Lexia

Video clips of Cardiff trip: http://blip.tv/lexia-uk/

Just got a Navex! I have can get weather on the VHF, nice to have it on demand though..

A £40 bargain 🙂

The forecast for the Sunday sail back looked pretty ominious with a North Easterly 4-5 Occasional 6. We anticipated a really lumpy sea and an unpleasant motor into the wind.

However..

The forecast was wrong, the sea was pretty flat, and we had a decent sail. We had 20 knots over the deck, but I always felt comfortable. I was a little bit slower on the way back, but was still managing about 4knots.

Arriving in Cardiff we were met by members of CYC who helped us moor up.

One of them was a familiar face; Pascal who sold me the sail for Lexia. It was good to catch up with him and he gave me some good advice about how to stop my sheet twisting. He is one of only two others that sail a junk in the Bristol Channel.

The rally was good fun with decent food, beer and entertainment

So I finally got the boat into some kind of shape and did a ‘proper’ trip. The Electrics were still blowing fuses at 11pm the night before, and I slept late and had no time to stow anything away properly..

We headed downwind to Cardiff with a North Easterly wind behind us. This is a tricky point of sail for a bermudan rig, but one where the junk rig really excels. I was soon outpacing 3o-40ft boats that must have cost 10X what Lexia set me back 🙂

20 sea miles later and we locked into Cardiff

Sailed up river and back.. very nice

Finally I was ready to take her out down river.