Can you believe the weather forecast?

The first weekend in October enjoyed some of the best weather we have had for months... unfortunately I had to spend it ashore.  In the following days the wind and the rain came back.  Thursday night was particularly wild... the wind was howling in ther rigging and every so often Toucando made a small lurch to leeward in response to the gusts.  I had plans to go out at the weekend and kept a close watch on the five day forecast: it looked as though things would settle down by then.

On Saturday morning Steve and Penny arrived first, followed shortly after by Hugh.  We checked the inshore forecast for Selsey Bill to Lyme Regis: "northwest backing west 4 or 5.... occasional rain or drizzle," that didn't sound too bad.  The outlook for the following 24 hours was a little more ominous: "west or southwest 4 or 5, increasing 5 to 7... occasional rain or drizzle." (A force 7 is a "near gale").  We decided that a trip to Yarmouth was in order... if it turned out to be very windy on Sunday then at least the wind would be behind us when we came back.

We set off down the Itchen, got the sails up off Weston and sailed down Southampton Water on a reach. We then tacked down the western Solent making good progress with a fair tide.  The crew soon got the hang of dealing with the backstays.  Conditions were almost perfect.  The wind was as predicted, but with no rain or drizzle.  We had some soup for lunch on the way.  Just off Yarmouth Green we got the sails down and prepared to enter the harbour, which had spaces for once (hooray!).  We successfully moored on the green pontoon.  Hugh and Steve kindly helped with some DIY jobs aboard, while I made the spaghetti bolognese and Penny shelled the peas.  After dinner we rowed ashore to avail ourselves of the showers and then strolled to the Royal Solent Yacht Club to enjoy some soft drinks.

We got up some time after 0700 and had our first breakfast of cereals with mugs of coffee. We set off at 0825 to get the benefit of the rising tide back to Southampton... the forecast remained unchanged.  We sprang off the pontoon brilliantly, did a U turn in the narrow channel and headed out to sea.  The sails went up near black rock and we turned the boat for home.  We did a training run, gybing every 10 to 15 minutes... all well executed.  Then at 0930 we hove to for our second breakfast which Hugh had cooked. Toucando was almost motionless with her staysail backed on starboard tack as we sat in the cockpit enjoying our bacon and egg. At 1000 we were on our way again.  The winds were moderate, and the sky was increasingly blue. We continued our run up towards Calshot, and turned into Southampton Water.

Just after the oil refinery we did some man overboard drills, under mainsail and engine.  I am pleased to report that all the "men" (fenders and rope) were satisfactorily retrieved in reasonable time.  Congratulations to all concerned.  We then had a late lunch.  Hugh said he would like to try to sail onto a mooring buoy, so we headed up to Marchwood.  You will have noticed that everything has gone perfectly up to this point, every manouevre executed with skill and precision.  It was time for something to go wrong.

Even though we had checked the charts and we knew there was a shallow patch near the Marchwood moorings we didn't know it was that shallow.  As we approached our target buoy slowly we suddenly realised we had stopped moving, and try as we might, the engine would not shift us one way or the other.  The anchors were brought out of the lockers and we waited.  It was just before low tide, so we knew we would be lifted off, but weren't sure how long it would take.  In the event just over an hour after getting stuck we detected signs of movement and found we could reverse off.  We pulled up the anchors and turned back for the Itchen.  Sailing onto a mooring buoy will have to wait for another day.  It was good to have solved the problem without external help.

We got back to the pontoon in the hours of daylight and did the necessary tidying up before the crew went ashore.  Thanks to Hugh, Penny and Steve for their help in making successful passages to Yarmouth and back.

Can you believe the weather forecast?  In my opinion, you can, and should.  The wind came from the forecast direction and the windspeed was pretty much within the range indicated, sometimes a little less.  The rain and drizzle never arrived, but I am not complaining about that.  We all had our wet weather gear ready for the eventuality.  In fact it was an almost perfect October weekend: we didn't have to use the motor to make progress, and we were never over pressed.  Let's hope there are some more like that.

