Summer Sleepover with the Girls

On Sunday night my two girls, aged 3 and 7, stayed over on the boat. It was the first time for the youngest one but she took it in her stride and enjoyed herself.

We got to the boat just after HT and sailed under jib only to the Gunsite and dropped the hook. I wanted to go further out to the middle of the bay so we'd stay afloat all night but was persuaded to stay closer in. I tried to go for a depth to dry out at half tide to keep the bumping around to a minimum.

The girls fell asleep after the customary hot chocolate and mostly slept soundly. We bumped around a bit around 11pm and again at 4am. I was awake pretty much all night as ever. I don't know why I don't sleep on the boat, it's becoming a real problem. Can't relax I guess and quite uncomfortable births. I'm going to try a duvet rather than sleeping bag next time.

We set off early for Belcroute in a freshening wind. Belcroute was sheltered, sunny and warm and we had breakfast and landed for a while and I had a swim.

All too soon it was time to go. We left the shelter of Belcroute with full sail up but quickly had to get down to 2nd reef as we got out of the lee of the high ground. On the way back we managed to drop an essential child's drinking cup over the side and performed a pretty repectable MOB procedure to recover it without fuss within a couple of minutes.  We made it back to the mooring and got to the harbour pontoon in the dinghy with literally two inches of tide to spare!
 
(pics to follow.)


I'm really glad both girls had a good time.

Eleonora E - TB Davis' 'Westward' comes home.

TB Davis racing yacht 'Westward' came back to Jersey today in the form of the replica 'Eleanora'.

Fine weather and light winds greeted this magnificent vessel as she passed Noirmont to head into St Helier, just like her sister ship must have done countless times 80 years ago. A huge flotilla of local boats escorted her in, including Kamala. We just bobbed around outside the fairway to watch the boats go by. By the time she got to us she was lowering the sails  but still looked impressive.

I managed to get out on the water nice and early so had time to motor to Belcroute, grab the innermost mooring for a time and get the autopilot wired in again. I also had a swim to shore, where a hapless fisherman had gouged a chunk out of his finger on the rocks. I swam back to the boat and brought the first aid kit with the dinghy. Turned out just a plaster was required.

I left the dinghy at Belcroute and had a perfect sail out to the Red and Green bouys in the bay where I waited for Eleonora.

Coming in I was close to running out of water as the tide fell. I got to the mooring well enough but getting the dinghy back into the harbour was interesting:

I've added this last photo just beacuse of the colour of the water:

I'd like to think that even if I had the money, I'd be wise enough not to waste it travelling to see wonders that only equal what we have here. We live in an amazing place.

Links:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-10714174
Interview with 'new' owner
Some cracking pictures of her arrival
JEP article and pics

How I broke Elizabeth Castle

A shameful day. I sailed with my daughter to Elizabeth Castle harbour for a picnic tea. There was already a boat on the floating pontoon so we tied to the mooring points on the jetty. The swell was quite significant but the boat looked OK to leave for the 10 minutes or so we'd be gone.

On my return, I was horrified to see a huge chunk of the jetty missing. The bow line was now hanging vertically downwards with the mooring point it was attached to still embedded in a large piece of Tudor masonry some feet below the waves. I only just could pull it up.

Unsure whether to leave a note, I plucked up the courage to email Jersey Heritage when I got home.

Dear Sirs,

I visited Elizabeth Castle last Sunday with my boat, a small (19ft) sailboat. I tied up to the stone jetty as someone was already on the floating pontoon. Unfortunately the inner most ring on the jetty, which was quite rusty, broke away as my boat moved around a bit in the swell and took a sizeable chunk of the jetty away with it. Fortunately no damage was sustained to my boat as a result.
yours,

Jason Wyatt


Never got a reply, so I guess I'm in the clear.