Brian Humber's blog

Getting a crew for this cruise turned out to be a nightmare, several members were otherwise booked and others had to drop out. However I managed to rustle up two crew making three on board, just enough in my planning.

Plan was go as far as Waddenzee if all went well, do-able if the weather played ball and nothing else went awry. The weather did indeed play its wicked way, the weekend of the 22/23 saw predictions of F5/7 and gale 8 in Wight and Dover, no place to be with a crew fresh to the yacht. We prudently stayed in Chichester Marina picking up a buoy on Sunday to leave first thing Monday 24th.

Messing About

Last weekend Ronhilda had a messing about on the Water weekend. The wind was easterly so for once we were able to sail down Chichester Harbour on the ebb in good time with the waters to ourselves. Once out over the bar this relaxed sailing continued down wind in 3/4 knots apparent wind, in the sun with just the geny up until the Hamble was reached midafteroon and we decided to have an early day. The day had given ample time for several rounds of bacon and sausages in the Ronhilda tradition anyway.

I am taking Ronhilda back to Riddle in the Sands waters this summer to cruise some of the Frisian Islands again, weather permitting.

If anybody is interested in joining Ronhilda you will be most welcome, the cruise will be between Saturday 22nd June and Sunday 7th July from and to Eastbourne.

The preceeding and following weekends will be used to trip Ronhilda from Chichester to Eastbourne and return which are nice cruises along the coast and for which crew will also be welcomed.

This plan and dates should avoid having to visit any Belgium port and the start of the Dutch School holidays after which harbours get really full. The weather will dictate if I enter the sands at Texel or East of Borkum.

Not much to say regards the Cruise,  after a foggy start in Chichester Harbour we arrived at the start in Sunshine and next to nothing fluky winds. This pattern continued more or less all of the day and Ronhilda's speed over the ground was thus nearer 1 knot than any higher speed for most of the day. The best racing we had was on board Ronhilda itself -  in seeing who would  get to the spiced chicken, sasuages or scotch eggs served up by Andy Chatterton first.

So again we held up the start of the second race as we were in our usual last place for this year. Indeed A Day at Races who had long finished their short course race came over and offered a Spinnaker to us when we still had an hour to go to finish our race,  thanks Barrie.

First problem was Chichester Marina lock was due to be overhauled untill late on Friday on the 15th and could not be promised to be available for the16th. So Andy Chatterton kindly spent a Saturday with me  moving Ronhilda around to Port Solent earlier in the month. Actually it was a very pleasant trip in the sun with few other yachts or motorboats to be seen.

I had an Alarm call at 5am. Got up and found its literally freezing, but dogs still interested in any early morning exercise on offer. Getting to the yacht found the crew were all up and about and grateful for the fan heater. Andy C and Di arrived as promised so the engine was started and we gently backed zigzaging out  of the berth. Major course alteration in ice has to be taken in small shuffles which I discovered and learnt many years ago when my tanker was rescued in thick ice by an icebreaker north of Stockholm and it took us  hours to get free and shuffle into the wake of the icebreaker ahead.

Slowly we crunched down to the lock and out into free water as dawn came apon us. The decks were very slippery so every movement had to be thought about before doing it and all the lines were like steel rods to handle.

Due to LW springs 0.7M  this weekend being at the time I needed to be going over Chicester Bar, I had arranged to leave on Friday. Friday came with no wind and not a little fog so it was going to be mostly motoring towards Portsmouth. However on departing Chichester Marina I found I had no throttle control or engine power above tickover.  So we had to return to base with the Skipper at the Wheel (your scribe) shouting Half Ahead, Dead Slow etc at the acting Chief Engineer inside the cabin (Andy Chatterton) who then leant in over the fanbelt and water pipes at 90C to pull on the throttle the required amount. We thus returned to the berth and tied up, the FC for this weekend having lasted a little under two hours.

Weather forecasts had indicated winds would be light, this was welcomed by Ronhilda was it would allow us to get over Chichester Bar at near LW ebb on a big tide. The start and course had been moved this year West to somewhere near the Casquets as our Commodore put it, so it was a 5am alarm call to get the crew ready and able. Only 1 - 2 knots proved the forecast correct but visability of less than 50m was not on the wish list. Not to worry, we simply used the tried and trusted bearing and distance run method to get us between navigation marks slowly down the harbour in the dark and fog  - Chart plotters being  deemed works of the devil on Ronhilda and banned.

Places did not really matter anyway, the main detail of the day was that a fantastic nearly £20,000 was raised by 40 yachts having a great sail in the sun.

Ronhilda came 7th in her class out of 10, which considering we were concentrating on bacon sarnies rather than spinnakering was not too bad. ( well thats my excuse anyway)

The actual places were decided by multiplying cash pledges by class position so we dropped down as some people had over £3,000 pledged on their yacht  - an amazing  amount and I really take my hat off to them.

Pictures of the day including Ronhilda lazing around can be found on

http://www.instantmemories.co.uk/AlbumDescription.aspx?AID=3576&CId=20.

event code is CYC12

Brian

After what must be described as a disappointing summer when the weather was rubbish – and on top of that I had to fit another propeller to Ronhilda - August and September came as a relief and she has seen some sailing at last.

Last Saturday saw calm seas, clear skies and east winds which was good news as Ronhilda was entered into the St Wilfrid's challenge which sees a wide range of yacht sizes and shapes sailing from Chichester Bar to Nab and back to raise money for the hospice.