26th June 2018<\/p>\n
We made three miles towards our destination last night.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t as bad as it sounds. In the same eleven hours, we sailed six miles through the water. It\u2019s just that we weren\u2019t going in the right direction.<\/p>\n
Yes, you guessed it, on the hottest day of the year in England, there was still drizzle in the North of Scotland \u2013 drizzle and incessant headwinds. I\u2019ve worked it out: We have had headwinds now for seven days in a row \u2013 first of all North Westerlies on the way up the East Coast towards the Orkneys. Then Westerlies across the top (strong to \u201cnear gale\u201d Westerlies to make sure the sea stayed good and rough after the full gale that saw Samsara<\/em> scuttling into Fair Isle).<\/p>\n And finally, just as I get to the top of the Hebrides, ready for \u201cleft hand down a bit\u201d to St Kilda, what do I get: First of all, a flat calm to announce the coming change in the weather \u2013 and then, can you believe it? A light South Westerly.<\/p>\n And more drizzle.<\/p>\n Some things are just not fair. There\u2019s only a hundred miles to go after something 850 during which there hasn\u2019t been a single complaint (well I don\u2019t remember it) and now this.<\/p>\n I was all ready to enjoy today: I had taken advantage of last night\u2019s calm to wash and change my clothes for the first time since Fair Isle. I even got undressed and climbed into a sleeping bag \u2013 it was Heaven.<\/p>\n And now, I poke my head out of the hatch to find a light headwind and drizzle. What does Ken Bruce call it on Radio Two \u201cDreich?\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, I could cheer myself up with a French Fancy or even a slice of bread and apricot jam (I made loaf of bread in the calm \u2013 I must write about that) but sugar is like cocaine: It doesn\u2019t last very long and then you just want more\u2026<\/p>\n I looked at the little electronic weather station. Pressure rising, not that you\u2019d notice\u2026 but, wait a minute what\u2019s this: 12.5o <\/sup>C – as Southern England prepared for a new \u201chottest day of the year\u201d record\u2026<\/p>\n Well, that was a couple of hours ago. Now I can tell you that I wouldn\u2019t swap places with anyone on Brighton beach. The charcoal stove is fired up \u2013 once I got the seawater out of it (how did it get there?) I just checked the thermometer again: 23.5o<\/sup>!<\/p>\n Mind you, I didn\u2019t notice this for a while. I had made the mistake of sitting on the leeward (downhill) berth to write this \u2013 it seemed that on the leeward berth, the laptop was less likely to slide off my lap. But you have to remember that hot air rises \u2013 which means that all the cold air burrows its way underneath \u2013 right onto the leeward berth.<\/p>\n I am now sitting to weather, as us old salts would call it, and I\u2019ve had to move along the berth away from the stove.<\/p>\n We\u2019re still not going in the right direction but it doesn\u2019t seem to matter so much. It\u2019s coffee time \u2013 the problem now (yes, there is always a problem) is that while I have a whole spare box of Cherry Bakewell Tarts, there are only two French Fancies left. Of course, I could have that slice of bread but the loaf smelled so good when it came out of the oven that I had four slices there and then – and it doesn\u2019t look so big now\u2026<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 26th June 2018 We made three miles towards our destination last night. It wasn\u2019t as bad as it sounds. In the same eleven hours, we sailed six miles through the water. It\u2019s just that we weren\u2019t going in the right direction. Yes, you guessed it, on the hottest day of the year in England, there … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":396,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390\/revisions\/396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}