Kestrel's Journey South: Tales from the Sea
Posted on the 23rd April at 1:51 p.m.
A steadily shrinking crew delivered Kestrel from its winter home in Ipswich to the South Coast for Easter term and the start of the summer programme.
We finished the Engine installation at 4:30am.
Up at 9 (ish) for blue skys, the five of us flew downwind 45M under spinakker all the way from Ipswich to Ramsgate.
Along the way we thought we'd use Foulger’s Gat, now re-opened after the construction of the "more expensive than nuclear" London Array (see the photo to the right).
Once we were through (straight down the middle of the 800m wide gat) a very polite man came on the radio and tried to persuade us not to use that route again - we didn't quite follow his reasoning, but it seems that London Array aren't that keen on yachts using the passage they claimed they'd keep open for us. Pity.
In Ramsgate, Tom and Ben unfortunately had to abandon ship.
Setting off from Ramsgate at 4 am the next day was a trial to put it lightly, but with two nights of 4 hrs sleep, the intrepid three carried on, with the reward of a glorious sunrise at 6 to keep our spirits up.
The lack of any wind was made up for by Paul taking the opportunity to cook a round of bacon butties before he went off watch, and as we rounded Dungeness, Tessa and Chris had a pleasant conversation with a range safety launch, warning us of incoming fire from the local army contingent!
Building winds meant we managed to get the new No. 1 flying again, and we had a great fast reach around Beachy Head, close enough to see the Mad Dogs and English-men, out in the midday sun. And very cold winds. Seriously, a bit of an odd day to be sitting on the beach!
A cunning bit of helming from Tessa saw us holding our reach all the way to Brighton, and after getting down the sails (not easy with three), avoiding two dinghies and a sailing yacht out of fuel (reaching up and down the very narrow entrance channel), we moored. Paul headed off for his train, and after a round of delicious homemade burgers, we dropped (literally) into our bunks.
9 hours of very much needed sleep later, the two of us left Brighton for a motor sail out to the Owers light buoy, then a great reach under full main and number two on a straight line through the forts, past Gilkicker point, through a Sunsail racing fleet (pretty funny), avoiding an over-canvassed, and out of control, First 40.7 (pretty worrying), through the North Channel, and up Southampton water.
After a nightmare of a main drop (really not easy with two), we sailed up the Hamble, attracting some pretty odd looks along the way. Tessa was worried that they were judging a 'girl on the helm', but we came to the conclusion it was the dashing line Kestrel was cutting!
Anyway, after a long trip, with a small crew, it's always good to look back, and get a good night's sleep!
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