The Westerley that tried to go in.

We sailed a little further out than usual today. Being able to see sidmouth put us in a slightly different breeze than we're used to. Previously the windward mark may have been further in to Seaton giving us an array of shifts coming off the caravan site and out of Beer. Going that bit further exposed us to a more consistent breeze coming down the coast in well defined bands. Combined with the strong tide under our transoms, things usually felt better on the left (seaward side) of the course.

However, there were plenty of holes (some of which were unavoidable) and some patches of breeze on the right coming out of Beer. Because they were coming out of Beer I felt that they probably wouldn't last as long despite the favourable headings because of the shelter of the cliffs. As ever, it was pressure that was king. If you could pick the darkest side of the course early on and called it right, generally things were ok. Generally, if I couldn't decide what was looking good when I came round the leeward mark I went left looking for pressure.

On the speed side of things, the increased chop in the exposed course area meant that a bit of leeward heel was quite quick in the worse bits, especially when the wind dropped! Making use of the waves to get low on the reaches was only really possible when the breeze filled in. So when it did, I wasn't afraid of steering big angles to get going down the front and then heading up as soon as the ride ran out. The only other ingredient was a bit of luck when it got tricky!