Forecast: fine sunny spells, vis mod to good

Wind sws force 5 to 6 occasionally 7

The tide was not in far enough to launch the dinghy when Jack and I arrived at 12.30 pm. Ian Johnson had already untied the dinghy, so we walked it round to the yacht steps and launched from there.

The head rope of the Three Brothers was slackened to allow the stern to touch the slip wall and the crew made their way on board. The life jackets were taken out of the museum and a tow was requested from the Shark Boat.

The Three Brothers was pulled alongside the head buoy and the ropes put in the dinghy ready for the tow. The rudder was positioned and then the tow taken from the Shark Boat.

We were soon out of the harbour and the tow was dropped when we were clear of the walls. Three reeves had been kept in the main sail which was raised after the bowsprit and small jib sail had been secured. The force 4 wind meant that bubbles were soon streaming from the stern as we moved quickly southwards. We were soon level and then past the south outfall buoy with the bow breaking through several of the bigger waves. We turned to run northwards when the outfall buoy was just a speck in the distance. After only 10 minutes we were again level with the outfall buoy on the seaward side and racing towards the North Bay. We were soon level with Trinity Cut and going towards the Expanse. The increasing wind made us go towards the shore to see if we could find a wind shadow from the coastline. We turned into the wind and lowered the main sail so an extra reef could be put in and then raised the sail again. The boat was then turned southwards and we moved rapidly towards the south outfall buoy.

When we were in the south bay we continued southwards until we were only a few hundred yards from the south buoy and then tuned shoreward towards the Spa. As there was no sign of the Shark Boat a debate was held as how best to sail into the harbour with quite a strong wind accelerating us along.

As we were nearing the south wall of the harbour the Shark Boat came out to greet us, so we turned into wind and lowered the sails as quickly as possible. By the time the tow rope was secured we had been blown north of the north wall! We were soon back in the harbour and floating down to our berth. All the rigging was secured and the dinghy rowed to the chicken run where it had to be lifted out as the water was so high there was no clearance under the jetty. The dinghy was walked round to the rack and tied up with Ian having to stand in water up to his calves!

We were all cleared away by 3.30pm.

Three Brothers crew: Albert Brownhill, Teresa Felton, Ian Johnson, Brian Nobbs, Mike Salisbury, Ian and Jack Thompson.

Photos by Ian Thompson

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Contact michael.wilson@tesco.net for further information.