From Trèbes to Homps and back..via Carcassonne!!!
The weather forecasts were variable as the time for departure, courtesy of RyanAir, grew nearer. Would it be very wet, grey, cold and miserable, or the much better option and not the BBC choice… fine, warm and sunny.. how can all the forecasts be so different?
This was the first big sail of the season, the last sail having been a shake-down of our skills two weeks previously with Robert skippering Dragonfly Too, an X-332, in East Cowes with Victor and Diana Bader Clynes as crew. Nice boat, shame about the lack of power under engine. Sometimes one finds interesting passages in the log book on the boats we charter, this was no exception and in this case, it had sailed the Eddystone Light House race.
For this Matzo sail Victor organised “Event” which is a Dufour 40, spacious, sufficient power under both sail and power. His crew comprised Robert (Mate in a non-carnal way), Diana Abramova, Diana Bader-Clynes, Janice and Mel a new member. The weekend started with the obligatory evening meal in a local hostelry, the Jolly Sailor in Lands End Road, Burlesdon, where the vegi / fish / other food filled the gap between lunch and breakfast.
On the Saturday morning we had smoked salmon for breakfast, courtesy Victor, got ourselves ready for a gentle sail down wind towards Gosport where Sandy had organised a couple of berths in Gosport Marina for us and her boat Sea Dream, sailing with Avi and Phil plus dogs.
From: Richard Brown, RYA Southern Region Secretary
From 1st April 2009, all Brits going to the Channel Islands will need to have their own health cover.
Read the rest…
The 2009 inaugural Michael Doctors Memorial Lecture
featuring
Tom Cunliffe
The day of the first Michael Doctors lecture was drawing close and the participation numbers were looking really good.
It was clear that the renowned mariner Cunliffe was proving exactly the exciting attraction that the club had hoped for. Current and past members alike together with friends and family of the late Michael Doctors were due to meet for this auspicious occasion… and then…down came the SNOW********. Tons and tons of the white fluffy stuff! Very pretty; but then the reality began to slowly dawn upon me. “This is not good; this definitely doesn’t bode well for keeping up attendances”, and sure enough a few worrying calls and e-mails began to arrive.
Read the rest…
January 20th 2009
Withdrawal symptoms were clearly getting to members of the High Seas as more than 15 eager beavers got together at Bernays Hall, Stanmore for a workshop session on the much sought-after art of correctly manoeuvring your canvas in order to progress in a forwardly direction with appropriate momentum according to the prevailing airflow over the aerofoils! Or to put it more simply; setting your sails correctly for the prevailing wind conditions etc!
Sandy came prepared with tea, coffee, cakes and biccies, while Phil came prepared with pieces of wood, pieces of canvas and pieces of string which, when all assembled together, created a dinky little sailing rig that could be “propelled” by warm air flow from electric fan! Perfect! Read the rest…
The highest Spring tide for 4 months made the timing a little tricky and it wasn’t helped by early morning fog that barely revealed the Isle of Wight from Calshot.
But the Skipper and crew of Camena had been up before the chilly dawn to travel down, some on motorbike, from London. Nothing would stand between them and their goal.
On arrival at Cowes Camena joined Wild Spirit that had sailed up from Lymington the day before. After the traditional mulled wine and mince pies it was already time to go to beat the tide.
Both boats headed off to their own berths. Channukah Sail 2008 - Mission accomplished!
(Thanks to Stephen Stern for the photos)
The AGM and Laying Up dinner this year crept up on us silently and suddenly I realised that it has been two years since my appointment as your commodore. I also reflected that much has changed since I joined the club, not only in my life but also for many members and for many reasons.
During the AGM that always precedes the Laying Up diner, tribute was paid to Michael Doctors, founder member and former commodore who passed away at the beginning of the year. Read the rest…
Crewman Of The Year
Nigel Reese
Crewwoman Of The Year
Diana Abramova
Yachtsperson Of The Year
Gill Woodbridge
Round The Island Cup
Philip Sugarmanand Nanae Gendre
Skipper Of The Year
Adair Butchins
Cruising Cup
Bryan Sheinman
Commodore’s Trophy
Maureen Gorb
Most Promising Newcomer
Martin Sargeant
The background: (From the Telegraph..)
LIFEBOAT crews fear being scuppered by crippling new charges for using their radios from Ofcom, the communications regulator. The RNLI could see the price of using its VHF emergency frequencies rise to £250,000 under plans to charge the full commercial rate. Read the rest…
In summary, a great cruise of about 100 miles total starting in Falmouth in Cornwall, stopping off at Helford River, Fowey, and Mevagissey, in glorious suntan lotion weather throughout – we did not hit anything, nothing hit us, we did not murder each other on the boat, and many thanks to Victor for organising and skippering.
This was the delayed departure of the Easter cruise, the sort of thing you read about on the train destination boards when the time now is quite clearly different from what the destination board shows. At least we had an explanation – Force 8 at Easter is not conducive to good sailing, manic yes, good no. So this was the Easter cruise. What sort of sailing did we have? Manic at times, and that was just the crew!
