Sailing in Cowes Week - 03 - Day 1
“Are you free for Cowes Week?” Matt asked me after finishing last in the Royal Household Regatta.
The Sonar Fleet crossing the start line (we were last as usual).
Day 1: Saturday.
“The wind that took its time to build, and kept everyone on their toes as they tried to get the first starts off from the Squadron line. At 13:00 the breeze seemed to be building as forecast, and at 13:24 call was made to lower the AP.”
The winds were light so sailing was postponed for a couple of hours. When the race finally go going, there was a build up of boats in the Solent. We seemed to spend all our time avoiding yachts and ferries (car and passenger). Just as the wind died, Red Funnel ferry was waiting for us to get out of the way when the harbour master came up to us. I quickly said “please could you blow into our sails, we are trying honest”. It worked, they laughed. Luckily a gust of wind helped us to get out of their way.
Sailing on the Solent is not easy due to commercial shipping
The racing started but the cannons went BANG BANG making me jump out of my skin. That signalled postponement of the first race because the boats had started before they were meant to. Repeat this several times for the next few classes. What seemed like forever, we finally we got the 5 min warning cannon. Great, we can start at last, when BANG BANG our class was postponed yet again due to a massive cargo ship entering the waters.
Firing one of the cannons at the start line
These container ships have that much momentum that they won’t stop for nothing! Akin to trains, they just can’t stop quicky and hitting one is not an option either!
Large container ship enters the Solent
Eventually we started 3 hours after the official start time.
We headed towards Gurnard without any issues then across the Solent to the mainland. Then a spinnaker run, down towards the next mark. We were flying along the Solent, wind and tide behind us, when all of a sudden a massive container ship crossed directly in front of us.
One of the many container ships heading towards Southampton
Ouch we don’t have any brakes on this boat! Our skipper professionally steers around the stern and we headed for the next buoys on the course.
No issues until two cruise ships decide to head out from Southampton. This time we were well clear of them but they generated a large wake akin to riding on a roller coaster. Not long after we finished the race in our usual position – LAST.
Cruise ships coming out of Southampton