The Great Squall

Ava and Alexander joined Toucando on Friday evening ready for a prompt start on Saturday to take part in the Old Gaffers' Annual (Race and) Rally (Toucando was not racing).  We left shortly after eight on what seemed to be a fine morning. The forecast was for winds of Force 4 or 5, with the possibility of a 6 "near headlands". We raised the mainsail with two reefs near Dockhead in very calm conditions and unfurled the staysail and jib. We proceeded to have a nice sail on a beam reach down Southampton Water.

We had hoped to see the other Gaffers somewhere off Cowes, but we couldn't.  The wind, however, was much fresher when we got out into the Solent proper.  We headed in the general direction of Ryde, and started picking out the occasional gaff rigged vessel.

By now the wind was more or less behind us, so we went on a training run, executing a number of excellent controlled gybes.  By now we were close to a good part of the fleet.  We looked over our shoulder and saw some dark grey clouds.  Each of us went below and put on our waterproofs as a precaution.  Then in the space of about half a minute, just off Gilkicker Point, the wind rose from Force 5 to the top end of Force 7 and the rain was lashing down.  We turned north to be well clear of gybe point, and were grateful for the two reefs as Toucando heeled in the squall.  As we were not racing we had no inhibitions about turning on the engine and getting the main down.  We then turned back on course and completed our passage to Gosport quite comfortably, under the staysail alone.

We had a good berth at the end of a pontoon in the Royal Clarence Marina, near Morwenna (Heard 28) and Brilleau.  We enjoyed a stroll around Gosport, which was rather dominated by the festival music throbbing in the park.  Then we called into the bar where the results of the race were announced.  All the talk was of the squall.  Fortunately no damage was done, but many boats had had an  exciting few minutes.  Mark Woodhouse's Foxhound was the overall winner.

Sunday was a day of doing very little, except sitting on the boat and reading.  Toucando had a few admiring visitors, many of whom recognised her lines as a Heard.  In the evening we joined in the barbecue on the dockside, and listened to shanties provided by Terry (amongst others).  Amazingly they muffled the sound of the Gosport Festival quite effectively.

On Sunday Three Brothers rafted up beside us... she is an amazing traditional fishing boat, with very little in the way of modernisation.

We set off about 1100 to catch the west flowing tide.  We raised the main in the harbour and unfurled thejib and staysail in the Swashway.  We tacked up the eastern Solent to Warsash, by which time the wind was definitely from the northwest, and the tide falling: not a good combination for getting up Southampton Water efficiently, so we completed the passage under engine and made a perfect landing on Toucando's pontoon.

Thanks to Alexander and Ava for being a very efficient crew... and the Solent Gaffers for a great event.

A proper summer weekend

Most weekends this summer have been marred by: 1. too much wind; 2. too little wind; 3. rain; 4. plague... etc.. In other words a typical British summer.  This one was rather better.  Charlotte and Michele joined Toucando on Friday, and after a crab salad we set off for Yarmouth.  We had a pretty good sail down Southampton Water, then tacked down the western Solent.  Yarmouth unfortunately had its "Harbour Full" sign up, so we went to Lymington instead.  We had a few exciting minutes stuck on the mud by the Lymington River channel, but were helped off by a passing rib (rigid inflatable boat).  We stayed on the excellent Dan Bran pontoon.
On Saturday we had thought about going to Poole, but it would have meant a ridiculously early start, so we went with the tide to Gosport instead.  Haslar Marina gave us a good berth - easy to get on and off.  We had a walk around the town centre and up to Royal Clarence yard: then curry on board Toucando and a viewing of "Deep Water" the documentary about Donald Crowhurst's ill fated participation in the 1968 Sunday Times Round the World Race.
On Sunday we thought we would take advantage of the tide and sail east first towards the Nab Tower and then come back into the Solent and up to Southampton with the tide.  It all worked very well.  We went on every point of sail and only had to tack twice to get all the way back from the Nab to Weston Shore and the entrance to the River Itchen.  Thanks to Charlotte, Michele and some decent summer weather.
I am going to try and upload a video: let's hope it works.

Toucando goes to Cowes and gets a wash, and then has an outing to Beaulieu

After less than four months in the Solent Toucando badly needed a wash.  When the water was clear enough weed could be seen growing on her propeller.  The cooling water inlet seemed to be getting blocked (as mentioned in earlier posts) and a scummy line was developing on the side of her hull.  So a crew was assembled and a lift and wash was booked.

