First Day at Sea

Well, that’s me set off, well, hopefully as far as Plymouth in any case. I left at 1000 to a departure committee on the pier which was great, it felt like I was setting off on a big voyage rather than just a short coastal trip but it is Freya’s last sight of the village before we head off across the Atlantic. I’ll be back next week for a second vaccination and some bits and pieces.

I had the assymetric (spinnakery sail without an added pole) up for the sail down the W Kyle and initially there was little wind but around Carry it picked up and we picked up speed to 6 knots and left a couple of motor sailing boats in our wake which was most satisfactory. Around Inchmarnock it became gusty and we rounded up a few times having run out of rudder so I turned down wind and brought it down. Having then unrolled the genoa completely we were still overpowered with the wind picking up from the NE, (an excellent direction for us) so we took a reef in the main swiftly followed by another and some rolls in the Genoa after which I changed from the autopilot to the windvane. We’re now passing Arran.

So far I’ve forgotten: mince from the freezer which had been going to be dinner for tonight and tomorrow and I’ve brought my car keys which I don’t need, doubtless I’ll remember more things that I’ve forgotten once we get further into the trip.

Now, later, we’ve had a good run all day mostly doing around 7 knots, currently sitting at just over 10 with some favourable tide. I have a selection of cakes from thoughtful wellwishers, I had a slice of some fruit cake from Sheena with my cup of tea. Because mince was going to be problematic without any mince I had macaroni cheese for dinner, very good and warming, it’s not too warm down below. I’ve had not that much sun but will leave the fridge on tonight to see if the batteries can manage a day of little in the way of charge from the PV panels, they should be able to. Strong winds forecast for tonight, I just shook out and then took in again a reef.