Unfortunately, an old friend of the Skipper's died last week and his funeral is in Nottingham on Wednesday, so we changed our plan (once again). On Saturday we sailed from St Valery en Caux to Fecamp. this morning (Sunday 19th) we were rudely awoken by our alarm clock at 5:30am with the intention of sailing to Brighton, so that we could make our way home and onwards to the funeral.
The trip is 65 miles and in our little boat would take somewhere between 13-15 hours. So we were more interested than usual in the weather forecast as we would be out in it for sometime and quite a long way from land.
With dreary eyes, we scanned all the weather forecasts we could find.
- XC Weather said SW F4 sometimes F5.
- Meteo (for the local French area) said SW F3-4 sea state moderate.
- Shipping Forecast said SW F5-7 sea state moderate to rough.
We have never really sailed in much more than a F5 sea state moderate and have no real wish to try out anything heavier in a boat as light as Bugsy.
What was slightly more frustrating, was that at the time, the sun was shining and there was just a gentle breeze blowing. We were even hailed by a froggie French man on a Beneteau 31.7 who asked us if we wanted to go out racing with them. We didn't, we went back to bed.
All eyes today will be on the actual observations from the Greenwich light ship to see which forecast was correct. Results will be posted below:
As it happened:
06:00 W F5 (18Knots) Wave Height 0.2M
07:00 W F5 (20Knots) Wave Height 0.2M
08:00 SW F5 (17Knots) Wave Height 0.3M
09:00 W F5 (19Knots) Wave Height 0.3M
10:00 SW F6 (22Knots) Wave Height 0.4M
11:00 SW F6 (23Knots) Wave Height 0.5M
12:00 SW F5 (18Knots) Wave Height 0.8M
13:00 SW F4 (15Knots) Wave Height 1.0M
14:00 SW F5 (20Knots) Wave Height 0.8M
15:00 SW F5 (20Knots) Wave Height 0.5M
16:00 SW F5 (19Knots) Wave Height 0.5M
17:00 SW F5 (18Knots) Wave Height 0.5M
Now that's what I call F5-6 and moderate, I've seen more rough in a Woking nightclub. Oh well, let's see what the forecast is tomorrow. Apparently, at the moment they're forecasting the same, should we stay or should we go?
Who knows?
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