Summary of events

Now to address the back log of events.

YoBs took the Weymouth and Portland Housing Association kids out for a sail. I took Plum Crazy with one small boy and Simon T. Simon is one of the Olympic squad and he joins us to teach the kids and support our efforts with WPHA.
I learned a new training tip that I will use one day soon. Thanks to Simon and all the helpers, it was a lovely evening.

Saturday race
Very gusty and not too warm. But with plenty of layers I was OK. Pnly problem was as I was single handed I got knocked about this knocked my confidence.

Thursday
Monday was blown out for Dinghies. Thursday was much better even steady wind

That trip to France

So we called off France as the wind was in the East.
Lets go to the West, say Brixham or Dartmouth ? Well that was the plan until we got the extreame weather warning.
So we are ready to run West until we talk to Steve Fraser on the mooring as we are about to set off.
"rounding Portland Bill into the teeth of a gale ? Hell !" so we decide to go East into the wind so we can get back on Thursday for work.

Now we were set to round the Bill with favourable tides but going for pool to East we had tide and wind against us. So where to stop that is sheltered ? Lulworth Cove !

It took us 4 and a half hours to sail the 8 nautical miles ! We had a fresh 5 to 6 against us and the swell was not too bad. We motored into Lulworth and dropped the hook. This was a first for me as I have always tied up for the night. On the East side of the cove the is great shelter from the Easterly winds and we had a great night's sleep.

Next morning there is dread warning of Force 9s in our area. We climb to the top of the cliff and have a look. Well the wind had dropped a bit so rigged a deep reef, we pulled the hook and off we went.
We dropped the main in about 2 mins as the swell was going to cause killer jibes. Plan B we unfurled half the jib and shot back home with the wind and tide. Only took 1 hour and twenty minutes to get back.

Vice Commodor's Cup

Saturday I was out in a Feva solo. I didn't do very well coming last. But I bumped in to Ian Jones and he was putting Celia on the board as crew for Monday's race. So I said hey lets Merlin !
Later I meet Celia and I tell her she is on helm. I think she was a bit taken aback.

Sunday I was helping Adrian with the mast on Amarosa this is important as I'm off to France with Adrian on her next week ! I got the high water time wrong and Tanja went mental. After a rant all was fine :+)

Monday I took all my sails down to the club to check I have the best ones on the boat. Celia, I think, had adjusted to the idea of her helming and we were up for it. The wind was from the North and a little East but 16 gusting 19/20. Now that would be too much for me on helm and Nat but Celia has more experience than I.

We ran down to the start with little trouble. Checking transits (new to me) went OK them we tacked and scooped a bath full. This was a theme of the day...
We started 46 seconds late ;+) OK by me. I am not ready yet for "all in" starts. Then we headed up to "D". It turned into a slog, very gusty and we capsized 4 or 5 time on the first circuit.

We called it a day as I was getting very tired after righting the boat and Celia was too. So crossed the line and headed home. But as we were half full of water it was slow going.

All in all not a great first outing for Plum Crazy but we are back on the water !

Thanks Celia for a good sail.

P.S. We got DNF but it is the first race result here for Plum Crazy :+)