4th July towards Germany…..

I was greeted to a dreich morning, with little wind and what there was being from the South. The forecast showed little wind for the day and that being from the SW. I weighed anchor and motored South whilst setting full sail, as we cleared the anchorage it looked like the wind was indeed going to the SW and  in a few minutes we were sailing close hauled on the starboard tack in the right direction. By the time I’d had breakfast the wind was up to 12 knots and I put a reef in the main  and soon after with 15-18 kts I’d put in the second reef  in  both the main and genoa. The wind was allowing me to hold my course for a waypoint off Dornbusch in Germany. There is a big windfarm in the way and I was planning to Skirt this to windward before freeing off a few degrees. As I was writing my blog the sails started flapping as the wind had backed and I had to head down some degrees  which was boring as I’d now have to tack. As the batteries were a bit low anyway I cheated and started the engine and went up to the original heading which, with the help of the engine she could hold fine. I noticed that one of the lazy jacks had been pulled off the stack pack - whilst reefing the flogging reefing line had tangled up with it and then pulled it into the sheave on the boom so as I had tightened the reef line it must have pulled off the eye on the stack pack. There was nothing to do with it now so I left it for the time being. The wind kept on increasing,  and had veered again so I could stop the engine, the wind was building as was the sea. We were often now getting 25 - 30 knots and were banging a bit in the sea. After one big wave threw us down there was a big bang from down below and one of the hatch covers, which has it’s own stowage beside the hatch, was thrown onto the deck. I’d got got fully dressed into fisherman’s oilskins by now. I went below to sort it out, as I arrived on the cabin sole the boat lurched, I grabbed the vertical post at the corner of the sink but was thrown slightly against it and felt my glasses, which I wear around my neck on a bit of string, break. One lens was whizzing around the cabin sole. I secured the hatchboard and went back up on deck. As we were only about a quarter of the way to Germany by now, and I’m supposed to be on holiday, I thought  I’d give up and turn around and go back to anchor. It was a bit of a shame because I may not make it to Germany now but doesn’t really matter. I tacked and came round onto the reciprocal course and we whizzed along up to about 9 knots with well reefed sails and the wind now just abaft the beam. We arrived back at the overnight anchorage just after 1200 but I thought it may be more sheltered a bit further on so we carried on past a little fishing port and dropped anchor around 1300.

It was far calmer here and I spent the afternoon sewing the eye back onto the stackpack and untangling the reefing line and lazy jack from the boom sheave.

I had also had instructions on how to strip the small Lewmar 30 winches aft which involved, as I had suspected but not had the courage to pursue without more belief that it was correct, thumping the self tailing bit anti clockwise until it unscrewed and came off. I spent most of the afternoon servicing the winch and, having taken some chicken thighs out of the freeezer also made a chicken paprika and pepper stewy thing and a chicken and mushroom pie  fillling. I may make some pastry or may buy some if I find a supermarket. - I have enough flour but only just and no lard.

In the evening I had a good few hands of bridge with Katharine and Martin, having had some paprika chicken for dinner.