Out like a lion wasn’t strictly accurate!

 We thought it was windy towards the end of March.  This was as nothing compared to Easter Monday.  Sailing and busy diaries don’t really match well. Ideally we should be able to look at the weather and hop down to the boat when it looks good.  In real life, we were coordinating five diaries for a final shake down sail with our crew, Rachel and Alan and their friend Andrew - a very experienced skipper who was kindly going to come out with us to give advice. Easter Monday was the only day we could all make.  We went down to Hamble on the evening of Easter Day and had a wonderful supper with Andrew and had the luxury of sleeping in real beds.  Easter Monday saw us rise early to contemplate the driving rain and wind outside the window - we were expecting it but had still hoped the weather forecast might be wrong. 

We were on the boat by 8 and the expert crew had us leaving the pontoon by 8.20. As usual we motored down the river and then when we reached Southampton Water, went head to wind to raise our sails.  With great foresight, Roger had tied in a third reef the evening before. When Andrew saw the pocket handkerchief mainsail he wondered if we would go anywhere but we were delighted that Indian Runner was sailing so well in such a wind - beautifully balanced and a steady 6 knots.  In the light of this, Andrew suggested we were brave and went out into the Solent to see how she handled out of the sheltered water.  The gusts over the Brambles reached 40 knots! She handled beautifully but our antenna at the top of the mast was damaged in the wind and when we came to furl the jib a bit later, we had a lot of trouble.  In strong winds it is really difficult to get the jib fully furled and we were left with the remaining jib flailing like a demon.This is worrying as in such winds damage can occur.  We were lucky, the damage was limited to some scuffing on the bowsprit and a worn jib sheet (only a week old!) 

We were all reassured by the the way the boat handled in such a wind and have learnt how to manage the jib in future strong winds.  We are also hoping to get a new furling system, called an Aero luff - this will depend on whether the Cornish Crabber sailmaker can make a new jib to suit the system in time to deliver and fit it when we get to Plymouth. All in all a really useful (and fun!) outing. 






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