View from the Itchen

It has been a wonderful week from a weather point of view: sunny, almost cloudless skies.  The barometer has been way up.  I have been busy with appointments ashore in Southampton, so no sailing was possible, but I have been working on Toucando's plumbing systems to make sure they do what they are supposed to.

On Friday I took the Red Jet over to Cowes for the Committee meeting of the Solent Gaffers.  There was a lot of talk about how terrible the summer had been.  Numerous events had been cancelled or curtailed as a result of high winds, not to mention people's cruising plans.  I guess we have to try to make best use of the autumn weekends.  Mike and Dan Shaw (respectively the national and local presidents of the Old Gaffers) remembered when they saw Toucando being built.  They were circumnavigating Great Britain on Susan J, their 28' Falmouth Working Boat and had called in at Howth.  David and Barry invited them up the hill to see Toucando taking shape.  They had enjoyed they stop in Howth. I am continually meeting people who had known Toucando in her former life, and all have fond memories.

I have added some pictures  to the earlier blog entry: http://toucando.blogspot.com/2011/09/windy-weekend.html ... thanks to Michele for providing them.

And as an extra treat here is a link to a Youtube clip of Falmouth Working Boats racing during Falmouth Week 2010.  Local bylaws require that oyster dredging in the Fal estuary is done under sail, hence the continuing demand for working boats.  Many of those in the clip are wooden, but they are also made with GRP hulls.  Toucando is a larger version of the working boat, and the similarity in hull shape and sail plan is clear.  Now, wouldn't it be great to get some footage of Toucando sailing like that?  All we need is someone with a video camera and a rib... and a decent summer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA3f5RGuVf8&feature=related

Historic footage of Toucando

Deep in the hold I recently found footage of Toucando's early days.  Painstaking restoration has allowed this significant material to be made available to the public.  Thanks must go to all the photographers for recording the life of this unique turn of the century yacht.

Toucando's film career - Inspector George Gently

One of Toucando's starring roles was as the yacht of Gunter Schmeichel, the ex-Nazi bomber, whose murder was solved by Inspector George Gently (Martin Shaw) and his hapless assistant ,Sergeant John Bacchus (Lee Ingleby).  Here they are coming on board to collect clues.

The relevant clip can now be seen on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWcixaJi5GA&feature=related

A trip to Yarmouth (almost)

Michele and Ava joined Toucando for a trip to Yarmouth.  It was to coincide with the Solent Gaffers' "Centenary Chase".  We left at 1330 with two reefs in the main.  We got the sail up as soon as we were off the mooring and had a very nice sail down Southampton Water.  The barometer had been falling steadily, and Southampton appeared to be under a black cloud as we looked back, but it was fine where we were.

We turned towards Yarmouth after Calshot Spit, putting on the engine to get through the "precautionary area".  The wind picked up to a Force 7 (32 knots) from the SSW (the direction of Yarmouth).  We made slow progress.  We had a go at tacking, but our progress was not good.... another trip with a Force 7 from the wrong direction!  We considered the merits of working our way to Yarmouth, but decided to head for Cowes instead.

We got the sails furled in the Medina and found a berth at East Cowes.  We caught the bus to Yarmouth and arrived in time for dinner at the Royal Solent.  Only five boats had taken part in the Chase, and many of the participants had themselves come by land, or ferry.  The winner of the open boat class had taken a bang on the head from the boom, and had had a trip to A&E as a result.  He managed to get back in order to claim his prize.  Our decision to stop at Cowes was probably the prudent one.

On Sunday we headed back to Southampton.  It was an almost perfect day for sailing... a Force 4 from the west.  We sailed in a nice straight line across from Cowes towards Hillhead.  Then we had to make a few tacks to get into Southampton Water and past the oil terminal.  We then managed to have a long close-hauled tack most of the way up Southampton Water, during which we had lunch.  We dropped the main just off Weston Shelf and headed for the Itchen.  At that point the rain came, heavy and intense... the worst I can recall on Toucando.  Fortunately there was not much wind at that point. We huddled in our waterproofs with the hoods pulled well over, and motored up to the pontoon, where we made a perfect landing.

