Return to Hamble
We could have waiting until Tuesday but we would have had to pay for three more days berthing and we both have things to do. We could see from the weather that there was an opportunity to get back to the UK between storms and that meant a 5am (4am BST) start in the dark, but it would take an hour to get out of the harbour and very shortly after that it would be starting to get light.
That was the plan but as it was raining it took a bit longer for the light to improve. It was a bit unsettling when every twenty the French coastguard would cal on the radio with an urgent weather warning of "imminent" force 7 winds. The forecast really was odd and I wish I had retained a screen shot because there were indeed F7 winds south of Jersey and on the other side of Barflur but we were in a hole and would be half way before any winds arrived on the French side but we would have rain most of the way.
Once we were out and through the shipping lanes away from the shore we were making good progress and we were due to make the Needles with some incoming tide with us. I settled down to watch Zulu whilst Linda was on watch.
As we approached the UK we were motor sailing and I went to get on my oilies as it was my turn on watch and with that a squall come in. After a short delay I was on deck and we reefed the sales. It was a bit of a scrabble because we had full sail out and the wind came in at 27 knots in another direction and the genoa backed. The squall lasted less than one minute and then we were back down to 13 knots of wind. Now we were reefed as we approached the Needles Channel I could see a huge squall on the radar but with the little sail we had out it made no difference we just sailed on happily. As we passed through Hurst the radar went funny and I looked up and I saw that the mounts on our radar dome have broken, no doubt caused by the backing of the sail. Sadly a new set of mounts is £150 and so we could have stayed in Cherbourg after all! We arrived back at around 4pm had a shower, pizza and an early night. Tomorrow is packing up day and fixing things…
That was the plan but as it was raining it took a bit longer for the light to improve. It was a bit unsettling when every twenty the French coastguard would cal on the radio with an urgent weather warning of "imminent" force 7 winds. The forecast really was odd and I wish I had retained a screen shot because there were indeed F7 winds south of Jersey and on the other side of Barflur but we were in a hole and would be half way before any winds arrived on the French side but we would have rain most of the way.
Once we were out and through the shipping lanes away from the shore we were making good progress and we were due to make the Needles with some incoming tide with us. I settled down to watch Zulu whilst Linda was on watch.
As we approached the UK we were motor sailing and I went to get on my oilies as it was my turn on watch and with that a squall come in. After a short delay I was on deck and we reefed the sales. It was a bit of a scrabble because we had full sail out and the wind came in at 27 knots in another direction and the genoa backed. The squall lasted less than one minute and then we were back down to 13 knots of wind. Now we were reefed as we approached the Needles Channel I could see a huge squall on the radar but with the little sail we had out it made no difference we just sailed on happily. As we passed through Hurst the radar went funny and I looked up and I saw that the mounts on our radar dome have broken, no doubt caused by the backing of the sail. Sadly a new set of mounts is £150 and so we could have stayed in Cherbourg after all! We arrived back at around 4pm had a shower, pizza and an early night. Tomorrow is packing up day and fixing things…