KATLA is now 'home' in Brighton marina and all is well after an amazing sail up from Falmouth.
With the South coast being so busy with pleasure boaters and shipping, instead of flying solo, this time I was joined by my very good friend Dave who came down by train from Brighton. It was really nice to have company and conversation (and sleep!) for the last 210nm leg.
We left the visitors Yacht Haven in Falmouth 'early' around 1100utc Saturday morning mainly out of boredom instead of waiting for the optimum tide around 1300utc to flush us out to the Channel.
Wiith barely any wind, we scratched our way East for the first 24hrs with around 10kn of wind from behind. Full sail - prevented mainsail, goose winged with poled out Jib and stay sail sheeted in tight gave us ~4kn of speed.
With the 48hr forecast threatening only 5kn of wind from the NW it was a surprise to be flying around the Isle of Wight at over 6kn on Sunday night in over 20kn from the SW! However, I still cant get used to sailing fast 'on the spot' due to tides!
Good progress and perfect weather gave us a sunny arrival in Brighton at 1100utc Monday morning. We had been a bit lazy and not made progress to windward through the early morning which meant we were over 4nm off course and wide of our planned approach but KATLA squeezed herself up tight to the wind for the final beat and made us proud, just making the marina entrance without having to tack. Sails down, fenders and warps ready - Its so much easier and relaxed with another person onboard. The outboard threatened to run out of petrol literally yards from the berth but Heidi was there waiting to catch a rope and save the day - a perfect end to an epic trip home.
210nm in 2 days exactly - not bad for an ickle 26ft gaffer!
After such a long voyage KATLA is in desperate need of some TLC, especially in the paint department, so I'll be posting more updates in the near future.
Stay tuned...
