Round the Island Race

Up at 0400 hrs to travel down from the "Folly" for the start at 0510, I was grateful to be in an early start as there are far less boats on the start line.

Once again it was a great spectacle, clear sky's, a light wind to begin with and 100's and 100's of yachts, all seemingly wanting to be in the same bit of water you are in . You have to be very focused at this point, with eyes in the back of your head and a crew you're very confident with. 

 

A light NE wind blew, barely enough to fight the tide that was pushing us down toward the start line. We got it just right and we managed to start bang on time. 

The wind gradually increased all  way down to the needles and was about 7/8 knots as we rounded them.

 

After a brief period of wind shadow(we went too near the cliffs the wind kicked in to about 15 knots with the odd gust of 20 or so as we sped towards St Catherines point. 

After St Catherines we then had to start beating, something Watanga doesn't do very well, and we had to watch half the fleet sail past, heading much higher than us.

A brief panic at Ryde Sands when the Catamaran in front of us ran aground and we hastily detoured which involved crossing the main fleet on port. An added complication was the main sheet cam cleats fell off. Luckily Mark was strong enough to hold it until we jury rigged a fix.

This  lasted us till the finish about an hour later. Time..a few seconds less than 10 hours.

A few heart stopping moments but we scraped through unscathed.

For lots of pictures of the race go to my Facebook

Volcano in Swanage

I was on my way to the Isle of Wight on friday, by sea, and was about 3 miles out when I first spotted the smoke rising from Ballard Down.  It soon got quite thick and was obviously not a garden bonfire so I took some snaps.  The day was a little hazy and at the distance not the greatest of photographs. It didn't register at the time and was only when reviewing the snaps later I realised I had taken a photo that makes Ballard Down look like a Volcano.  Probably best not to add that to the tourist information

Last week a Tornado

The train arriving at platform 2 will be the 1:35 from London Victoria, was the announcement at Swanage Railway station, and in steamed "Tornado" the first main line steam train to be built in this country for 50 years.  It was a fine site, very impressive and if you are into steam trains then obviously very exciting.  However I was somewhat bemused when the crowds started clapping.  It arrived on time, that's probably good reason to clap but it's a lump of metal, I thought, it can't hear your applause. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking it, it just struck  me as odd at the time.