We gave ourselves a whole week to enjoy the journey, and to ensure that we would make it. Starting on Wednesday afternoon, we brought Mahaskah down to deep water at Itchenor and tied up at the visitors' pontoon.
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| "Give us a biscuit, go on" |
The following morning, as we waited for the wind to pick up, it was from the north, The forecast we were hoping for was Easterly.
It was almost cloudless and very light wind, but we were keen to start. Just west of the West Pole Beacon we lost the wind and with sails flapping in a desultory way, had our first lunch of homemade pasties.
Unable to bear the non-start, we put the engine on and motored towards Horse Sands Fort.
Unable to bear the non-start, we put the engine on and motored towards Horse Sands Fort.
By three, there was some wind from the east, and we were overtaken by last night's neighbours from Itchenor, who, with better sense, had waited longer and got a good sail.
After a pause for a cup of tea, we took advantage of the easterly wind and pressed on to Cowes.
From the busy harbour we motored south along the Medina, spotted Gyspy Moth IV, on our way to the famous pub and Restaurant with moorings, The Folly.
We had a reasonable meal and enjoyable evening while a single guitarist, and his backing tapes, entertained with rock music from the 70s. Towards the end of the evening, some young people in colourful clothing and dreadlocks sat at the table next to us. They brought a faint whiff of woodsmoke. They sat together, ordered drinks and some food, applauded the music and were unobtrusive, although noticable amongst the mainly middle aged boatie types.
When the Landlord joined them and sat talking we felt that he was displaying a congenial inclusivity.
However, as we left, we passed by them, now on the terrace, and they told us he'd asked them to move outside because their smell was offensive!! This took a bit of shine off the evening and we resolved to mention it next night.
Throughout the evening, texts had been flying around from the TOA, the upshot of it was that the Rally would be cancelled due to poor forecasts for the weekend. Although this was disappointing, we put into action an alternative plan: to visit John's old friend A and his family in Newport.
Friday.
A and R would meet us for a drink later at the Folly.
Meanwhile we would see what the sailing looked like in the Solent.
Tides are a big consideration, they can get as strong as 4 knots in some places at certain times,so for us, with a maximum speed of 6 knots under sail, and probably less with the engine, the possibility of not arriving at the pre ordained destination is quite real. Today we decided to sail against the tide towards the Beauleigh River, on the Hampshire Coast, and use the tides to return. That morning, the wind was fickle, it changed from east to west mid channel.
There was more than that to worry about, however.
We were wallying about, getting sails up just outside of the samll boats mooring area in the mouth of the Harbour. John pointed to a small vessel,
"is it stationary?"
"must be fishing".
Within minutes this small "fishing boat" loomed up, circled us, an immense Coastguards Launch, the CG leaned out and shouted down
"what are your intentions?"
"we're just g-g-going to Beauleigh"
"Head towards the Prince Consort Buoy and GET OUT OF THE CHANNEL"
he indicated behind him, where a tiny dark oblong sat on the eastern horizon.
We watched as the launch shooed away other small boats from the path of the monster.Within minutes it had grown to become a towering metal cliff. I suppose the CG were mindful of the incident that had occured the previous fortnight during Cowes week when a yacht had ignored all sensible precautions and had become a smear on the side of a container ship rather like a sweet paper on the side of your shoe.Miraculaously, no one was seriously hurt.
We grabbed a mooring buoy in Beauliegh, and had a quiet and sunny lunch before returning to Cowes, wind against tide, but until the last half hour, the wind kept us moving nicely.
It was great to meet up with A and R, and we made plans for lunch the next day.
Saturday
Newport. Mooring on the Town Quay. Sounds quite easy, doesn't it? hmmm
1) the town is packed, with moored boats, and with a vintage car market on the quayside which meant that all the bollards and cleats for boatie use were looped up with red and white hazzard tape to prevent landlubbers from falling off the quay.
2) the only available space is small and has a shortage of things to tie up on.
3) fenders are not adequate against the wall, you need fender boards (these are heavy planks with rope at the ends which serve to buffer the boat from the wall and hang down over the boat's fenders), and that means you need cleats midships (which we don't have)
4) the tide is going down. That means you have to work out a way of leaving enough mooring rope so that the boat can drop with the water, yet not swing out when you don't need the slack for drop.People advised us with complicated systems involving weights or buckets full of water
5) there was no ladder near us to get down or up once the tide had gone out
6) we were having a row
nearly two hours of fumbling and swearing later, a large man walking a toddler on a lead, asked if we were leaving because he had a long keeled boat that wouldn't be safe on the floating pontoon.
