Plymouth Sound

A day-sail – 6 hours

/ Bill

I foolishly left the camera my smaller Lumix camera in Farnham at the weekend, so yesterday I took the heavier Nikon 3200 SLR instead. The problem is where to put it down in a hurry when I need to attend to the boat. It sits in one of the canvas line bags at a stretch otherwise in a bag hung just inside the companionway.

There were a number of people enjoying the water. It was one of those days when the wind was steady (F3), the sun shone, the sailing, as they say, was easy. I left the mooring about 1100 and was back at 1700. No pressure.

Continue reading →

Photographing at sea to show pace – trial images

/ Bill / 1 Comment

In the previous post, I mentioned the difficulty of photographing waves at sea – the boat moves in tune with the waves and it’s difficult to record their size on a still photograph. Yesterday,the wind was gusting heavily and we were at the point when I considered reefing. However, the sails were reasonably balanced and the tiller easy enough to control the boat with one hand while holding a camera in the other. I wondered whether it was possible to share the pleasure I was getting on the water by trying to demonstrate the pace we were going.

Continue reading →

Shakedown sail – in the way, bodies learn then need to relearn.

/ Bill / 1 Comment

We were away at the weekend so yesterday, belatedly, was my first sail of the year. There were a couple of problems, so, while it’s still fresh in my mind, here’s a short description for Folksong owners and anyone else who might be interested. If, by my not keeping quiet about my mistakes, it sounds as if I have no pride, you’d be wrong, I have lots of pride, but as I get older I find I can take it or leave it . . .

Continue reading →

No wind yesterday . . .

/ Bill

No wind yesterday but a fine day to run the engine.

I removed the sail cover and attached the halyard but left the lazy jacks in place as I didn’t expect to set the sail. As the Sound opened up it, it was almost empty – two vessels in sight, one trying to set a sail. A little later he had given up.

Image

It was also a perfect day to anchor and run out the rode. I dropped anchor around 1300 close to Jennycliff near the Withyhedge beacon.

Image

Then time for lunch, and, as I had bought the dinghy with me, time for some photography.

Image

There were three naval vessels at anchor. The village of Cawsand can be seen in the sunshine on the far side of Plymouth Sound – (just aft of the pulpit).

Image

All the metal work makes Blue Mistress look positively industrial. The depth is 7.7 metres – it had dropped from 8.4 metres in the 3/4 hour I had been at anchor.

Image

The washed-out colours of January.

Image

This simple rig holds the course giving plenty of time to go fetch something from below. It works just as well under sail..

Image

The tide was low and the water slack as I passed the Cattewater Wharves.

Image

Flinterlinge, registered out of Groningen, was busy unloading.

Image