Zoe Morris

The advantages of a lift keel.

Headsail up , but wind dropped so slowly motored back to Ashlett. Came up the channel with 3.0m Calshot and keel drawing 1.0m. Never touched the bottom. Better than I thought it would be. 👍😁

Shake down sail for 2025. Good SE 4. Everything went well. No problems

Left at 0200, which was a mistake, because there was no moon (cloudy skies) and you couldn’t see the pot buoys in the bay. South West wind so quite a roll, which that and the dark didn’t agree with the crew, so back to solo sailing most of the time. Tide against us in Lyme Bay and turned 10 miles before Portland Bill👍. Stayed 5 miles south of Portland Bill and conditions good. Carried a fair tide until the Needles Channel, which slowly turned against us (very lumpy), upto about 2.5 knots in Hurst Narrows and rough conditions all the way to Lymington. Probably 20-25SW against a strong ebb. ☹️ Half way across Lyme Bay there were quite a few fishermen buoys which surprised me being so far out in 50 metres. South of Portland we sailed straight across 50 metres of floating tug rope? (What luck)! 3”+ diameter. Managed to pull it on the boat, so hopefully it just traversed underneath in front of the keel 🤞. Wasn’t comfortable with it there and it was slowing us down a lot. Back breakingly fed it out one side and pulled it in the other (doing 6 knots), not wanting to let go of the end until the last minute. In case it caught underneath or wasn’t where I thought it was. Success!!! Managed to give it to Lymington Harbour Master. Thank you.

Left Stoke Gabriel mid morning and sailed with the Genoa or motored in very changeable wind direction. Lumpy out of the entrance until able to bear away after the Mew Stone. Then a good sail to Brixham Sailing Club pontoon. Met with Lucy’s parents for a drink at the Prince of Wales and ended up eating there as well. Excellent Sunday Lunch and Sea Bass. Not the best weather for the next two days. Went and had a look at Andy and Max’s house project and did some shopping, before being marooned on the boat for the evening in heavy rain. Good walk the next day to St Mary’s Bay and early dinner (1830) in the Blue Angel, before retiring early to be ready to leave for Lymington at 0200.