We had originally planned to go on Thursday, but near gales were forecast, so we deferred until Friday.  Andrew and Michele took Toucando round to Hamble Point on Thursday evening to get a head start for the trip over the Solent.  When Friday came it was quite breezy.  We came out of the Hamble River to see thousands of boats taking part in Cowes Week racing.  We crossed the water on a broad reach taking advantage of a gap between two separate races.  We crossed the finishing line at 1200: shame we weren't in a race.  We then wove our way (somewhat anxiously) through hundreds of small sailing boats whizzing about in the Medina River entrance.  We got in without incident.  We made our way to Sealift and moored up on the waiting pontoon.

Sealift is a platform which can be sunk to the river bed, and then brought up to enable work to be done on the hull.  It uses submarine type technology with four large tanks which can be filled with water to sink, or air to rise.  We manouevred Toucando into position and then slowly we were lifted out.  Once fully out of the water the three Sealift staff got to work with jet washes.  Toucando's hull was covered with black slime, weed and various crustacea.  Andrew went to a nearby chandlery to get some anodes (sacrificial metal blocks to prevent corrosion of more important things).  It took the best part of two hours for the job to be completed, but Toucando looked a lot better for it.  When it was all finished the platform was lowered and we motored off.  We then had a bit of excitment, almost going agound in the very busy river as boats came back from their races.  Andrew exchanged a wave with Sir Robin Knox-Johnston (the first person to sail all the way round the world, non-stop, single handed... back in the '60s) who was driving a rib with a large party of young children aboard.  I am sure he was impressed with Toucando.  We returned to the Sealift waiting pontoon to have lunch before heading back to Southampton in the afternoon/early evening.

Waiting for the Sealift to be lowered before we could go in

Andrew on the deck as Toucando is slowly lifted out of the water

 Getting started with the jet wash

The propeller before...

... and after

A nice clean hull!

On Saturday Toucando was joined by Ben, Daryl and Nik (former colleagues of Andrew) for a daysail.  We decided to go to Beaulieu.  As we left the mooring we followed Tom and Ros Cunliffe out of the Itchen on their new boat, a 23 year old American cutter, which had just arrived from Florida on the back of a ship.  They were going on their shakedown trip to make sujre everything worked.

Tom Cunliffe and family taking out their newly acquired American cutter (left)

 We got our sails up and had a nice easy sail down Southampton Water.  When we got out to the Solent proper the wind picked up and we tacked down to the Baulieu River entrance.  We motored up the river where we were greeted by Lord Montague's henchmen (aka the Beaulieu River Harbourmaster)... they didn't have a pontoon for us to moor on, but suggested we moor on a buoy.  To our great delight they didn't ask for any money.  Phew!  We had lunch there before returning.

Buckler's Hard on the Beaulieu River

Nik, Ben and Darryl contemplating lunch

By this stage it was pretty windy, so we put a couple of reefs in the main and we had a fairly fast sail back, returning to our mooring just before sunset.  We then enjoyed cups of tea (sic.) sitting on the cockpit, watching the life of the river, human and animal.

Toucando seemed to have benefitted from the wash.  She sailed beautifully, and the engine was perfect. Thanks to Michele for her help over the whole three days, and Ben, Daryl and Nik for the Beaulieu trip.

Ben and Nik flaking the sail

Round the World Racing

Vic and Andy joined Toucando for the weekend.  They arrived on Friday morning and we made a fairly prompt start heading for Yarmouth.  We got in some sailing after Calshot, but the wind faded to almost nothing as we passed Newtown Creek, so the engine was required to get us to Yarmouth.  We had a pleasant stop there, but decided against going on to Poole on Saturday... it would have been a long motor.  Instead we went to Cowes, passing through some racing fleets on the way.

A race heading our way in the Solent

A view from the High Street in Cowes

The flagpole and a couple of starting cannons at the Royal Yacht Squadron

A boat shed

On Sunday we set off for Southampton.  There was a useful easterly breeze, and we sailed fairly slowly across the Solent and up Southampton Water with a view to seeing the Clipper Round the World racing yachts head out of the city down to the Solent.  We loitered off Weston until the ten racers emerged, followed by HMS Invincible and hundreds of small boats and spectator craft.  For a while the wind picked up to a Force 5 as they made their way to the start line.  We left them to it and returned to our mooring on the Itchen.  Thanks to V&A for a pleasant weekend cruise in the western Solent.

Vic on the hem of Toucando, with a Cornish yawl in the background

The Clipper Round the World Race fleet coming down Southampton Water