Minster Windsurf Academy

SHEPPEY CRUISER DAY

A breezy day at Sheppey - Organised by the SEAVETS.

STARTING SAILORS 

John Granville, Richard Williams and Joe Coulson, with Gill Coulson providing a back up at Leysdown, and Harty Ferry.

ON THE BEACH

Early on Wednesday the forecast for Thursday was for force six at 10 am dropping to force four by 4 pm; later forecasts gave force four to five throughout the day so we resolved to go to Sheppey and decide what to do when we saw local conditions.

SETTING OFF

On shore, the wind seemed not too great so we set off on the 9 miles to Leysdown. This was a dead run against the tide and the wind soon got up to a strong four and above. After about 3 miles, John came off and later reported that the wind just kept increasing in strength. Joe and Richard waited before Warden point, but we could see John beating back to Scrapsgate, and so decided to go on to Leysdown . Warden point was difficult with large standing waves and gusting winds. Arms were stretched as we were still running and unable to hook in. After a short stop and conference at Leysdown we decided to go on to Harty Ferry. Now we were on a reach with the wind getting up to a good five. Unfortunately we cut the corner a bit too fine at Shellness and hit a hidden shingle bank shallows at high speed. Richard catapulted and Joe’s skeg ripped off but we were OK with just a couple of bruises. We waded ashore at Shellness to a private estate and were welcomed with a cup of tea by some jobbing Builders. After a call to John he came along to lend Joe his Fanatic and pick up the wrecked F2 380.

Joe and Richard then set off beating against the tide toward Harty Ferry. The choice was go in shore to get smaller waves and risk grounding or go out into the main channel and risk tacking in the large standing waves and greater tide against. This section was about 5 miles and we were sailing quickly in a force five but still took 45 minutes to complete. Distance through the water was made greater by the five knot tide and the constant tacking. Gill and John were waiting at Harty ferry and we joined them for the traditional beer with Fish and Chips lunch.

Despite earlier delays we were only 15 minutes behind the schedule set by Norman Haddon for optimum use of the tides for the rounding so we set off after lunch to beat up the 7 miles to Kingsferry bridge. Now the tacks were shorter, the tide stronger and the waves even bigger. Fortunately the wind held for most of the way at a good four to five and we arrived at the bridge in good time to be met by John with a cup of tea.

The wind dropped to a three at the bridge but we were keen to finish and carried on. The tide was now helping (thank you Norman), we managed a short reach, turned the corner to Queenborough and then after 4 miles, set off into the Medway. The wind got up again to a four giving us a broad reach for the 2 miles to the fort at the mouth of the Medway, This area was very busy with container ships and barges and we waited for a while for things to clear before making a quick dash across the shipping channel. We now turned for the final 3 mile run to Scrapsgate. Both of us collected large quantities of weed on the skeg which made arms even more tired. Joe cleared his weed after falling off and then made good progress back to the starting point at Scrapsgate some 20 minutes ahead of schedule.

Distance over the ground was 30 miles but made much greater by running and tacking against the tide. Sailing time was about four and a half hours with three and a half hours taken for stops (Lunch, Tea, damage). 21 miles were against tide and 9 miles with.

DONE IT!

HATS OF TO YOU GUYS... WELL DONE.!