Windy Little Solo Sail

After the Christmas lull, I needed to hit the water. Last Sunday, 27th Dcember, was forecast good until late afternoon, so I arrived at Poolbeg Marina after 9 a.m.

It was a beautiful, crisp, frosty morning. I nearly slipped on the foredeck frost but nobody was there to see. There's always a tingle of apprehension going out by myself, just knowing that any silly little problem can magnify when you've just one pair of hands. When backing out of the pontoon berth, I felt the Honda outboard was running badly. Sure enough, just after straightening up and rounding the first corner out of the marina, it died. So I moved under inertia onto the last pontoon and tied off again. The petrol line connection was loose, if I had been 30 metres further on when it died, I would be in the Liffey Channel, drifting !

Nothing was moving, no commercial shipping, no small boats, just crisp, clear morning.

Motoring down, I hadn't expected such a good day but wind was forecast. Approaching the lights at the entrance to Dublin Bay, I raised full sail and breezed along out towards Howth. Little by little, the wind rose and little waves grew. In the space of 15 minutes, I decided to reef and again 10 minutes later, I reefed again and was rolling along towards The Bailey at a good clip.

The forecast was for F 7 or F 8 later. I could see a long bank of cloud to the South East and wind and sea kept building. It was decision time, so since I always like rounding something when I'm out, the light off the Bailey, Rosbeg East, looked just far enough away to justify coming out. It's a little over 3 nautical miles from Dublin Port. By now the wind was about 20 knots, with a dirty sea but since I was well reefed on a starboard tack, all was well.

I came up to Rosbeg on my port and thought I would have a go at gybing. I needed the practice of gybing on my own, so slowly bringing in the main, I swung her around and she took off again reaching back home on the swell.

Sunshine makes such a difference to how the sea looks.

Flying along in a lumpy sea, glorious. I love this reefing arrangement at the gooseneck, it came with the boat and I thank whoever fitted it, every time I use it.

Still well reefed, we flew back to Poolbeg.

It was a good call to go out that morning but not push things too far. A tingle of nerves now and again is what I love about single-handing.