Scandanavian Seaways Race

Thanks to Julian’s heroic efforts yesterday Robinetta was ready to compete in the Scandanavian Seaways race. We left Levington at 09:40 in light drizzle, tied Worm on a mooring buoy just outside, and were ready to race at 10:30.

We were well back at the start having turned too far up river to put up our top sail, but it was a run out of the Orwell, and we kept up with our little group until we reached the Pye End buoy and began the beat back in. We then fell back, having made some bad tacking decisions (mine, since I was skipper and helm). We were quite slow to get our top sail down, and top sails hinder rather than help on a beat. I gave the helm to Julian (which I should have done before since I was obviously tired) and we crossed the finish line by 14:30, just before the tide turned and made beating up the river a nightmare.

We collected Worm from her buoy, then headed up river to Pin Mill to anchor. We set the hook at 15:00 as the sun came out for the first time today. I rowed Worm all the way to Pin Mill hard rather than face a muddy walk back, then we had a pleasant walk up to the shop of the main road then back to Pin Mill sailing club for the evening’s barbeque and briefing. It turned into a beautiful evening to be on shore, no wind, bright sun...

Worm was too far up the hard when we wanted to head back, but after we had struggled a bit another OGA member came and helped Julian carry her down to the water. I had a lovely row back to Robinetta in bright moonlight with the plough clear in the sky, and once back on board we checked our position on the GPS (which we had left on). Everything was good, and we rafted Worm alongside .

I woke up in the night when a wind shift made Worm start to knock against the hull, so I let her hang off the stern instead, and waited up until we swung with the tide to make sure she did not run up against us again. All was fine, so I went back to bed.