Jane Smith

Absolutely fabulous day. Short notice. Robin kindly agreed to let me skipper for the day and put me through my paces and out of my 'green' comfort zone into 'orange'! Plenty of wind, and highlighted areas for improvement such as reefing, and some positive 'take home' points. Into Beaulieu, which was tricky using transits, careful with height of tide, and catching buoys. Wonderful crew, and huge thanks to Robin, who went above and beyond in all areas!

Super beautiful, no wind, again! yacht v rock, rock won! Paimpol has hidden, unmarked, rocks, which we found out the hard way!!! Now awaiting a lift out to check the keel. Cross fingers the Swedish design of heavy lead has done it's job and protected the boat... All somewhat shaken up. Did everything right with height of tide etc, but some things are simply unpredictable. Lesson: hyper slow over drying areas, even when there's theoretically plenty of water. Keep someone on the bow. Communicate, and everyone eyes on the channel markers, AND the chart! On reflection, two days later, there was no pilotage plan, nobody properly assigned to navigation, and effectively unprepared for an extremely difficult and dangerous narrow, twisty channel over drying areas. Relying on a tiny phone with Navionics, inexperienced crew, without prior research into the route, is a recipe for disaster.

No wind! Sails up for a bit, but too slow. Lovely, lovely area to sail!

Too tasty for original plan to go to Chichester - 35 knots. So stuck to Southampton Water and experienced the contrast between Marchwood and the docks opposite. Just a reefwd headsail was plenty.

Karina's first sail! A gentle sail to Wootton Creek from Hamble. Anchored at Osborne Bay, motored back to Hamble. Fabulous introduction to sailing for Karina and we all had such fun!

A bit slow at times, eg 0.6 knots 😆 but lovely sail, weather and company, even the tiniest bit of sun! The wind seemed to turn to favour us - lots of gentle teaching and then heading up at delicate speeds.

We didn't think we would make it to Yarmouth as set off after 3.00, but had some lovely conditions and enjoyed a drink or two at the George pub hotel.