With The Southampton Boat Show round the corner that was summer!

30 months of rain interspersed with a few days of sunshine. OK, it really wasn’t that bad, but it’s hardly been great. I struggle to remember the last time I was in shorts for two consecutive days.

One benefit has been the amount of wind around, I enjoyed some of my best sails this year, a force 7 on the nose trying toget around the mull of Kintyre, 25 knots in the Alderney race, with wind against tide.

Only last week, I was en route to Plymouth with a good force 6 aft of the beam, too much sail up and a metre or two ground swell running. The log peaked at 10 knots! It really was a rip-roaring sail up the Cornish coast. Now I don’t recommend carrying too much canvas, however with the wind from that angle the two of us were comfortable, the helm was a bit heavy, but when the log doesn’t dip below 6 knots, it’s hard not to keep going. My cheeks ached for the rest of the day from all the grinning. So while the sun hasn’t been forthcoming, when it did come it brought some good breeze?

Now if we can get more a bit more sun and a bit less wind for next year, we could be onto a winning combination.