I am beginning to believe that the weather is trying to make fun of me. Friday had been a great sunny day with no clouds. I wasn’t even out of the harbour when it began to get dark, foggy and rainy. We had to motor against the wind but with the tide out of the Goulet de Brest but were going to have a nice wind on the beam when we turned the corner and sailed the Chenal du Four between Ushant and the coast. Of course it didn’t turn out that way. What we did have was no wind and fog that was so thick and moist that it felt like rain.
When we turned the northern corner into the English Channel the wind picked up and we had a beautiful sail. It was beginning to get light and the fog lifted. No complaints there. We were really fast because we still had the tide with us, sometimes making more than 9 knots groundspeed. I finally went to sleep for a few 15 minute periods. We hugged the coast almost all day until we were close to Cap Bréhat and then turned north to leave the Channel Islands to starboard and set course to the Isle of Wight. The weather deteriorated and it was raining terribly. It was cold and I was outside in my winter underwear and wool clothes and full foul weather gear and still freezing. Unfortunately the rain was getting into the cabin although I had locked all the hatches and the floor and the bunks were wet. But I couldn’t sleep anyway because there was so much traffic and visibility was extremely poor.
On Sunday afternoon we were close to the Isle of Wight. I was extremely tired but the sun came out. It was still blowing force 6 but the wind was from behind and we were flying along. In the end the timing worked out perfectly and we made it to the river entrance just a bit after high-water. The moon was out so we could see. The scene was a bit daunting because there were breaking waves over the bar but I had been here before and it didn’t look all that bad. We made it into Littlehampton with no problems and it was unbelievably quiet just this little bit up the river. Tying up to another boat at the yard with no wind and hardly any tide was easy and I fell asleep immediately after on the wet bunk.
The next morning I met John and Brian at the yard and it felt like I had only been away for a few weeks. It felt great to be back. Andrew wasn’t there but I can hopefully meet him further on. I helped Brian with a few things on his boat and finished some minor projects on Amy. I had my life raft serviced and brought back to me incredibly quickly within just a few days. I will probably go out to have a few beers with John tonight and then go on to Dover tomorrow with the afternoon tide.
