Sailing on the Tide - Dinghies

A View of Wootton Creek at Low Tide.

With better weather finally arriving on the island, our sailing season begins.
But we are not ready!!
This winter we had to leave our two dinghies down at the river's edge on their plots in the dinghy park as our road trailer has broken, so we were not able to tow them home to overwinter in the shelter of our garden. This isn't usually a problem as we have left them down to overwinter at the river  before in case we wanted to use them.  But this winter has been particularly bad and it has taken it's toll on our poor little boats.

Peewit (left) Red 5 (right)

 They both look very sorry for themselves. Our Mirror dinghy has the added problem of it's launching trolley wheel has a puncture, along with it being full of rain water and generally soggy.

 Poor little Peewit had to be turned upside down  mid winter as her boat cover ripped in the winds. This has meant her paintwork on the hull has cracked and is flaking off, but thankfully she is sound.

 So Skipper has his work cut out to get these two back on the water.

Rigging, sails, boom, gaff and all the bits and bobs to fit out both dinghies are safely stored at home. I shall gather everything together, check the sails and sheets and make some sandwiches, add a flask of tea, a slice or two of cake and together we will spend some time down at the riverside getting our two little boats ship shape for the season.  

 When the tide floods in and the sea breeze calls, our two little dinghies will be ready to unfurl their sails and dance out on the wavelets of sparkling water...

 Crew's View As The Sails Fill 

Casting Off- On the Water

Skipper and I have just returned from a lovely little holiday in Herefordshire.

We set off on an early ferry from Yarmouth to Lymington so as we could view the "Round the Island Yacht Race" in fact our ferry had to weave it's way through the fleet across the Solent, so we had a great view of the competitors although as it was a breezy morning the large racing yachts had already made it around to The Needles, however there was still a good many yachts to enjoy.  

 The weather was amazing for this holiday "Herefordshire Heatwave" so of course we simply had to get on the water! We hired a canoe for the day. We paddled downstream on the River Wye.

 Stopping off on shingle shores for refreshments, absorbing the views and beautiful scenery, watching the wildlife on the river and generally having a fantastic day! In places the river was shaded by trees, calm and slow flowing, cooling and soft. Along the route there were bubbling rocky runs, light rapids of lively water sparkling in the sunshine. Exhilarating, energy giving refreshing little rides over the rocks.

Canoe The Wye

http://www.canoethewye.co.uk/

Super day on the river from these folks.

Other news

As a little taster, I want to let you know about my "search for colour"   I held a Natural Dyeing day in my garden with my sister. Jude has written a super blog post at

http://potsandpaint.blogspot.co.uk/

  

I will be blogging more about this day myself and another day coming up after I have harvested my Woad and will let you know how it works!

Time To Grow

 March has been a time to get things started. A time to grow. Here is a photo of a woad plant I have left to grow on and hopefully produce seeds for my next year's stock. The photo below shows my woad seed collected from last year's plants. (Woad is biennial)

 I planted some in seed trays in the greenhouse and some direct in the ground under a cloche, as you can see in just a week the ones in the greenhouse have grown into tiny seedlings! the hope and promise of wonderful homegrown natural blue dye for my wool this year.

 While things grow, Skipper and I decided to spend a few days in Devon and enjoy the spring weather, fresh air and beautiful scenery.
A time to relax and be inspired, grow and nurture our own ideas for this year's projects.
 We visited  Arts and Craft centres and explored Dartmoor, walked up to Haytor and did some coastal hopping all along the South coast on our way home -Teignmouth, Exmouth, Sidmouth, Bridport and West Bay.

HAYTOR

 While in Bovey Tracey I made sure my stash this year continues to grow too! I called in at
Spin A Yarn

http://www.spinayarndevon.co.uk/

and treated myself to a gorgeous collection of roving and various yummy yarns.

 Then for my hand painted yarn and dyeing projects I bought a steamer and a good selection of tools to go with it.

I aim to grow my knowledge and experience, develop my skills in producing more of my own yarns, hand spun, hand dyed, hand knitted and hand woven.

Sailing Fun -Our Mirror Dinghy

A warm sunny day, a SSW breeze F3 gusting 4, an incoming tide, our old Mirror dinghy and a couple of hours free to enjoy it all!

We rig her up and get her on the water. We sail her up river to Windy Corner where the River Medina is at her widest and there is plenty of room for a small dinghy to frolic in the breeze, get very wet in the spray and bounce through the lively wavelets.

Skipper at the helm, me as crew we reached our little dinghy back and forth across the river just for the fun of it! not going anywhere, not racing around buoys but just making our way from one bank to the other.

 I planned to take a lot more photos but as the wind got up in the afternoon it became quite gusty, I needed to have both hands for the jib sheet to control the little front sail (jib) to spill the wind if necessary if the gust was a bit strong. 

Our little dinghy was flying nicely along and we were entertainment for the yachts circling in a queue for the lock gate at Island Harbour Marina. There are great advantages to having a little boat, we were sailing- they were motoring, sails away waiting for a mooring- we were enjoying the breeze.

From the shore, walkers were taking holiday snaps of the river and our little dinghy, I'm sure she looked energetic and happy taking the white spray over her bows and getting me soaked through and salted!  

 After a lovely sail we had built up a good appetite so we headed back down river to the dinghy park and The Folly Inn. The tide by now was right up to the shoreline which means no long hauls out on the trolley or wading through mud. Instead we sail right up to the pub. Of course when the pub is full of folk watching you do this I'm always thinking I'd better get this right with such an audience!

Turn into wind, lower the main, raise the centre board, have a paddle at the ready in case it's needed but much better to  use the jib to gently sail to shore, land smoothly and disembark gracefully.

 Yeap this time 10 out of 10, that felt good- I have been known to get in a pickle such as get the centre board jammed or trip over ropes. Thankfully with a packed pub watching our little dinghy behaved.

Looking forward to our next Cast Off

 

A cool drink and a late afternoon lunch.