We left Plymouth early on Saturday morning 27th Oct, in the dark. The first problem being the Port nav light bulb failing and I had not been able to get any spares. (Its amazing what you can do with a torch, gaffer tape and the orange plastic from a Sainsburys shopping bag.) However the trip to Weymouth was excellent - a quarter wind of between 18 and 25 knots saw us hitting 12.5 knots on one occasion when surfing and sustaining a good 8 knots throught the water. Despite 6 hours of foul spring tide we entered Weymouth 12 hours after leaving. The hospitality of the Royal Dorset Yacht club was excellent as was the few hours kip. The forecast was not good and we set of at 0600 on Sunday to a point about half a mile out of the harbour and decided that as we couldn't see the cliffs, the wind was over 30 knots and we were still partly in the lee of the Bill that we would go back for a second breakfast. As some of my crew had to do something called 'work' we changed plan and they set off home and I managed to rustle up some other help for a second attempt on Tuesday. Many thanks to Peter, Pete and Bas for their help.
Tuesday was bright and clear and we set off at 0630 along with the really nice Dufour 52 which we had been alongside and was also off to Tortolla on the same ship. By St Albans we were sailing well and set out for the Needles in bright sunshine with a good NW wind. With a fair tide we made Portsmouth in 6 hours which is pretty good by any standard and even better we left the Dufour standing as we crossed Cristchurch bay. Many thanks to the other Peter for his help on this leg.
Fi drove the car around and we had a quiet week in the Hornet sailing club until Saturday when I motored her around to Southampton where she was loaded. See previous photos.
Conclusions:
a. the boat flys, for a 42 footer her performance is fantastic, its only a shame Fi says I can't race in Antigua week as she would surprise a few people.
b. we like living on board but are now looking forward to not waking up with the condensation raining onto us from the deckhead in the morning!!
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