. So ended up doing safety boat. Good fun - a little bouncy. Suspect the occasional max speed peaks are GPS data anomalies. |
| First SYC dinghy cruise of 2015 | 2015-04-25 | An upriver dinghy cruise to start the 2015 season of SYC organised dinghy cruises. Pleasant wind - maybe F3 |
| Cycle Ride to sailing club | 2013-08-24 | Shared commiserations for cancelled dinghy cruise |
| Starcross Steamer 2017 | 2017-02-05 | Down to Starcross Yacht Club for the annual Starcross Steamer dinghy pursuit race. One hundred boats on the water. |
| A tale of two ferries | 2016-08-14 | Up to buoy 45 at Topsham (off the Goat Walk) passing the Topsham to Turf ferry and then down to Starcross (to the Starcross to Exmouth ferry pier). Then round the floating cafe and back to SYC. A gorgeous day's sailing. A strong F3 up near Topsham and one of those rare days that it was warm enough to sail without a spray top. Marvelous. |
| Wednesday evening safety boat duty | 2015-09-09 | A Wednesday evening on the Exe Estuary crewing for Bob J on safety boat |
| Pole Sands picnic | 2015-08-15 | Sail down from SYC to the Pole Sands. A bit of everything wind wise. From nothing to about a F4 and quite a lot of gusts in between, Put first reef in for the trip back which made things easier |
| SYC Newport trophy to Dartmouth | 2015-06-20 | Absolutely no wind to start with - took 1/2 an hour to cross the start line at 10:40. Wind then filled in a bit making the sail from Torbay onwards a bit quicker. Some small waves past Berry Head also slowed things a little. Peter S sailed a storming race in his Sadler 26 and was first by miles on handicap (and very nearly first overall). We came a slightly surprising 2nd on handicap. Very pleasant meal in the Red Lion in Dittisham |
| Starcross Steamer 2015 | 2015-03-15 | First cycle ride in ages. To SYC and back again for a brief watch of the Starcross Steamer pursuit dinghy race. |
| Cockwood to the Turf and back | 2014-07-20 | From Cockwood Harbour to SYC and then on to the Turf, Then back again via Bull Hill Bank so Scooby could have a bit of a run about. |
| Commodore's Cruise | 2014-07-12 | Strawberries and cream on the Warren |
| Safety boat for Hurricane and Dart open meeting | 2013-06-30 | A lovely morning / afternoon on the water doing safety boat duty for the Dart and Hurricane Open Meeting at SYC. Plenty of sun and wind. |
| Up river sail | 2016-10-22 | First time out on the Wayfarer for quite some time. The wind didn't manage the promised F3 / F4 and we ran out of wind trying to get past Topsham. A seal popped its head out the water about 10 yards away from us and watched us sail by the Turf. Liz would have taken a photo but was too preoccupied trying to retrieve the Double Decker she'd dropped down the centre board casing. Pleasant sail/drift in the autumn sun. |
| Squires Cup Safety Boat | 2016-06-12 | Safety boat for the Squires Cup racing for dinghies and cats on the Exe Estuary. Not a lot of wind so not much call for our services. Some rain at times. |
| Dartmouth race 2016 | 2016-06-25 | A sail to Dartmouth in Derek H's Sadler 26. The wind was in all directions including not there at all. The "dog leg" at Torbay was us searching for wind that wasn't there! Moored up for the night at Dittisham on the Dart. |
| October dinghy cruise | 2015-10-10 | An iffy weather forecast (F4 gusting F5 with occasional F6) didn't tie up with the conditions at the start time so we went out with one reef. In the end, it turned out to be a lovely sail. |
| Exeter and back | 2017-05-08 | Cycle ride into Exeter and back with a stop at SYC on the way back. Not a bad average for me as I was on the Marin hybrid loaded up with a pannier, locks and a book. |
| Beach cafe sail | 2017-04-15 | Down from SYC to the beach cafe at Exmouth. Two very different forecasts - this time the Met Office was right and it was F4 with gusts to the top of F5. Wind was from the NNW so an easy sail with a couple of gybes on the way down. A lot of tacking on the way back but a really great sail for the Wayfarer with one reef in. A max speed of 9.5 knots isnt bad for an old Wayfarer - OK there might have been a little tidal assist at that point! One day, we'll make 10 knots. |
