HCC Evening Session

As I needed to have a chat with Gordon regarding a trip I'm planning, I decided to meet Gordon down at the Royal Northern and Clyde Yacht Club (RNCYC) at the Tuesday Evenings club session. Rather than faff about with putting the roof rack on the car, loading my boat etc I decided it was probably quicker to just paddle down from my house. As usual I called KHM and told them of my intensions and asked if there would be any vessel movements this evening.

I made really good time to the RNCYC, as I had the tide with me, along with a following wind and swell. Normally these are the speeds I see when paddling the Taran, not the Romany! I had a slight complication passing all the yachts, who were all jockeying for position for the start of their race. With one woman getting a bit huffy shouting "but we are about to race". Well yes, but that isn't my problem I thought, "I've as much right to be here you chicken". All the other boats simply smiled, waved, and even said "hello". We worked together altering our courses to avoid any collisions. Simples.

Gordon was running a skills session, which to be honest wasn't what I was hoping for. So having chatted to Gordon and sat around for a bit, demonstrating some techniques (probably quite badly), I left them to it and headed for home.

On my return I was slap bang into the swell, tide and wind, which took me more or less across to the far side of Gare Loch. I know from experience when the wind comes from the NW, the water ion that side of the Loch is much quieter. I felt like I was going nice and fast, but looking back at the GPS log afterwards, I was only managing to make 2 mph! It was a bit of a slog. When I passed "Barreman", the house on the opposite side of Gare Loch to my house, I started to make the crossing home.

When approaching the slipway near my house, and I've noticed this a few times now, the outgoing tide, is a lot stronger in that area of the Loch. You suddenly find your self drifting southwards from your transits as you approach the slipway. You need to correct for this otherwise you will end up missing the slipway.

Fab!

4.5 nm  2 hour 30 minutes