16.8 kts

Track of today's sail. Didn't get that far - 4.9 nm, but the conditions were hairy enough. Peak speed 16.8 kts. This might be our last sail this year, which would be a fitting end to an excellent season.

Jake's new glasses

F6 on a Dart 16

Not the fastest sail, but boy was it blustery. Did 11.1nm in about 2 hours/ Maximum speed 15.5 kts, but that was reefed, and in fairly lumpy seas. Sarah and I pitchpoled quite spectacularly off the oil terminal at Yelland. A thoroughy exhausting, but enjoyable sail. We'll sleep well tonight!

Kingfisher

I've only seen kingfishers twice before, and then only singly.

Today I saw three, and they were very close! They fly phenomenally quickly, inches above the water.

Cycle to Appledore

Today, Jake and I cycled to Appledore and back.  He did really well.  We found a badger's set in  a holt, and a bird's egg.

The plan, such as it was, was to visit the Lifeboat Station.  However, it was closed, so we had a Hocking's instead.

Sarah on helm

Sarah on helm for 80% of the time.  We had a hard time getting out of the river as both wind and tide were against us.  Once over the Bar we had a superb sail, getting back to the Club about half an hour after high water.

Cropredy 2007

Jake in the groove with Wishbone Ash.

18.9 knots peak speed

Well, racing was cancelled this evening, due to "too much wind" - Pah!

As I had Alex Smith as crew, and Rob Way, and Penny Slee were willing to go out two-up on their Dart 15, we decided to make an evening of it.

The Torridge was far too gusty so we headed towards Appledore and Crow Point, where we met up with Rob and Penny.

They matched us tack for tack, as we ploughed through a F6, gusting F8!

We were jolly glad that we could reef the Dart 16, as without it, my arms would have been 6 inches longer.

The leeward hull was largely underwater and the waves were slamming into the forward crossbeam. My ample weight was well hiked out and Alex was doing sterling service on the trapeze. We nearly pitch-poled a couple of times, but were never seriously out of shape.

Our peak speed was on a beam reach off Appledore before we nearly pitch-poled.

A great evening's sail with great company.

Marginally less wind, and a non-reefed mainsail would give us more speed.

I certainly swallowed plenty of brackish water this evening as it was like being on the receiving end of a fireman's hose for 90% of the time.

That's my boy!

It's amazing what can be achieved with a lightweight crew.

From 2007 Sailing

Cycling

Jake and I went for a 9 mile cycle at the weekend.

The route is below:




Apart from the first and last half mile the entire route was in the beautiful spring Devon countryside.

For a boy with only 1 gear Jake did incredibly well. There was an elevation change of nearly 500', but I did manage to engineer it so that the last 2.5 miles were downhill. Wheeeee!



The highlight for the day was seeing a hare lolloping down the road. "Daddy look there's a bunny - Did you see the bunny?"

This reminds me of my childhood learning to read from this book:

"This is the horse. The horse lives in the stable.
Here are the sheep. The sheep live in the meadow.
This is the "Rabbit or Hare?""


It's reassuring to see that nothing really changes.

New Balls Please

On Saturday night, during the celebrations for Karen's wedding to Steve, we observed the total lunar eclipse. Observing conditions were really good, with little occasional cloud. What a special wedding present it made for all that were there.

As a bonus, I observed Saturn and it's rings for the first time too.