Club Racing in June

What did I get up to?
Approx 18 knots

Blue Water sailing!

13th June
Elliot's first sail this year. We decided to go on an adventure. With plenty of food and fuel packed we headed of from Mumbles on an ebbing tide, destination Pwll Du Bay. The weather was pleasant wind approx 10mph south westerly and sunny, temp 18deg C. After sailing around Mumbles Head we started to harden up onto a beat, passed over the choppy Cherry Stones and made our way out further in to the Bristol Channel on a starboard tack.
Once on a transit between the Mixon mark and Langland we
tacked onto port to head inshore, the out going tide helping to push us down the Gower Coast towards Caswell. At Langland Point we tacked back out to sea but it wasn't long before we thought it necessary to start up the outboard furl the jib and motor the rest of the way. This decision was welcomed by the crew as it cut over an hours sailing time from our journey. On our arrival at Pwll Du we lowered the anchor, tidied up the sails and finished off what little food still remained. Harry and Elliot did a little fishing whilst Clare and I snoozed. That didn't last long!!
They soon realised fishing didn't mean you automatically caught
fish so I dropped Clare and the boys off just behind the Needles to
explore the beach and rock pools. The tide turned at 15:16hrs so at 16:00hrs we decided it would be a good time to head back to Mumbles. I expected the journey to take up to 2hrs of sailing but on a beam reach and a following tide we were back at the Mixon mark in 50mins. The 4-5 foot swell was now breaking at times over the sand banks and all the other craft and us included took the inner passage between the sandbanks and Braclet Bay. We passed Mumbles Light house at 17:00hrs, gybed on to port and made or way back towards the moorings passing the Mumbles Pier.
The tide was now covering the bottom of the Knab Rock slip so it
was an easy job to get the boat back onto dry land and packed away.
The very last job was to wake up Elliot who had slept for the
majority of the return journey.