I posted a short clip of Blue Mistress some months ago (the same clip I keep on my desktop at work!), but hadn’t thought much more about the medium – I have always preferred still images.

I went for a solo sail out of Plymouth one cloudy and suspiciously dark afternoon – (it blew up and rained after I came ashore).

There was a light breeze while I was out and the idea was to work with the autohelm, trying various sail trims, wind directions and so on. It was fun and I got several simple jobs done at the same time.

I though I’d try out the movie mode on the camera again.  And became irritated by the set of the foresail with its flapping foot – we sometimed accept things for ourselves that we wouldn’t accept if we thought other people were going to see them. Sad but true.

The view forward

It’s the sheet position of course, but getting the balance on an older sail is difficult when there has been some stretching. This is the foresail I would normally use in a much stronger wind. The genoa would have come into its own for the wind strength that afternoon, but we were in trials – not trying to break records.

So, a different tack, shifting the sheet one notch, sailing slightly further off the wind and it looks better. But I would like to sail closer to the wind with this sail, so I will need to think it through further.

Heading towards Plymouth

In the meantime, I have these reminders.