Ever since we had returned from holiday in Scilly there had lots of very windy weather with some rain. Fitting in cruising around it has proved difficult. Seems l have the time this season but don’t seem to have the weather.
With free time l like to go sailing, Vicki dosen’t much like day sailing. So when the weather looks good, l go sailing alone. Tuesday was one of these days, l needed to leave early because the forecast was for stronger winds by midday. So l launched the dinghy at 0700hrs and was sailing by 0730hrs. When sailing alone, l find Elektra easier to handle on just her genoa. I tend to sail out close on the wind and hopefully making for easier sailing on the return. The forecast was southwest force 3 increasing 5-6 later.
Setting the genoa and going east out of the Helford River, she was only making 3kts, there seemed little wind. But once around the Nare Point and heading southeast towards Manacle Buoy, things started to hot up, Elektra was crashing along at around 5kts. I continued on this heading for about 3nm before turning north for about another mile. The wind seemed to pick up quite quickly and l thought its a good time to head back! Elektra was now flying along at between 5-6kts, the genoa was plenty of power as it happened. Nearing August Rock Buoy in the Helford River it decided to rain at which point l decided to motor Elektra back the last mile to her mooring. Picking up her mooring after 2hrs sailing, she had logged 9.5nm.
Love Sailing 