For once it is with reasonable confidence that one can predict a good day’s sailing. The dying gasps of the filling (now 996mb) low formerly known as Hurricane Alex will provide winds out of the south, backing south-east today. Despite the word ‘hurricane’ we’re talking a wheeze, nothing much greater than 15 knots, perhaps a little less, by this afternoon. At the moment there’s a consistent 4-5 knots out of the south in the central Solent.

It does come at a price though. The death throes of Alex are not altogether gracious, thanks to a series of accompanying troughs and some showers can be expected, particularly towards the evening.

As of tomorrow? Well it appears to be good news again. The current synoptic charts show the low at 998mb and centred a little to the west of Lands End, moving east towards the Bristol Channel at lunchtime, providing definite possibilities of a reasonable south-easterly breeze, especially earlier in the day, before it veers more westerly.

Friday and Saturday look less easy to call as the low effectively falls apart and the whole British Isles area becomes quite complex, and relatively slack. Winds out of the western sector seem most likely and that should prove interesting on east-going tide starts.