| Up river dinghy cruise | 2016-07-02 | An up river dinghy cruise. The weather forecast was about right with its F4 gusting F5. The "fleet" got spread out quite a bit and, as the weather wasn't great, we headed back to the club quite early. The camera was on the wrong settings when the photos were taken so they've been over HDR'd to see if they can be made slightly interesting. |
| First beach cafe sail of 2016 | 2016-04-23 | First SYC sail to the Exmouth beach cafe in 2016. The forecast was north easterly F4 to F5. However, on the way back from the beach cafe it was really quite gusty and I'd guess that the gusts might just have been F6. Combined with a fairly large tide and the NE wind being against the tide, it made for an interesting sail back. |
| Safety boat at Laser Open meeting | 2015-08-08 | Safety boat with Bob J at the Laser Open meeting at SYC. The day started flat calm so we tied up to a buoy and listened to England retain the Ashes. A sea breeze started about 12:15 and the sailing started shortly after that. Four back to back races. We spent all our time at the leeward mark - hence the "ball of wool" GPS track. All in all, a very pleasant way to idle away a sunny August Saturday. |
| Autumn beach cafe sail | 2013-10-05 | An autumn sail down to the beach cafe. The sun put in an appearance and there was occasionally a bit of wind to use in the big springs tide |
| Super summer sail | 2013-05-18 | A lovely sail up to the Goat Walk at Topsham. We had planned to go as far as the motorway bridge but the wind didnt have the west in it that the forecast said it would. Met Malcolm and Graham at the Goat Walk. The max speed of 6.9 knots isnt bad given that there was no tide to speak of. |
| Exmouth and back | 2017-02-11 | Round to Exmouth and back to meet up with the SYC dinghy cruisers at the Beach Cafe. Temperature was between one and two degrees with flurries of snow. |
| Bike ride to the Double Locks | 2016-07-17 | A bike ride along the Exe Estuary and canal to meet up with Rose and Midge for the first time in ages. Wobbled back along the cycle path and stopped at SYC for a quick view of the 2nd day of the Exe Regatta. |
| Safety boat at SYC | 2017-06-24 | Safety boat for SYC dinghy cruise. Nearly an out to sea cruise but it was a little lumpy just out towards the fairway buoy. |
| Jim Vallis Cruise | 2016-08-06 | The first Jim Vallis Memorial Cruise. A dinghy cruise in memory of our friend Jim Vallis who started up the organised dinghy cruises at SYC. A lovely sunny day with the wind varying between nothing and about force 5 - but with no big gusts so very sailable. Joined at SYC by many from Jim's family and Sandra joined us on our Wayfarer for a sail. |
| Dart sail | 2016-06-27 | First sail of the year on Nigel H's Dart 18. Wind was up and down and we fought the tide on the way back to SYC but some fast speeds out at sea. |
| Exe estuary to Brixham | 2016-05-27 | A sail down from SYC on the Exe Estuary to Brixham ready for an early morning start across to the Channel Islands. The ship shown in the photos (the THV Patricia) was doing buoy maintenance on the buoys marking the wreck of the MV Emsstrom off Torbay. Wierdly, we saw the same ship come in after us to anchor off Dixcart Bay at Sark two days later. |
| Out to sea dinghy cruise | 2014-05-31 | An SYC dinghy cruise out to sea that actually made it out to sea! It looked as though there would be no wind at all for quite a while but gentle F2 / F3 filled in for most of the time. |
| SYC trip to the beach cafe - by bike | 2015-09-05 | A first SYC organised cycle ride. From SYC on the west back round to the beach cafe at Exmouth on the east bank. Ten participants. |
| SYC to Brixham | 2017-05-26 | Down from SYC on the Exe to Brixham ahead of the channel crossing to St Peter Port on Guernsey. |
