We had a nice surprise on our last sail out of Whitehaven in the Irish Sea. I was trying to get video of how we use the spinnaker launching, etc. all from the cockpit to show a friend, when we had a visit from some dolphins. Luckily the camera was rolling although it is a wide angle one. Anyway, here is the video. As an aside we tried our first tack with the spinnaker up, it was a breeze!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99eryBTxLVA
Sailing down wind out of the fog-
https://youtube.com/shorts/TAAhd832fjk?si=51ZsjRA5ZE_cEibG
A couple of videos for the new year. I think 2024 is going to be an interesting one for us. We have decided to try out a berth on Derwent water in the English Lake District, approximately 3 miles by 1 mile and surrounded by mountains.
Anyway, our last summer sail out of Whitehaven https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqUdX3OcdHk
and a late October sail https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnHplMljGNE
All the best to you Freedom lovers.
Lifting our Freedom 21 in Whitehaven a few weeks ago. Now the is in the drive waiting for some decent weather to try to get my keels properly primed and antifouled. My last attempt seems to have rusted off.
https://youtu.be/mI1ZYuja6gQ
Next season we will launch on Derwent water in the Lake District.
Had Rockin on the drive in Shropshire over the winter for maintenance and a few improvements. I installed a new magneto electronic speed log and replaced the mast head plate, which was rotting. We trailed Rockin up to the lake district last month and rigged and launched her. Sailing on Derwent water is very scenic but the winds are very changeable. Here is a video sailing there in 2 to 18 knots of wind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrlLQS7umJc
I have just posted another video of sailing our Freedom 21 on Derwent Water. It’s a demonstration of the use of the gunmount spinnaker pole. I hope it shows how painless the spinnaker handling is.
Drake’s Bay 35 nm N SF gate - about 2 weeks ago. Me with crew - whales like crazy, phosphorescent sea, manta rays. No other boats anchored there. Sea grass took about an hour to clean off the anchor rode in the morning.
If anyone is interested, here are a couple of links to videos of sailing our freedom 21 on Derwent water. In both cases in a very fickle wind, ranging from absolute calm to gusts of 20knts and above.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76Erbvic5M0
Some more videos of our Freedom 21 sailing on Derwent water in the Lake District. The first was a single-handed sail I had while the kids were paddle boarding, not very exciting but my first attempt of sailing single handed in the F21
Then the last sail of the summer…
And a last sail before we hauled out at the end of October. This was quite an exciting sail. We had 30-35knts on our downwind leg.