Becalmed
28 May 2018
Bank holiday Monday and a cruiser race was due to start at 1030. After hanging around the clubhouse I found a couple of new members Viktor and Barbara keen to have a go, so off we went. It was a bright sunny day with a nice wind in the river from the North and we set out in good spirits expecting some decent sailing conditions. Race officer Nick had set a start line just outside the river entrance and there were about six yachts milling around waiting for the start. The wind was dropping away all the time. For the first time we saw an actual seal swimming along behind my Seal 22 which was quite exciting.
We positioned ourselves up-tide of the start line with two minutes to go just as the wind dropped to zero, so the tide carried us through the line for what turned out to be quite a decent start as half the fleet were becalmed well out of position! Turning to port we aimed the boat at the South mark just as the wind switched to a SWly and we picked up a bit of speed. We seemed to get lucky and sat in that patch of wind for a while while half the fleet were still attempting to cross the start line. The two faster boats Dancer and Dedicated Dancer were ahead of us as usual but not quite as far ahead as on previous occasions.
Still getting lucky with the light and variable wind we made it to the first mark after 1 hr 10 mins letting the increasing tidal stream do a lot of the work - we sailed more or less south east at low speed and the west-going tide slid us towards the destination. It was really gratifying to round the first mark in third place and close enough behind Dedicated Dancer to actually exchange a few words as we went around! Never been that close to her before at the first mark!
Setting off towards the next mark against the tide and in almost no wind and hot sunshine we were still full of optimism but after a while it became clear that we'd never make it. Our boat speed was equal to the opposing tidal stream resulting in a net speed over ground of exactly zero as the GPS display shows.
Behind us we'd heard other boats retiring so we just dropped the sails and motored back in, the two boats ahead of us called it a day as well soon afterwards. So, the whole fleet retired, but we were back before 1pm having been at sea for three hours and we had enjoyed ourselves. The river was very busy with bank holiday motor-boaters, jet-skis, and the like but we made it back without incident.
Shortly after lunch I'd finished packing the boat up just as it clouded over and I was safe in the clubhouse as a torrential thunderstorm hit the town and we all huddled inside looking out as the river disappeared from view and the rain came down the windows like being inside a waterfall. Well timed!
Bank holiday Monday and a cruiser race was due to start at 1030. After hanging around the clubhouse I found a couple of new members Viktor and Barbara keen to have a go, so off we went. It was a bright sunny day with a nice wind in the river from the North and we set out in good spirits expecting some decent sailing conditions. Race officer Nick had set a start line just outside the river entrance and there were about six yachts milling around waiting for the start. The wind was dropping away all the time. For the first time we saw an actual seal swimming along behind my Seal 22 which was quite exciting.
Still getting lucky with the light and variable wind we made it to the first mark after 1 hr 10 mins letting the increasing tidal stream do a lot of the work - we sailed more or less south east at low speed and the west-going tide slid us towards the destination. It was really gratifying to round the first mark in third place and close enough behind Dedicated Dancer to actually exchange a few words as we went around! Never been that close to her before at the first mark!
Setting off towards the next mark against the tide and in almost no wind and hot sunshine we were still full of optimism but after a while it became clear that we'd never make it. Our boat speed was equal to the opposing tidal stream resulting in a net speed over ground of exactly zero as the GPS display shows.
Shortly after lunch I'd finished packing the boat up just as it clouded over and I was safe in the clubhouse as a torrential thunderstorm hit the town and we all huddled inside looking out as the river disappeared from view and the rain came down the windows like being inside a waterfall. Well timed!
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