Tuesday, March 13, 2007

The Farnes

So in the quest to sail closer to the kettle we dabbled again with the dark side, the type of sailing where the kettle can come too. If I fitted a gas ring on the mirror will I need a boat safety cert? What about class rules? Well the first choice went wrong. We would have been OK on plan A: going for a sail on Fri. night, but when we arrived at Hartlepoool it did seem a good idea to stay put. We were off early on Sat heading south towards the Farnes; 3hrs 15 min later we passed the entrance to Whitby. This is rumored to be a record for Black Diamond – I bet they say that to everybody. By now it was getting a bit wet and it wasn’t rain. We had a bit of a sail south of Whitby trying to find a bit of shelter and then motored in to Whitby as soon as we had enough water, a short wait for the bridge and then into the marina . The most important discovery Sat night was that very expensive fish and chips taste like the cheap ones but you have to queue up to get them. Sunday was a very pleasant return trip. I am just glad we didn’t sail into Kafiga landing that would have been daft. So we still have the unfinished task of finding the Farnes. If you fancy this then please get in touch, we might be able to book another weekend before Black Diamond leaves for a summer in the Baltic and points north. Thanks to all who sailed; what other sailing club would provide a driver for those who are getting a bit past it and are not capable of driving themselves? You should see how Stephen tackles mini roundabouts just brilliant.

by Tim

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Force Eight

Tim really has decided to go for wind in a big way for his trips this year with forty-five knots on Saturday. However, we all enjoyed the trip and had a wonderful, if wet, sail. Here are a few pictures; hope that Tim will provide a proper write-up soon.



More photographs in the Flickr Gallery

Going through the bridge at Whitby

Direct link to video

Many, many thanks to Tim for organising the trip. Thank also to Skipper Cal and all Sailing Northeast. Oh, and thank you Ronwen for the fruit cake!
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 License.