Ad Lib 43

Sudden thundery downdrafts tax a windsurfer's reflexes, off Hamworthy Park. The board skipping, across eerily lit waters, on the ragged edge of control.

He sheets in, powering on, in level flight once more. As hailstones rattle down, like staccato bursts of machine gun fire.

White horses fill the harbour channel. Whilst tethered yachts tug restively at their moorings, off the beaches of Brownsea Island.

Stargazer's skipper retires below decks, for some passage planning. Optimistic that the still plunging barometer, racing clouds and intervening spells of hot sunshine, herald the arrival of a southbound weather window (see Ad Lib 42).

On the Quay, the police launch reels. Caught by a hammer blow gust, as she swings alongside.

A swift application of power, from the helm, together helping hands, from the shore, combine to salvage the situation.

Ad Lib 42

A falling barometer, plus the full sunshine and showers treatment, signals a change in the weather. And, with it, wind direction. The recent run of northeasterlies may have been chilly, but they have suited Starzgazer's direction of travel. Which is variously south and west.

Our trusty Meteo Consult app keeps us in touch with what is likely to happen, wind-wise, on a daily basis. 

But, in a shifting synoptic situation, it pays to understand why the changes are occurring. For which Stargazer's skipper turns to the BBC Weather Outlook.

As pressure systems jockey, it seems that they will pull the wind round from north (favourable), through west (favourable and fast) to south (headwind). Where it will settle. Stargazer must set sail, from English mainland shores, before they do so. 

If, that is, a suitable window can be found. Thursday into Friday, which we had been monitoring (see Ad Lib 40), is now forecast for thirty plus knots of northerly breeze. Too much of a good thing. For Saturday into Sunday, a promising sixteen knot westerly is currently predicted. Albeit Stargazer would have to stem an adverse tide off the Casquets, for several hours. If she is to clear 'pot buoy alley,' off Anvil Point, before dusk. There being no moon on the night of a peak spring tide.

Picture Credits

Guernsey forecast screenshort courtesy of Meteo Consult

Weather Outlook screenshots courtesy of BBC Weather

Ad Lib 41

 

Search parties patrol Poole Quay. Dressed in full foul weather gear.

Where the towering TS Royalist and Pip Hare's foil-shorn IMOCA once lay (see Ad Lib 39), there is a space. Empty, save for a white fishing catamaran. The two crowd pleasing sailing craft missing.

AIS (Automatic Identification System) tracking places Royalist in Salcombe. But yields no results for Pip's boat. Speculation fills the information vacuum: Relocation to a cheaper berth? Refitting, elsewhere, to enter the Route du Rhum race? An offer, too good to be refused, accepted?

Time will tell. Meanwhile, RNLI teams genially scour the pavement cafes. Collection buckets in hand.

Ad Lib 40

The misty mauve undulations, of the Purback hills, fill the horizon. Emerald green scrub rises from crescents of silver sand. And the Wareham channel weaves its way sinuously upstream. 

Past the old Flying Boat jetties, at Dorset Lake. Where the Special Boat Squadron (SBS) base nestles improbably amongst beachside bungalows. "No photography allowed." Not even by the all-seeing-eye of Google Street View.

A quiet and intimate spot in which to contemplate Stargazer's next move. Sheltered from today's forty knot blast. Which will be followed by several days of light airs. The tides, all the while, moving from neaps to springs and advancing by an hour per day.

From Poole (A) to either the head of the Alderney Race (B) or the Casquets (C) is around twelve hours of sailing, for Stargazer. In order to continue to St Peter Port (D), we need the tide to turn south-going on arrival. This is more critical in the Race, where spring flows are five to seven knots, than off the Casquets where the tide rates are slightly less extreme.

Over the (too) windy weekend, just past, the tides have turned south between sixteen and eighteen hundred. Perfect timing, for a dawn departure from Poole and an evening arrival in St Peter Port. 

It is likely to be the second half of this week, before the breeze has rested and returned refreshed. By then, the tide will be turning south at around ten in the morning and twenty three hundred at night. 

The question is, how to harness the later tide timings to Stargazer's purpose?

The answer: an overnight passage, to catch the morning turn of the tide. Most likely at the Casquets. Where we might make some progress (or, at least not be swept backwards) if arriving early. Departing Poole and clearing the, pot buoy strewn, Anvil point before dusk. Benefitting from daylight, by the time we encounter shipping entering or leaving the Casquets Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS). 

Unless the forecast should shift once more. In this most mercurial of transitions from spring to summer.

Picture Credits

Isle of Wight to Guernsey passage planning chart courtesy of the United Kingdom Hydrography Office (UKHO)

Long range forecast screenshot courtesy of the metoffice.gov.uk

Ad Lib 39

Training Ship Royalist takes pride of place on the Poole waterfront. Sheltering from today’s brisk breeze.

Supplanting Pip Hare's IMOCA from the prime spot. Her boat symbolically shorn of foils. Which are strapped to the foredeck.

Pip has been without sponsorship, since her Southern Ocean dismasting, in the 2024 Vendee Globe race. All available funds were exhausted in shipping the stricken craft home. No further financing, with which to launch a 2028 Vendee Globe challenge, has, so far, been found. In these uncertain times, of 'strong men' (swollen machismo?) and world financial insecurity.

Conditions which, one might have supposed, would not suit a builder of superyachts. However Sunseeker, despite another change in corporate ownership, seems to be thriving.

This stroll, along Poole Quay, thus suggesting that the prevailing principals, of global economics, are similar to those of a game of Snakes & Ladders.

Picture Credits

Southern Ocean jury rig picture courtesy of Pip Hare Ocean Racing.

Ad Lib 38

 A tale of two dogs and a cat, replaces that of Stargazer’s planned passage. The dawn forecast check revealing wind speeds rising to 25 knots, in the Alderney Race (Raz Blanchard), by evening. Too much for comfort. Albeit the tide timings are perfect. 

“That Doggie, In The Window” of the Poole inshore lifeboat station (no indication given as to “how much,” or whether “for sale”), is cleverly crafted from cast off yellow RNLI deck boots.

Perhaps the curriculum, of the Lifeboat College, is broader than its name suggests?

Meanwhile, the cat in question is concealed in a quiet corner of the Cobbs Quay boatyard. Evidently named by an aficionado of Hoyt Axton's 1979 Country hit "Della and the Dealer."

"It was Della and the Dealer and a dog named Jake

And a cat named Kalamazoo

Left the city in a pickup truck

Gonna make some dreams come true. . . ."

Canine companion, Jake, subsequently coming in for a cursory mention.

". . .If that cat could talk what tales he'd tell

About Della and the Dealer and the dog, as well

But the cat was cool, and never said a mumblin' word. . ."

Ad Lib 37

 Come to Poole Quay, for a day, to help you work rest and play. To misquote the iconic Mars strap line.

Simply saunter in the sunshine.

Or perhaps, “row, row, row your boat gently down the stream. . . . 

. . . .merrily, merrily, merrily, for life is but a dream."

A repair team, replacing work-worn timbers on the Quay wall, takes a break. Admiring the view.

On the opposite shore, an industrious Sunseeker commissioning crew are, in quick succession; launching, stripping protective wrappers and system testing engines and thrusters.

Before sounding a single long blast, on imperious air horns, and casting off for sea trials.