BLUEMOMENT

Why do we take our boats out of the water in Oct. Some of the best sailing to be had is on those crisp sunny days in Jan/Feb. when it is often warmer on the water than on the land. I often think this is why people
refer to yachtsman as weekend sailors and fisherman think we are just a bunch of novices who never set out in anything above a force 2 or if its raining. Come on you yachties, practice makes perfect and putting your boat away for the best part of the year hardly inspires confidence in the boating community.

shanemaxwell wrote:Why do we take our boats out of the water in Oct. Some of the best sailing to be had is on those crisp sunny days in Jan/Feb. when it is often warmer on the water than on the land. I often think this is why people
refer to yachtsman as weekend sailors and fisherman think we are just a bunch of novices who never set out in anything above a force 2 or if its raining. Come on you yachties, practice makes perfect and putting your boat away for the best part of the year hardly inspires confidence in the boating community.

A reasonable troll for a first effort.

I think Mr Maxwell has a very valid point. We left our boat in all Winter last year and did well over a thousand miles of very pleasant sailing between New Year and the middle of April

It's not for everyone of course . . .

I had an exciting sail on 05/01/08 at Ardfern. It was so exciting that the skipper quickly made tracks for the pub AND bought us all a big dram.....
I hope it's a long time till I have a trip as exciting as that - the dram had to be supplemented with many more before equanimity returned.......

However, on Sunday 6th we had a geat afternoon out of Tarbert. We avoided the rain all afternoon. 5 hours of bliss.

I must admit we havn't had a lot of crisp sunny days on the east coast so far this year.................

Turned out not to be the best choice! Blowing F6 wind over tide & very short choppy water. Bounced all the way down the SW end of the Menai Straits looking for a quiet mooring to do a bit of fettling.

Even Coffin bay left me rolling like a pig, so I had breakfast & pottered back to Fort Belan throwing sheets of spray out on either side. Borrowed a mooring there & had a quiet snooze. Crept back into the Afon Seoint with the first of the tide and the last of the light.

Sunday was time to go home, but dawned beautifully clear, sunny & quite warm. So I abandoned all desire to go home & did the work I couldn't do on Saturday due to the gales. So it wasn't a wasted trip, just picked the wrong day to go for a run!