Well it was another good race round the island this year – we didn’t do quite as well, but it was just as eventful!
We started at 0750 on Saturday morning heading west from Cowes with very little wind and an easterly tide, but staying south and close in to the shore we managed to catch a back eddy on the tide witch gave us an advantage most of the way to the needles where the wind strengthened and we had to work hard to stop the boat broaching.
Rounding the needles, our spinnaker work from the day before paid off and we were able to sail almost the entire south side of the island with the spinnaker up, but here our course was further out and we lost a lot of distance on the front runners. On getting to Bembridge the wind stalled and chaos pursued as 500 boats (with another 1000 behind us) log jammed whilst trying to round the buoy, all flailing helplessly, with no wind and no progress!
Eventually the wind picked up and we sailed as close to the shore to avoid the tide – other boats weren’t quite so lucky, with many getting bogged down in the shallows and many completely run aground – at this point there were a lot of shouts for ‘water’/’starboard’ and some close calls (check the pics!)
We made good ground on the last leg, but after 12 hours (!) we still only managed a measly 18th out of the 65 in our class 🙂 (not quite the 5th that we did last year!).
Picture link removed – no longer working.
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