End of June, Isle of Wight

This was a weekend of proper sailing.

We discussed where to go, I favoured Ventnor,  but the wind favoured the north coast of the Island.
we had set off quite late, and were approaching Ryde as it became dark; woops, where's all the water gone?
scrap that idea, let's push on to Wooton.

We slid into Wooton Creek next to the Yacht Club where they were having a loud party, and picked up a buoy.

Breakfast in Wooton Creek

John in the Pilot berth, reading the Channel Pilot

 Then we sailed round the corner to Bembridge, we tried to beach up on the east side next to the sailing club, but had left it too late, so we motored out to The Ledge to assess how much fuel was consumed in 30 minutes, (about a .5 litre), in preparation for the Channel crossing in a couple of weeks.

Baywatch on the Beach supper

Tomahawk Owner's Rally in Chichester Harbour

I had been asked to arrange the TOA summer rally , and I was ambitious: a Treasure Hunt round the harbour, a BBQ on East Head Sand, a Sunday lunch at Bosham Sailing Club.
In the event, two boats turned up: Incamoon with Peter Llewellyn and Paul Jones (who received a drenching, courtesy of their own private mini-typhoon on the way fromn Warsash) and Cochise with Ian Bremner and Bill Garrod.
All plans were deferred in favour of quiet drinks on the pontoon: 

"How do you do that thing with your hands, Paul?"

Paul blagged us into possibly the most expensive Sailing Club in the country- Hayling Island Sailing Club for afternoon coffees, and we watched the tide churn over the entrance to the Harbour and the procession of boats into and from The Solent.

In the evening we were joined by Tony and Ruth for a meal at The Pirahna Bar.

Sunday afternoon saw Gloria make a brief appearance to pick up Bill, leaving Ian to sail back towards Poole single-handed. He made Yarmouth in 4 hours, a good sail.

 

PL and PJ were the next to go 

A pleasant time socialising with the Tommies.

Chichester Harbour at last

Last weekend we set off from Newhaven aiming for Sparkes Marina, Chichester Harbour. It was a long trip, with good wind at the start, and we we flying along.



"Goodbye Newhaven!"



What is this? it's about 5 miles south of Littlehampton

Somewhere south of Worthing, John began to go quiet, and he remained  "green" for the rest of the 10 hour journey. As a result, we (I) decided to keep going to Bembridge instead of fighting the adverse tide and wind.
It was very busy being the day of The Round The Island Race. so we rafted up to a line of five. Our first rafting up experience: learning that beginners pick the easiest point to tie up to, which is the one furthest from the pontoon!

Next day we had a lovely easy sail into Chichester and found our mooring up the Mengham Rithe channel. In familiar style, we ran out of water because we overshot our mooring and had to hang around the bows of our Catamaran neighbour untill we could pick up our buoy.

This weekend, we returned with dinghy and outboard in the van and met up with other Tomahawk Owners for the TOA Rally.




John's thinking, "how do you do that with your hands, Paul?"

The first evening, we managed to keep pace with the drinkiing, but after the second day we fell by the wayside and had an early night after a less than adequate meal at The Piranha Bar.



Mahaskah on a pontoon