The day started with a heavy shower at 7am which marked the rear edge of the showers we had all night. We waited to see whether the wind would settle down and launched at 9am into a blustery F4 with high cloud. As a fleet of two we ran down to Round Island and floated with the tide through the windless lee of the island, and the sun came out fully. The beat towards Pottery Pier was into a solid F5 and as we tacked and bore away around Shipstall Point onto a broad reach the spinnakers came out and we planed (and hummed) at high speed to Rockley.
The beach was nicely sheltered and we enjoyed beverage and bun in the sun. We planned to sail up to the harbour entrance and home. The beat was lovely in a steady F4-5 and unfortunately the main sheet jammer let go of the centreboard case off Brownsea. We double reefed and headed home to find we had arrived just at the low point between the tide peaks and there was not quite enough water to float in, so some mud walking was done. Then a lot of mud cleaning off us and the boats.
The rest of the day was a lovely holiday apart from the air temperature… 6C is cold to be camping and daysailing and F4-5 means no heat can build up in the tent.
Mike joined us late in the day and his boat and camp were sorted before sundown.