First sail if the year.

Well it's the first trip of the season on Aretia. We launched Aretia at the beginning of March in all those Gales, which made things interesting when trying to adjust the mooring at 06.00am in the morning! She went in like a dream, on the evening tide, and dropped her into her berth. we decided to stay overnight in the sailing club, to check her over in the morning. The wind came in over night, and so did the Police Alsatian. 4am to be precise. The wind had blown the front door open of the sailing club, and a Copper passing had decided to check it out. Not before sending K9 in. You can imagine, me not being to keen on the seeing Fido having been rudely awoken by the site of a growling hound. Now I was wide awake I decided to shut the door and put plenty of weights behind it.

On inspecting Aretia at first light she was well over on her side with the tide out. The wind was howling, so I had to get aboard and adjust the lines. All went well so it was off for the traditional Tesco breakfast in Skeggy.

April 6th saw the first trip out of the year. The original plan was to go up to Tetney in the Humber and the Humbermouth Yacht Club, staying overnight and then heading back to Gib. Point the following day. However the weather forecast wasn't the best according to the shipping forecast. F8-F9! I must thank Peter Sheldrick from HMYC for his assistance in providing great details of the entry and mooring plans for getting into the Haven.

So it was decided to go on a day sail on the Tuesday up the coast. The weather forecast was for F3-F4 with wintry showers and that was what we got! Up early, the boat was still covered in frost, Rob my crew was struggling to stay n the deck as we headed out of the Channel, which I have to say was really well marked after all the work gone in by the club members over the Winter. I didn't even have the usual twitchy nerve, as I approached the outer sand bar!

It was then up the coast in sunshine, using the new toy- Chart Plotter. Brilliant bit of kit, sure to keep the kids entertained.

With the Wind sticking steady around F2-F3 off the coast, we launched the Genneker, to enable us to reach up towards Mablethorpe pas the new Windfarm.

Later in the day the Wintry showers appeared, two full on hailstorms.

We even developed a couple of snowdrifts in the cockpit. Having put up with this is was back down Wainfleet Roads prior to anchoring off the entrance to the channel in 1.5m of water. 60mins later this was 8m of water with the tidal stream flowing at 3.5knots. Back in to the channel and on to the mooring. A successful first day sailing.