And so ended Toucando's last scheduled event of the season.... However there will be more weekend sailing, providing the weather is ok.  I have just heard a forecast suggesting we are going to get heavy snows in October.  I hope that is wrong.

Midweek trip to Cowes

Just come back from a rare midweek cruise with Reading friends Jean and Roger. They came on Tuesday afternoon and we had baked cod on board that night. On Wednesday we set off in reasonable weather towards the Solent. It remained pleasant as we went down Southampton Water, although the wind built from a gentle force three to a brisk five or six. The rain came when we were in the Solent: the trawler specification wet weather gear came into its own. We got into Cowes and had plenty of berths to choose from at the Yacht Haven. After lunch Roger and I took a walk to Egypt Point: the weather was fine by now.
In the evening we enjoyed a very good meal at The Red Duster.
Today (Thursday) there was little wind and plenty of sunshine. We motor sailed back taking a scenic route off Osborne Bay, Ryde, Gilkicker, Lee and Hill Head.
The wind picked up in the afternoon and we had a slow run back up Southampton Water and were back on our pontoon by about 1600.
A nice gentle trip with a bit of excitement in the rain on the way out. The forecast is looking windy again for the weekend. Thanks Jean and Roger for giving me the opportunity to get out in the week and enjoy a quieter Solent.

A windy weekend

Toucando had the first weekend of September off.  The following week the winds began in earnest, said to be the tail end of Hurricane Katia.  I got a call from the marina saying, "Please ring as SOON as possible!"  That sounded alarming.  The news was that the jib had partially unfurled and was flapping uncontrollably.  To cut the story short, Alan from the marina went out in the launch, got the damaged sail down and lashed it to the deck.  We're not sure quite how much wind there was... Sotonmet said gusts of 195 (which is not believable).  Other sources said 50 to 60 knots.  It was certainly very strong.

I went down to Southampton on Friday not knowing what the jib would look like.  It turned out to have an L-shaped rip maybe about two feet in each direction.  The sail was taken ashore and I got the boat ready for the weekend crew: Michele and Sarah P.  It remained windy and the forecast was mentioning everything between Force 4 and 8 for the weekend.  We had venison goulash aboard on Friday evening and agreed to set off on Saturday. We decided to take the cautious approach and stay fairly local.  Plan A had been to go to Chichester Harbour with Southampton Sailing Club, but they had decided against it on the basis of the forecast.  We decided to go and do a bit of sailing in Southampton Water and see what it was like.  To begin we had some practice handling Toucando under power and a bit of a tour of the docks.  We then decided to head for Hamble where we stayed at Port Hamble Marina.  We took a walk into the village and enjoyed a drink or two at the Bugle, before returning to Toucando for pirate stew.

On Sunday it seemed fairly calm at first.  We made a reasonably early start, motoring up river to begin, then turning and raising the mainsail with two reefs.  We sailed out into Southampton Water.  The wind was very variable... never much less than a four and often gusting well into force six and seven.  We had a good and fast sail up towards Weston where we practised tacking and heaving to, gradually polishing our technique. Eventually we turned for the Itchen and went back to Toucando's mooring.  There was a strong westerly wind blowing us on to the pontoon which made sorting out all the fenders a little tricky, but we got it all done before having a late lunch.  Thanks to Michele and Sarah for their help.

Once the crew had gone I drove (the car) to Lee on Solent for a walk along the beach.  It was a bright, sunny afternoon, but the winds were strong, and all the waves had white tops. There were plenty of walkers, fishermen, kite fliers, wind surfers etc., but I only counted two sailing boats, both well reefed, on the Solent.  On Monday I took the jib to the sail maker... and was pleased to discover that it is repairable.  The sail will now get a wash and full service.  I am hoping that we will get a few good weekends before long... it's time the hurricane season was over.

Here are three pictures from the weekend (courtesy of Michele):