Bank Holiday Monday, for many across the country, has been wet with thunderstorms and yet it has been dry and sunny in the area just north of Plymouth, despite the forecast predicting continuous rain all day. The sun has been shining constantly, peeking between clouds in the morning and shining brightly all afternoon.
CodySC were welcomed to a daysail being organised and led by Weir Quay SC, with Steve K at the helm of their patrol boat. Cody took two Comet Trios with Rob and Alan, Mel and Steve, plus Ged and Stephen in Peewit and Simon single handing in his GP14. Weir Quay took an RS Quest and an Enterprise, both three-up, plus the RIB.
The day started with very light northerly winds and a fast ebbing tide and at 9am we pushed off to find that we could only go one way… towards the sea. Almost immediately, the wind picked up on the broad reach and run towards the bridges and 40 minutes later we were looking up at the underside of IKB’s magnificent railway bridge and the adjacent road bridge. Having such lovely wind, we pushed on to the entrance and, having dodged the Torcross chain ferries, we were spat out of the narrows at Cremyl with the last hour of the ebb. We headed to Drake’s Island and beached on the lee shore for ‘lunch’ (or ‘first lunch’) at 10:45. We chatted for a while and exploration of the island was undertaken before making the very tricky exit from the steeply sloping lee shore beach where rocks could be seen left, right and centre just under the water. It was not an easy launch and eventually all got away.
The plan was to circle Drake’s Island and head to Cremyl for ice cream, pasties and perhaps half a beer, achieved in a rising wind from the NW and full sun. The most southerly point of our cruise was the broad reach to beat at the ‘goalposts’ in the gap of the submarine barrier. Ged and Stephen continued back in glorious solitude. We stopped at Cremyl for a while to enjoy second lunch and then began the beat home with the flood tide in a gently increasing wind. The beat was exciting past the Torcross ferries and we made sure not to venture too close to grey or black things at Devonport Docks.
In my experience, the wind is full of vortices just downwind of bridges and so it was today. Clear and, to the north of the bridges, the helm in the Enterprise slipped and fell in the boat, the boat capsized and mostly inverted. A textbook near inversion recovery saw all the crew on the hull side, they got the boat up and all got in, then took a little while to empty the water out. We stayed mostly as a fleet for the return to Weir Quay, arriving about 16:15.
According to Simon’s Navionics, we sailed 16NM and according to a rough mapping about 18NM and since we had the tide with us in both directions that would be about right.
It was an excellent dinghy daysail, we all enjoyed the hugely varied sailing environments; swirly tides, standing waves, sea swell, lee shore landing and launching, anchoring, running, broad reaching, beating, fabulous things to look at and avoid…
In summary, an excellent sailing day.
CodySC were welcomed to a daysail being organised and led by Weir Quay SC, with Steve K at the helm of their patrol boat. Cody took two Comet Trios with Rob and Alan, Mel and Steve, plus Ged and Stephen in Peewit and Simon single handing in his GP14. Weir Quay took an RS Quest and an Enterprise, both three-up, plus the RIB.
The day started with very light northerly winds and a fast ebbing tide and at 9am we pushed off to find that we could only go one way… towards the sea. Almost immediately, the wind picked up on the broad reach and run towards the bridges and 40 minutes later we were looking up at the underside of IKB’s magnificent railway bridge and the adjacent road bridge. Having such lovely wind, we pushed on to the entrance and, having dodged the Torcross chain ferries, we were spat out of the narrows at Cremyl with the last hour of the ebb. We headed to Drake’s Island and beached on the lee shore for ‘lunch’ (or ‘first lunch’) at 10:45. We chatted for a while and exploration of the island was undertaken before making the very tricky exit from the steeply sloping lee shore beach where rocks could be seen left, right and centre just under the water. It was not an easy launch and eventually all got away.
The plan was to circle Drake’s Island and head to Cremyl for ice cream, pasties and perhaps half a beer, achieved in a rising wind from the NW and full sun. The most southerly point of our cruise was the broad reach to beat at the ‘goalposts’ in the gap of the submarine barrier. Ged and Stephen continued back in glorious solitude. We stopped at Cremyl for a while to enjoy second lunch and then began the beat home with the flood tide in a gently increasing wind. The beat was exciting past the Torcross ferries and we made sure not to venture too close to grey or black things at Devonport Docks.
In my experience, the wind is full of vortices just downwind of bridges and so it was today. Clear and, to the north of the bridges, the helm in the Enterprise slipped and fell in the boat, the boat capsized and mostly inverted. A textbook near inversion recovery saw all the crew on the hull side, they got the boat up and all got in, then took a little while to empty the water out. We stayed mostly as a fleet for the return to Weir Quay, arriving about 16:15.
According to Simon’s Navionics, we sailed 16NM and according to a rough mapping about 18NM and since we had the tide with us in both directions that would be about right.
It was an excellent dinghy daysail, we all enjoyed the hugely varied sailing environments; swirly tides, standing waves, sea swell, lee shore landing and launching, anchoring, running, broad reaching, beating, fabulous things to look at and avoid…
In summary, an excellent sailing day.