Sailing again!

We've been busy doing other things the past few weekends, so it seems like ages since we went to Shotley. However today the weather was perfect, (blue sky, wind force 4-5) so we were determined that we would sail, and we did.

Getting Robinetta ready to sail took longer than we expected because when we went to bend the new staysail on we discovered that there were no cringles to run the rope through to lash it to the club foot! We'll have to take it back to be re-made. So much for using the same sailmaker and asking for the sail to be the same as the previous one.

Once the old staysail was back in place we headed out, and ran down from the marina entrance posts to the Shotley Horse on jib alone, then turned back up the Stour to raise the main. The wind was strong enough that we put a reef in as we raised, and once we had the main up we furled away the jib and ran back to the Shotley Horse then turned up the Orwell. We tried to put the staysail up, but that was too much sail so it came down immediately.

We broad reached on reefed main alone until we got past Orwell no 2, then let out the jib as we headed closer to the wind. We were a bit overpowered, but furling it away was not easy, so we stuck with it as we reached up the Orwell. Had to put a couple of tacks in as the river winds round to west of north. By the time we got to a point about half a mile past Levington Marina we were sailing very close to the wind, and definately overpowered, so decided to go onto a run and get the jib furled away. Once we had headed down the Orwell to do that we decided we had gone far enough anyway and did not turn back up the Orwell, just broad reached down on reefed main and had a lovely sail back towards Felixstowe. Once the river turned so we were reaching we put the staysail up, and by the time we got to to Trinity quay the wind had dropped and we needed the jib too to fight the tide.

The jib got put away as soon as we were past the Shotley horse as the smooth sailing we had enjoyed on the river got rougher, and we went back into the marina after a short but enjoyable afternoon's sailing.