I rejoined Moondog on Monday, with my brother in law Alan, with the ( wet ) Jubilee celebrations behind us. Looking forward to a good week's sailing....foolish optimism as it turned out.

 

Tuesday dawned, just, amid heavy mist, torrential rain and a brisk F5. We were being joined by friends Nic and Christian, with their son Benny hoping for a good day sail around Falmouth / Helford, anchoring in a bay somewhere for lunch and a siesta in the sun. Nic and Christian are return visitors to Moondog ( yes some people do come back for more..), but unfortunately they seem to have used up their full allowance of good weather on their first visit in sunny Sweden and Norway two years ago....there would be no drifting around in the sun today. 

 

To save us all from going stir crazy we put on all the waterproofs we could find and set off. There are no pics unfortunately. Partly because we were fairly busy sailing, but also because all they would have shown was grey, and we would have probably ruined the camera, which was not certified for underwater use. Suffice to say that we had an entertaining , and absolutely soaking, sail in the harbour and Carrick Roads. Benny was a great helmsman and got lots of pleasure in getting the lee rail in the water as the gusts hit....6.5kts with 2 reefs in and the small jib. We knew that there were some glorious views to be had of St Mawes across the water, but there was little to be seen in the gloom and grey.

 

After a couple of hours of this we all felt that honour had been served and that we could now return and spend the rest of the day in the warm, eating and drinking, with a clear conscience. So back to our berth, off with the wet clothes, turn up the heater, have lunch and talk about the morning's excitement.

 

This all turned out to be a gentle introduction to a week of crazy weather.

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