Considering that it is still the sailing season, it is astonishing that I've not been able to sail on Naiad for just over three months. Either I've not been here when the weather was suitable or I have been here but the weather was unsuitable.

Today, however, that changed. I'm here and the weather is suitable, for a change. As soon as I finished work I packed a few things and drove down to the club, made a cup of tea (Huzzah. No longer on the diet), prepared Naiad and then set off down river.

The wind was a little fickle to start mostly due to the turbulence from the club buildings, and the surrounding trees, but once clear of that I had a good time beating down river. As you can see from the photo above, the sky is blue, the wind light. You can't see it in the photo but the was also temperature warm.

A view on the same tack but down river instead of up.

The sails have suffered greatly from not being used these last three months. I do have a piece of light canvas that I use as a sail cover mainly to keep the ultraviolet rays during the Summer from damaging the sails, but the canvas is not waterproof so the rain gets it. The result, as you can see, is lots of green on the sails. They will need to be well washed and dried this Winter.

I sailed down river for about two hours before turning back for the club. The way back was mostly a run so both headsails were furled and I sailed under mainsail alone. The turbulence from trees and the bank did cause the wind to shift on occasion, but nothing traumatic.

The view astern. You can see that the wind has dropped from when the prior photo looking this way was taken, but that is the forecast for the day, so I think I turned about at trust the right time.

I sailed down river until I had just reached this landmark, a huge stack of straw bales. You can see it on the online maps:

Latitude & Longtitude: 52°32'01.5"N 0°21'40.1"E

Decimal Latitude & Longtitude: 52.533738, 0.361151

Google Plus code: G9M6+FF Southery

What3Words code: ///strutting.glimmers.silence

Still, Once I had reached this point I turned back.

The wind was light enough on the return trip for me to be able to hold my iPhone and take a short video clip. I really must charge the other video cameras and start using them again.