Derek Hathaway

Very slight almost flat sea but almost no wind (0.5knts at one stage!) so motoring which is ok when the sun is out and it’s warmed up from the cold morning we had. Such a delightful coastline we are blessed with!

Still breezy today. 17-22kts at times. Swell and chop west of Prawle eased approaching the inside passage past Start Point. Lively sail across Start Bay then against wind and ebb up to Dittisham moorings. Double reefed main and Genoa but still up to 7knts boat speed and 6knts SOG overall

A very mixed bag of conditions! Choppy start in 17-22knts as far as Torbay then splendid sailing in 10-15knts on the beam and slight sea past Dartmouth and through Start Point then 20-28knts on the nose from there til Salcombe with 1-1.5m swell and short chop over that pegging me back to 3knts SOG! An hour plus of motor sailing into that then calm inside the harbour. All in a days sailing - often running over 8knts SOG with an average of 6knts SOG for the trip.

Too little wind (often 5knts or less!) and too much rain. A long drawn out “race”. Apart from that it was great fun!

A short excursion (missed starting the app at the start!) with son, his wife and our youngest grandson. Fair weather and very slight sea made it a success. F3-4 often on the beam but incredibly variable direction and strength.

Easterly F4 with slight seas to start but building to 1m swell and winds down to a variable 1-2 before resuming at F4. Foggy start and not lifting to sun til late pm. Not sheltered anchorage locally in easterlies so took lunch on the go sailing around Torbay!

Return from Brixham - clear blue skies and flat sea. No wind! Brief fishing efforts by slowing down but to no avail! Can’t grumble though it was a lovely hot day but with a breeze we generated with the iron topsail!

A forecast of extremely light winds became a F3-4 albeit mostly from the direction of travel and shifting substantially along the way. Very slight sea and warm bright conditions (the forecast rain hardly happened either) made for a delightful if sometimes demanding beat as shown on the track. Thank you Aidan for crewing and doing a lot of the hard work and providing the gpx data as my phone had to be switched off to conserve battery!

A really good sail starting with F4-5 on the beam. Later gusting to 24knts. Chose to hand steer some of the way because in these conditions I’m better at it than the autohelm! Kept 2 reefs in the main and Genoa and still topped out at 7.3 knots through the water - hull speed. Gusty entering the Exe and furling the Genoa & dropping the main. Thalmia back on swing mooring (picked up first go - phew!) So that’s some 8 weeks onboard (with 2 separate weeks held in port up plus just an odd day along the way) some lovely weather, sometimes without wind, nearly 1,000NM and lots of wonderful memories!

Mirror flat sea again and virtually no wind. Sea breeze was late arriving today! The Beta just keeps on keeping on - steady 5.2 -5.4 knots with some help from the tides later on. That’s cruising for you!