If there's a floating pontoon to be had, let's swop; bugger the learning curve, 20 minutes later, with A now arrived to assist, we were snugly tied up and secure on the pontoon, and nice man with a 50ft 100 year old wooden gaffer, family of toddler and 8 month baby and wife on their way to New Zealand, had taken our place. Everyone happy.
Later we went to see Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with R and their oldest son.
Sunday
did some laundry, chatted to New Zealand bound mum about her plans to sail Dolphin of Leith with two small children , set off to do some more sailing.
Because everyone had said the weekend's weather, particularly Saturday was going to be squally, we were cautious when we saw black clouds, we reefed and set off.
Plan to head west towards Wooton again, winds were now firmly westerly, so good for taking us back to Chichester Harbour.
Aware of dark sky over Calshot we braced ourselves for a squall, all that came was heavy rain, little or no wind, this happened a second time, and then we had a squall with black sky, heavy rain and wind; we took it on a beam reach and raced towards Portsmouth, visibility was very poor. We were glad to get into Fishbourne again, the sun came out and it became a beautiful evening, the barman at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club, had seen us arrive and stayed open so we could restore ourselves.
Monday
We got to Bembridge at last.
As usual, too keen, too little water, turn round and have a whizz up and down inside the harbour . My first real VHF radio conversation with the Harbour Master to get a berth.
Went for a walk to Seaview along a coastal path, rather boggy, skirted the outskirts of the town, big smart houses and few people. Found the Old Fort Cafe and Bar (opposite No Man's Land Fort- this is a round stone island built as sea defenses by Palmerstone in 1860s, now redeveloped as an exclusive hotel)
Stayed for dinner and took a taxi back.
Tuesday
Winds forecast to be F4-5 today waiting for the tide we strolled to the beach to scan the sea, although blowy, sea state was calm, reassuring.
Wind picked up as we were leaving the berth, it took longer than it should have done, but eventually, double reefed we were sailing back to wards Chichester Harbour. The wind direction didn't quite suit our intended course, and we didn't want to loose too much time because the window for getting into Chichester with the current conditions was quite precise.However, we tried various things and sometimes they worked, and sometimes we sailed a course for the wind, correcting it as we tacked. The challenging thing was sailing on a run. We spotted another yacht on the same bearing as us sailing with just the genoa, but as the sea was now quite choppy, we didn't feel up to dropping the main, so kept it sheeted in.
The crossing took about 2 hours, the last bit, approaching West Pole beacon travelling at right angles to the direction the waves were coming in so that once or twice the boat broached (this is a temporary loss of contral as the rudder looses contact with water) but John was helming masterfully and not at all anxious.
We rather felt that we should have a welcome home party to celebrate our return from the high seas, but there was no one around, so we pressed on to Dell Quay.
Throughout the whole week we had had to pump the bilge regularly. diesel is leaking now, we removed one 2 gallon and one 2 litre containers of wasted fuel from the bilge.
From the busy harbour we motored south along the Medina, spotted Gyspy Moth IV, on our way to the famous pub and Restaurant with moorings, The Folly.
We had a reasonable meal and enjoyable evening while a single guitarist, and his backing tapes, entertained with rock music from the 70s. Towards the end of the evening, some young people in colourful clothing and dreadlocks sat at the table next to us. They brought a faint whiff of woodsmoke. They sat together, ordered drinks and some food, applauded the music and were unobtrusive, although noticable amongst the mainly middle aged boatie types.
When the Landlord joined them and sat talking we felt that he was displaying a congenial inclusivity.
However, as we left, we passed by them, now on the terrace, and they told us he'd asked them to move outside because their smell was offensive!! This took a bit of shine off the evening and we resolved to mention it next night.
Throughout the evening, texts had been flying around from the TOA, the upshot of it was that the Rally would be cancelled due to poor forecasts for the weekend. Although this was disappointing, we put into action an alternative plan: to visit John's old friend A and his family in Newport.
Friday.
A and R would meet us for a drink later at the Folly.
Meanwhile we would see what the sailing looked like in the Solent.
Tides are a big consideration, they can get as strong as 4 knots in some places at certain times,so for us, with a maximum speed of 6 knots under sail, and probably less with the engine, the possibility of not arriving at the pre ordained destination is quite real. Today we decided to sail against the tide towards the Beauleigh River, on the Hampshire Coast, and use the tides to return. That morning, the wind was fickle, it changed from east to west mid channel.
There was more than that to worry about, however.
We were wallying about, getting sails up just outside of the samll boats mooring area in the mouth of the Harbour. John pointed to a small vessel,
"is it stationary?"
"must be fishing".
Within minutes this small "fishing boat" loomed up, circled us, an immense Coastguards Launch, the CG leaned out and shouted down
"what are your intentions?"
