Shifting ballast and sailing for fun.

Today's race was cancelled due to the weather forecast. Force 5-6 is a bit much for gaffer racing!

Julian and I decided to do some maintenance work. Julian started shifting ballast to check that there was no water coming in under it. (We've never had the ballast out, because it's very tightly packed and difficult to move.)  We now know that that part of the hull is fine, and that the internal ballast is definitely lead....

After that going for a sail in the afternoon seemed a fitting reward! Racing in winds above force 5 is hard work, but even with her new sails Robinetta likes a decent amount of wind. We hoisted the no2 jib, put a roll on the boom and came off the mooring under sail, to head down river.

Beating out of the Orwell with plenty of wind and no time pressure was great fun; it took two hours from Pinmill to Fagbury, and I started thinking about doing the laundry and having a shower at Levington before the 1800 briefing. It seemed a bit tame to head back up the Orwell as soon as we'd beaten out though. That's when Julian suggested going to Harwich for an ice-cream.

I had to think about it a bit, but by then we were past College, so we just carried on to Halfpenny pier, dropping the sails just before turning into the shelter of the pontoon.

We rafted up on a motor cruiser and went for our ice-creams. A short stop, but enjoyable.

Running back across the harbour on reefed main and stay sail was like being on a roller coaster. Forty minutes after untying from Harwich we were dropping sail to enter Levington marina.

A great afternoon's sail.