Third sail of the season

Topsy turvy weather this spring so far, March gave us a mini-heatwave and April has seen chilly winds with lots of showers.  I bought two new sails for this season, the main sail fitted fine but I couldn't get the genoa to roll up on the furling gear, due to it being too long. The local agent, who measured the boat up for the sails, was very helpful and without any hesitation arranged for the genoa to be altered so that it would fit correctly.

Today was the first chance to try it out and all is well, more than well, what a difference in the performance of the boat.  Can't wait for the warm weather to arrive and get some long passages in.  Today was an anti-clockwise tour of Great Cumbrae with a gentle wee breeze, gloves, hats and a warm cup of soup to keep us going.

AWOL handle

This was our first sail of the year, felt a bit like joining the
frostbite series though, really quite cold and damp. The new sails I
have for the boat aren't a complete success yet, the agent for the
manufacturer is coming down to Largs during the coming week so
hopefully we can address some of the issues.
Shortly after passing Millport, on our way up towards the Kyles of
Bute we noticed that our winch handle had disappeared. It is a
floating type but unfortunately you have to know where it is floating
to retrieve it. So anyone finding a grey and red winch handle in the
vicinity of Great Cumbrae please get in touch, valuable reward.

Afloat, eventually.

A chilly old day but the wind had died down so Tarawa was launched back into the water.  Everything went well, pity that I made a cock up berthing the boat, a bit of polishing has managed to cover up most of the bump on the bow though.  Strange also that all the electrics on the mast work when they are easily accessible on the hard standing but as soon as they go beyond easy reach when the mast is stepped, they cease working.  There must be some pithy seafarer saying to cover this?

Snow calls off play

This was the day, scheduled three weeks ago, for my boat to be launched.  Unfortunately given the time between booking and action I wasn't able to schedule a decent day as well.  I drove down to Largs first thing, past the snow covered hills and frozen loch at the top of Hallie Brae to see the Largs Channel was covered with white horses whipped up by the stiff Northerly wind.  I had a chat with the hoist crew who confirmed my own thoughts that there was no way we could mount the mast and then launch the boat safely given the strong gusty wind and the snow lying on the deck of the boat.  I waited until lunchtime but there was no let up so I'm back there tomorrow to have another go.