Dungeness

When Pete asked about the weather on Saturday I had said "pissing it down and no wind". The rain was very heavy at times, but did let off for long spells and there was a light NW wind, ideal for getting from Rye to Dungeness and possibly as far as the South Foreland.

I went forward and put up the loaned spinnaker as a gennaker. It drew well and added a knot to the speed we were getting from the engine but was not enough on its own. It got us around Dungeness and I put it away, soaking wet from the rain.

The wind strengthened and still seemed behind us. Either there was more west in it than it had seemed, or it was backing. The inshore forecast said cyclonic. I set up the No 1 jib and we raised the reefed main. It drew nicely and with all sails working we were doing 5 knots so we turned the engine off and had a proper sail at 3.9 to 4.5 knots. The visibility was very poor and with nothing to aim at and being out of practice, Pete found it hard to stay on course so our track gently drifted west into East Road.

The wind dropped and our SOG with it until we were doing 2 knots. I shook the reef out of the main and we carried on but then it started raining heavily and the wind got up under the cloud until I could not hold the course. It was a bit too exciting really. I got Pete to put the engine back on and we accelerated to reduce the apparent wind and got her head to wind and put all the reef we had in. Problem over. We set up the purchase on the tiller in case of future gusts and soon found the wind was in our face. The lull had been a warning of a wind shift and I hadn't spotted it. We hauled in and were close reaching. The clouds lifted and it became really nice.

We sailed on towards Dover.