Last night gung ho crews arrived for the holiday weekend regatta. In the evening sunshine they laid their plans for the racing to come. (I took some more pictures too and added them to yesterdays 'Nationale Feestdagen' Blog, by the way)
It was the lull before the storm. Today a fresh gale blows. Waves break clean over the outer harbour mole and a veil of salt spume mists the air.
Sailing craft (any craft) great or small, remain in the relative shelter of the habour. They dance and stagger at their moorings, lines groan, waves slap and halyards chime on masts. There's a sibilant wind-whistle in the skies, pierced by periodic banshee shrieks in the larger gusts.
Groups of fully liveried, colour coded, race crews pace the windswept quayside disconsolately.
They preen and primp their harbour bound charges, to disperse their pent up competitive energy. Eager for regatta racing to commence
Aboard Stargazer, I passage plan, rocked by the gale. Tomorrow the winds are due to fall light, from the south. Then stay light and go north from Monday. Light enough that we'll need to carry the cruising chute to make progress - which means that we have to be on a reach (with the wind coming from the side). The logic of the weather therefore dictates that we head west. Probably the 120 mile (24 hour) passage to the Orwell.
Stargazer bides her time, on the outside of our international raft. We'll reassess the sea state and forecasts in the morning. Our Dutch neighbour reckons that tomorrow the wind will be very light and the sea still rolly (a bad combination for keeping the sails full enough for progress) - with Monday into Tuesday the better option for a crossing.
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