Whoa !

I was out sailing again in the unexpected [for here] sunshine. Despite the severe force 1 gale and 1mm swell in the outer harbour, My visiting crew and I wallowed around a bit trying to keep in the shade. Eventually, the gale abated, the swell disappeared and we had to motor in. Lovely hour or two bobbing around though.

Crew David doing the driving with the steering stick and everything.

That swell !

We didn't sail

 We had planned sailing. Took the blow-up out to Freyja. Got aboard and everything. Got the string bit ready then, the mechanical paddling device on Freyja wouldn't start.

Was such a pity. weather lovely. sea state ok, time to go sailing but.... We didn't want to risk the no-motor option [again] as the tide was falling and getting back to our mooring between the rocks can be a tad tricky under sail. I took the opportunity to patch up the wood edge bits on the boat [strakes] with plastic padding but didn't feel like doing anything else.

So, we had a cup of tea, tried the MPD again with no luck and came in on the blow-up again. Talked to the Right Admirable G Hales, watched Toby and family go out, spoke to James about to go out with other in an engineless sgoth and generally mooched about. We came home then :-(

Yes

Yes, the mainsail is done, it went up, caught the wind and we were off for a little sailette round the outer harbour. Sun was shining just about too. Eve drove cause she's got her day skipper ticket now. I was allowed to turn the radio on and off cause I got me radio vhf ticket.

That blue baggy thing is what passes for our mainsail. Reefed and everything on account of the severe force 2 blowing.

Spring

It's spring so it's raining again and a bit of a blow coming in! Freyja is still in the water bobbing about like a bobbing thing in water but without a mainsail.
We took the mainsail to patch a few holes that had appeared after the wind drew the sail out of the cover in a wee storm. Flogged about about a bit and caused a few thin and very thin bits.

Luckily Admiral Hales had the remnants of an old shredded genoa and since it almost matched the colour of our sail, we used some of it to make mends - or at least Eve did.

Looks lovely now. Just waiting for a nice bit of weather to get the thing back onto Freyja, flapping about properly.

De-sailed

We pootered out in the blow-up to Freyja today to take the big saily thing off. Bit complicated to be honest what with all that string and things. Still, it came off and we stowed it in a sail bag. Obviously

It wasn't a bad day - between the light snow showers. No wind anyway so Eve had cycled into town and then, when back on land and a quick cuppa with Admirable Hales on board Ammonite, she rode home again - via the other side of the island. As she does.

Ice breaker

It must have been a tad chilly overnight as the harbour was frozen in the morning. Eve wielded the brush as an ice-breaking tool in the front of the blow-up on the way out to Freyja so the ice didn't cut the thing in half. Fair puffed Eve out thrashing about with her broomstick so early in the morning but it was worth it in the end.

We had a fantastic sail out into the Minch and back to harbour later. Just lovely. Sunshine at times too. Freyja went well although we did notice the mainsail has been somewhat re-modelled by the wind at the top pointy bit. Need to get the needle and thread out on that and, put a couple of cleat things on the boom to fix the string that holds the sail down a bit - reefing I'm told. So much to do.

Of course we did!

The sun was shining and there was a nice little breeze. We got the engines for the blow-up and the boat going so we went out for a little sail. Just a little one but it felt good.