"we're just g-g-going to Beauleigh"
"Head towards the Prince Consort Buoy and GET OUT OF THE CHANNEL"
he indicated behind him, where a tiny dark oblong sat on the eastern horizon.
We watched as the launch shooed away other small boats from the path of the monster.Within minutes it had grown to become a towering metal cliff. I suppose the CG were mindful of the incident that had occured the previous fortnight during Cowes week when a yacht had ignored all sensible precautions and had become a smear on the side of a container ship rather like a sweet paper on the side of your shoe.Miraculaously, no one was seriously hurt.
It was great to meet up with A and R, and we made plans for lunch the next day.
Saturday
Newport. Mooring on the Town Quay. Sounds quite easy, doesn't it? hmmm
 |
| Town Quay, Newport, where we didn't tie up. |
1) the town is packed, with moored boats, and with a vintage car market on the quayside which meant that all the bollards and cleats for boatie use were looped up with red and white hazzard tape to prevent landlubbers from falling off the quay.
2) the only available space is small and has a shortage of things to tie up on.
3) fenders are not adequate against the wall, you need fender boards (these are heavy planks with rope at the ends which serve to buffer the boat from the wall and hang down over the boat's fenders), and that means you need cleats midships (which we don't have)
4) the tide is going down. That means you have to work out a way of leaving enough mooring rope so that the boat can drop with the water, yet not swing out when you don't need the slack for drop.People advised us with complicated systems involving weights or buckets full of water
5) there was no ladder near us to get down or up once the tide had gone out
6) we were having a row
nearly two hours of fumbling and swearing later, a large man walking a toddler on a lead, asked if we were leaving because he had a long keeled boat that wouldn't be safe on the floating pontoon.
If there's a floating pontoon to be had, let's swop; bugger the learning curve, 20 minutes later, with A now arrived to assist, we were snugly tied up and secure on the pontoon, and nice man with a 50ft 100 year old wooden gaffer, family of toddler and 8 month baby and wife on their way to New Zealand, had taken our place. Everyone happy.
Later we went to see Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with R and their oldest son.
Sunday
did some laundry, chatted to New Zealand bound mum about her plans to sail Dolphin of Leith with two small children , set off to do some more sailing.
Because everyone had said the weekend's weather, particularly Saturday was going to be squally, we were cautious when we saw black clouds, we reefed and set off.
Plan to head west towards Wooton again, winds were now firmly westerly, so good for taking us back to Chichester Harbour.
Aware of dark sky over Calshot we braced ourselves for a squall, all that came was heavy rain, little or no wind, this happened a second time, and then we had a squall with black sky, heavy rain and wind; we took it on a beam reach and raced towards Portsmouth, visibility was very poor. We were glad to get into Fishbourne again, the sun came out and it became a beautiful evening, the barman at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club, had seen us arrive and stayed open so we could restore ourselves.
Monday
We got to Bembridge at last.
As usual, too keen, too little water, turn round and have a whizz up and down inside the harbour . My first real VHF radio conversation with the Harbour Master to get a berth.
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| Beach huts on Bembridge Beach |
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| Nice bins |
Went for a walk to Seaview along a coastal path, rather boggy, skirted the outskirts of the town, big smart houses and few people. Found the Old Fort Cafe and Bar (opposite No Man's Land Fort- this is a round stone island built as sea defenses by Palmerstone in 1860s, now redeveloped as an exclusive hotel)
Stayed for dinner and took a taxi back.
Tuesday
Winds forecast to be F4-5 today waiting for the tide we strolled to the beach to scan the sea, although blowy, sea state was calm, reassuring.
Wind picked up as we were leaving the berth, it took longer than it should have done, but eventually, double reefed we were sailing back to wards Chichester Harbour. The wind direction didn't quite suit our intended course, and we didn't want to loose too much time because the window for getting into Chichester with the current conditions was quite precise.However, we tried various things and sometimes they worked, and sometimes we sailed a course for the wind, correcting it as we tacked. The challenging thing was sailing on a run. We spotted another yacht on the same bearing as us sailing with just the genoa, but as the sea was now quite choppy, we didn't feel up to dropping the main, so kept it sheeted in.
The crossing took about 2 hours, the last bit, approaching West Pole beacon travelling at right angles to the direction the waves were coming in so that once or twice the boat broached (this is a temporary loss of contral as the rudder looses contact with water) but John was helming masterfully and not at all anxious.
We rather felt that we should have a welcome home party to celebrate our return from the high seas, but there was no one around, so we pressed on to Dell Quay.
Throughout the whole week we had had to pump the bilge regularly. diesel is leaking now, we removed one 2 gallon and one 2 litre containers of wasted fuel from the bilge.
