Sunday 15 June
As you all know, we are testing all our new toys for when we do the ARC, this year, or, getting more likely because of all the delays, next year.
We have now a hydro-generator attached to our stern which should whizz around generating power and recharging our batteries so we can keep all our systems going when we are in the middle of the Atlantic.
There are 4 main ways to generate power: running the engine – noisy and wasteful of diesel; solar panels – good to use at anchor – we have a small amount on our deck permanently; wind – some boats have a little windex on the back – can be noisy; water – great for passage making.
We tried her out – she span round beautifully but no power was generated, so there must be something wrong with the wiring. This is why we are testing everything!
The wind was 10-12 knots and we were heading down towards Cowes with the wind and tide with us, so we decided to give Lily the Pink a go.
David is an excellent foredeck crew. And once we had good sea room off Cowes we let her fly.
It was a lot of fun and Lily added at least 2 knots to our speed. In about 12 knots of wind we did about 8 knots.
I figured we haven’t flown a spinnaker on a yacht since our racing days and the sound as the spinnaker cloth shimmies, shakes and fills is a beautiful thing.
She’s a furling sail – wraps round herself – and she furled pretty well, although we need to re-rig the furling line to stop the cleats jamming and get a smoother pull.
David tied her to the deck. Later when we were charging back up the Solent against the wind with very choppy seas with wind over tide in 25 knots, she tried to go for a swim!
David grabbed her and we chucked the whole wet sail and bag down below – just like Contessa days!
We decided to pick up a buoy in Newtown Creek again as today is our wedding anniversary and they have a nice restaurant called The New Inn that we wanted to try.
After we had blown up Zigzags and tidied the boat, we set off upstream.
However it’s Spring tides just now and we ran out of water! After punting and paddling with our oars we got out and squelched through the very slimy mud, but we got her to the jetty!
Shrek feet!
Did you know that wet seaweed makes a very good sponge for cleaning off mud?
We got to the New Inn and had a very nice dinner!
Happy Anniversary darling!