SELENE - CAPTAINS LOG

November / December 2006

Ocean Village with Malcolm & Mave, 4 November

Julia hadn’t been well, so Malcolm, Mave & I took Selene round to Ocean Village on a flat calm, and sunny Saturday. This was the first test of the work Malcolm had done on the auto-helm, and it worked brilliantly! Well done, and thanks to Malcolm.

We had a fairly uneventful trip, apart from Malcolm dodging the racers of Gilkicker when I was trying to make coffee!

Look - no hands!!!!!

Julia came by car and we ate on-board. Sunday morning, we had a walk around Southampton, followed by lunch at the club - fabulous.

I then settled into living on Selene for five days, whilst I did the Yachtmaster Shore based Certificate. Very hard work!!!!

Ocean Village to Beaulieu with Graham, 14 November

The original plan was for us to take the boat to Beaulieu on Thursday and the girls to join us, but the weather forecast on Monday persuaded me to move the boat Tuesday, and for us all to go by car on the Thursday, and then stay overnight on Selene as planned.

Graham and I had cars to position, and errands, so we didn’t leave OV until 1200, which meant we ate some tide from Calshot. We were able to sail down Southampton Water in 6-7, but it got very strong off Fawley. We shortened from double reef and jib to just jib, and then motored from Calshot as we had wind and tide on the nose.

Gins Beaujolais evening, 16 November

Nice evening, spoiled a bit by the buffet running out of food. Enough said. Sit down meals only in future.

Beaulieu to Lymington, 17 November

Aly & Graham left and Julia and I battled up to 40.5 winds with wind and tide against us so that we could be in Lymington. We arrived just before the rain, which absolutely pelted down. We stayed in the Yacht Haven, and when it cleared had a walk into Lymington. We had a drink in town, and at the Yacht Club and then ate on board.

Lymington to Haslar, 18 November

The original plan was for us to take the boat to Haslar Sunday, but there appeared to be a weather window Saturday afternoon, so we did the market and went to Haslar a day early. The sun came out, and we had to motor-sail to make good time, before more bad weather set in. We saw a pair of rainbows as we approached Haslar, but stayed dry. We got onto a finger pontoon in the visitors’ area, which was to be our home for a couple of weeks.

We went to Gunwharf and ate at Café Rouge. Had a lazy sunny Sunday morning and came home Sunday afternoon.

Haslar to Haslar, 25 November

I went down to fit the new batten cars, to improve hoisting and lowering the mainsail. Got there and had a few hours of sunshine between the very strong winds and squalls. I popped into the office, and Ben and Paul were there, and Ben very kindly offered me F24, which I jumped at, and Paul offered to crew me round.

Motored the boat round with Paul - (Thank you very much Paul) and I slotted Selene into a new home, at least for a couple of months. (We’ll get a permanent home nearer April)

I then fitted the batten cars, just before the weather really broke. Can’t wait to use them, but the wind was 35 knots through Haslar, so I wasn’t raising the sail!