Position 50:46.09N 0:56.13W

Well we are finally underway.  Nutmeg is on her mooring, so we dinghied out, got her ready for sea, and left the dinghy on the mooring.  Wind is E’ly.  I’ve been monitoring the forecasts for weeks; the weather window for the next three days is OK – a bit marginal as there’s some strong winds due, but theres a risk we just keep waiting for perfect conditions.

I have to confess I feel utterly anxious about this for some reason – but I guess that is the purpose of the qualifier, to get beyond the nerves.  It’s the fear of the unknown, and particularly the threat of heavy weather.  As we beat out towards the Owers, I was looking for reasons why we should head back.  But I couldn’t really find any, so we kept going! 

Our course is a big triangle – from Chichester Bar, then ESE up-Channel to the Baie de Somme, then WSW down to Cap de la Hague, then back to Chichester Harbour.  310 miles – 100 miles first leg, 140 miles second leg, 70 miles third leg.  Ass the winds have been from the NE sector for weeks, this is the best course we can really set that doesn’t leave a long upwind slog against the tide and Channel chop. I’d originally wanted to do a course down to Eddystone, across to Cap de la Hague and back, but with the Easterlies it was just going to be horrible.  So up-channel we went.

We spent all day hard on the wind, in 12-18kts and reasonably flat seas.   Tide pushed us down-channel so we just cut the corner of the shipping lanes, the start of which are marked by the Greenwich Light Vessel, which we passed within a mile of.  Emilia did a fair amount of sleeping – par for the course for a teenager – and I kept watch.  Shipping was relatively quiet.