Sailing Again!!!

After a long period of maintenance Toucando cautiously edged out of her berth at the Elephant Boatyard and made her way down the River Hamble on Thursday 28th May.
Once out of the shelter of the steep valley side we began to feel the wind. The forecast was for fives and sixes: a little more than ideal for a shakedown cruise. The bowsprit was lowered and we left the river and motored into the last bit of Southampton Water before the Solent. When we were clear of the shipping channel we raised the well reefed main and pulled out the staysail. We were able to sail close hauled a good way down the Western Solent before motoring into Yarmouth harbour. We had discovered that one or two things had not been set up correctly: roles which should have gone this way we're going that way, but we were able to sort most things out.
In the harbour we moored alongside Nightingale. Quite a lot of boats were there, many having come early to get ahead of the forecast bad weather.





We dressed Toucando in a lot of pink laundry, in honour of the festival's "In the Pink" Breast Cancer Campaign theme.
Friday was wet and windy - not good news for the organisers of the shore side activities, but an enjoyable day nevertheless. The festival was opened by the Pink Panther, and the usual range of somewhat surreal local entertainment was on offer.
























The highlights of the evening entertainment were Derek Sandy, the Isle of Wight's high energy reggae superstar, and Wight Hot Pipes, the island's high energy, bagpipe driven punk band.












Saturday the weather was much better. Toucando left harbour to watch the racing from the water.






As usual it is impossible to tell what was going on, but it was good to see a fleet of gaffers racing.

On Sunday we returned home. The forecast was pretty dire but the afternoon looked ok. We had a nice run up the Western Solent under staysail. Then we motored up Southampton Water into a Force 6. Eventually we berthed in Southampton - at Shamrock Quay on Sunday then moved over to Kemp's on Monday. It was good to be back on the industrial Itchen opposite the scrapyard.































Thanks to crew Anne and Karen for getting Toucando sailing again.

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