Easter sea trip

 Well it's slowly warming up so we've just recently had our first proper trip of the year - not too far but still nice to get out of the Exe. 


With exams coming up I made the most of my 2 weeks off school spending some quality time with my boat and getting re-familiarized with the bilges. 


On Easter Sunday me and Falanda left the river alongside my parents on 'Karuna', after a night on the boats at Turf. We then beat into the wind for a couple of hours before arriving in Brixham. 


In Brixham we had the luxury of being alongside a pontoon with access to running water so I made the most of this by cleaning out my water tanks, giving the  topsides a quick scrub and cleaning the bilges. Being based in the muddy River Exe, Falanda's bilges end up being lined with a thin but disgusting layer of mud that I occasionally get the privilege of removing.


The wind blew pretty hard that night and Falanda was literally being blown onto the pontoon. By morning the forecast was predicting 36ish kts of wind so dad's crew jumped ship leaving the two of us to sail back home. As we first left the harbour I raised the double reefed main and with that alone Falanda was overpowered, making our sail across Torbay rather exciting in the fog and pouring rain. 


After rounding Hope's Nose the wind dropped off a little and the sky cleared up. I put a bit of headsail out and we had a cracking sail back to the Exe. 


A couple of days later we left again heading just to Teignmouth, this time there was a bit more swell and a consistent breeze pushing Falanda at around 7 kts. We easily kept up with my dad on his Rival 34 so I was quite pleased with that. 


Coming into Teignmouth was just slightly terrifying with breaking waves at the stern and ground speeds briefly touching 10kts, against the outgoing tide. Dropping the sail and mooring up was a bit stressful with numb hands and I was left thoroughly wet for the last part of my birthday.


Thankfully most things had dried off by the next morning and I was lucky enough to be treated to breakfast by Morgan-GilesHeritage JaneShaddick. Jane is the granddaughter of Morgan Giles, the designer and builder of my boat and she has very recently finished writing up his biography. The book is available on Amazon and even contains some pages on the lovely Falanda.


After breakfast we headed back off to sea with both a very impressive new book, and crew! The wind and sea had calmed down completely much to my crew's disappointment and we ended up having a rather civilized sail back to Topsham.


Sailing alongside 'Karuna'




Two rather untidy reefs in the main


Turning into quite a nice day


Leaving the Exe



View from Karuna


Coming in at Teignmouth




Leaving Teignmouth


The two boats at Brixham on Easter Sunday



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