| Exe Regatta Committee boat | 2016-07-16 | On a rather nice Westerly acting as the Committee Boat for the catamaran racing of the 2016 Exe Regatta. Knowing nothing about dinghy racing, we were pulling up and down various flags at the request of the endlessly patient PK. No real idea what most of the flags meant and I suspect a very goodly proportion of the competitors don't (I think they just listen for the alternate sound signals). Still a very pleasant way to while away a Saturday afternoon on the Exe. |
| Topper Open At SYC | 2016-10-09 | Junior Topper Open event at Starcross Yacht Club. Safety boat crew for the 4 back-to-back races for the 23 boats at this open sailing event. Decent winds all day between F2 and F4 from the north east. GPS battery ran out after only a couple of hours so most of the track is missing. |
| Summer Sail | 2016-07-30 | Went up river to about the Goat Walk and then back again. Liz did some helming for about the 3rd time in the 10 years we've been sailing on the Exe. Then some on water reefing practice and then back to SYC for the "Commodore's BBQ". |
| Pole Sands picnic | 2014-10-25 | A late October down river dinghy cruise. Destination was the Pole Sands for a picnic. Bit late in the season for a picnic but the planned trip earlier in the year didn't work out. Lovely sail - decent range of winds. Big tides assisted the top speed of 9.2 knots. |
| Push The Boat Out at SYC | 2014-05-26 | SYC's "Push The Boat Out" day to offer people a taster of dinghy sailing. A very successful day - about 70 people got to try sailing and the winds were an ideal F2 to F3. Liz got to try helming a Topper on dry land! |
| Bart's Bash | 2014-09-21 | After ten year's sailing at Starcross Yacht Club we've completed our first ever dinghy race (we did start one about five year's ago but got bored half way through and sailed off up-river). This race was in memory of Bart Simpson who died in America's Cup practice last year and to raise funds for his sailing academy. Amazingly we weren't last - but pretty close. On the plus side, 68 boats in the water and we didn't hit one of them! |
| CI & France 2015 - Sail down to Brixham | 2015-05-21 | A sail from Starcross down to Brixham ready for an early morning channel crossing to St Peter Port - Guernsey. Wind went from near enough becalmed to a F5 in about 15 minutes. Made for an exciting sail across Torbay |
| October beach cafe sail | 2014-10-11 | Good winds and big tides for a late season sail from SYC down to the beach cafe. Some excellent winds round the Warren and the Docks. Died away a little bit for the last mile back to SYC. |
| Squires Cup safety boat | 2014-06-08 | Safety boat duty on a rather damp and drizzly Sunday in June. Free tea though! |
| SYC Mystery Dinghy Cruise | 2016-07-13 | "Officer Of The Day" for the SYC "mystery dinghy cruise". What the mystery was to be was, er, a mystery to us. So we decided that it would be cricket and drinkies on the Bull Sands in the middle of the Exe Estuary at low water. F4 gusting F5 a fair bit of the time but it seems a good time was had by all. |
| Brixham to Exe | 2017-04-23 | A lovely day sail on Derek H's Fulmar. First a quick trip with Liz on board round Berry Head. Mostly motor sailing and watching the wildlife. Then, after dropping Liz off back in Brixham, a sail back up to SYC on the Exe. Light winds - but enough to sail most of the way. A chance to "play" with some of setup on Thalmia including the cruising chute and a think about how a preventer might be rigged. |
| Free Sailing Safety Boat | 2016-08-13 | Doing safety boat for a Free Sailing at SYC on a lovely summer's afternoon. A pleasant F3 with the occasional gust made for almost ideal sailing conditions with just a few things to keep us slightly busy. A surprising overall distance as we spent the first 15 minutes at anchor (and expected to remain there for much of the afternoon!) |
| Up river - twice | 2014-08-31 | A lovely sunny day. Wayfarer sail up river and then up river again. Winds got a bit light going up the Exe towards Topsham and the Clyst so just sailed round and round. |
