Eastbourne
Gins.pt
Wed 29 Aug 2012 18:30
Final destination and the season (which was much too short) comes to an end. In the last leg, since Crosshaven, we've sailed 516 miles, of which about 375 purely under sail. We've had some great sailing weather and much fortune with the wind, and save for the small mishap at Dartmouth, everyone had a enjoyable trip.
This morning (like seemingly every day) we visited the chandler to buy a twisted shackle for the genoa (we had lost the screw-part somewhere) and some cleaning stuff for the greywater tanks. The following two days are the ones in a sailor's life which no fond memories are associated with -- cleaning, repairing and testing of the boat, as well as preparing it for the winter.
But before all that, there was still 20something miles of sailing to be done. With 20+ kts knots of west wind and gusts up to nearly 30kts, we set the main sail at 2nd reef and genoa at about half and still managed a seasonal top speed of 11.5kts. And then a storm approached (see pic below) and while it looked like the world was about to end, the only effect was a wind shift to north by about 30° -- it didn't event start raining.
Pancakes are nearly finished as I'm typing this, so I have to pack up and get the table ready... See you next season.