| A sail, paddle and drift to the safe water mark | 2013-07-13 | More wind in the Estuary than out of it on this sail to the safe water mark at the mouth of the Exe |
| St Peter Port to SYC | 2017-06-04 | A very fast sail back from St Peter Port, Guernsey to SYC on the Exe. For most of the way the wind was quite strong - maybe a force 5 - but was on the port rear quarter. This meant that most of the sail was done with just a small amount of reefing and lots of sailing down the following waves. Long and tiring - but fun! The speed meant that we were unexpectedly back at the Exe before low water so we were able to sneak in and be back on the mooring at SYC just before it got dark. |
| CI & France 2015 - St Peter Port to SYC | 2015-05-30 | A stonkingly fast sail back from St Peter Port to Starcross Yacht Club on the Exe. Plans changed late as we were concerned about getting back to SYC before predicted high winds late on the Saturday night (also trying to miss low water on the Exe). So up at the hideously early hour of 02:30 and up through the Little Russell channel in the dark. The Little Russell was just a tad "bouncy". After a couple of hours of motor sailing (to keep up the average speed as required), the wind picked up a bit and started to back round to the west. The final third of the sail was with 14 to 20 knots (force 5ish) of wind aft of the port beam and with full sails up. Derek's Sadler averaged over 5.4 knots - way ahead of what we could have hoped for. Back on the mooring by about 18:30 - maybe 3 hours ahead of planned. |
| Dawlish air show dinghy cruise | 2015-08-22 | "Officer of the day" for the Dawlish air show dinghy cruise. A good day out even though not everything went to plan. The thunder and lightening was a bit of a surprise and curtailed the "out to sea" bit of the dinghy cruise a bit early and stopped the later parts of the show from happening e.g. the Red Arrows. The Vulcan bomber on its last ever visit to the Dawlish show was very impressive. All in all a very good day out! |
| Drew Trophy 2016 | 2016-07-23 | An SYC yacht race with a bit of everything. Absolutely no wind at the start so we drifted backwards past the committee boat and took maybe 20 minutes to get over the start line. Then a lovely sail until we were off Babbacombe when everyone (bar Mike H) lost all wind for another 1/2 hour. Then a lovely sail into Brixham Harbour. Second overall. A lovely dinner at Brixham Yacht Club with the Topsham Yacht Club peeps. |
| Ore Stone and back - Chaos | 2015-09-26 | Trial SYC "race" from Exe safe water mark, round the Teignmouth outfall buoy, round the Ore Stone and back to the Exe SWM. A really great day's sailing. Relaxed and sunny on the downwind leg to the Ore Stone and really good sailing on the upwind leg back to the Exe SWM. The wind moved round a little to the east on the way back making (for us) a straight line sail; pretty much all the way back. The "Chaos" in the title refers the the race's putative title - "CHase Around the Ore Stone" |
| St Peter Port to SYC | 2016-06-04 | Up at the hideously early hour of 03:00 to catch the first of the tidal flow up the Little Russel at 04:00. A lovely clear night at 4am with all the navigation lights clearly visible. After Platte Fougere we "turned left a bit" to allow for the strong Spring tides. For much of the time the weather forecast was correct and what little wind there was was on the nose. However, the visibility was good making crossing the shipping lanes a lot easier than on the way out. The photos of the Channel Light Vessel show an absolutely flat sea. The wind did pick up for a bit after this which made for a lovely sail with flat seas. A while north of the shipping lanes we were joined by about 6 to 8 dolphins for about 20 minutes. An hour or so later a much smaller porpoise made an appearance. Amelie's engine held up well and we were back on the mooring at SYC by about 19:30. |
