Hamble & Marchwood Weekend

Saturday 29th April.... 4 days away and we're back already. We wouldn't be here this weekend, but we've got a BOA night on Tuesday at Marchwood Yacht Club where we are being treated to a weather presentation by Penny Tranter. More about that on Tuesday's blog. 

Today could have turned out either good or bad, but happily it was good i'm pleased to say. Our three Navionics CF Cards for the Chartplotter that Dean bought on Ebay seem to be in good order and doing what they're supposed to do. They are better than anticipated, having aerial overlays and panoramic harbour photos to view at the touch of a button. 

The new replacement external regulator arrived two days ago and Dean connected it all up. Hoorah, that's working too! Only one little niggly issue to sort out and it should be fine. So finger's crossed....we'll keep you informed. This has been a big job for Dean and he has been fitting the parts bit by bit since Christmas. I will get him to write a section about it at some point soon for all you techies out there. 

The floorboards are up once again

Sunday 30th April... Last night was windy and kept us semi-awake with the tide lapping against the stern of the boat. The wind was forecast to drop this afternoon and so we decided to stick to the plan and leave Wicor at 11.30am for Hamble. Out in the Solent the swell was moderate and heading down the Swashway we experienced quite bad side to side rolling. Once Dean unfurled the staysail, it made things a little more comfortable and we set a course of 280 degrees towards Hamble. There was some rain on and off but on the whole not a bad journey and Dean helmed most of the way. 

Raining now, but we're still in high spirits

Having only used the Staysail we arrived at Hamble Point Marina after three hours sailing at approximately 4 knots. The tide was just at the beginning of the high water stand and reaching the marina Dean did a magnificent job of getting Thesee into a tight finger berth. There's a lot of big yachts here and we feel rather small compared to the 54ft Moody next door. On the way to take Saffy for a walk we saw a boat called Reunion...the boat Dean's cousin chartered last Summer.

Reunion lives here

We also came across this Aston Martin powered speedboat.....one for you Alan & Yasi?

How fast would this go??

Hamble Point Marina has a lot of memories for us, because we came here often to view boats when we were looking to buy. Funny we ended up buying Thesee in France then.

After a real nice walk around the boatyard and Hamble Common we retired to settle down for our Sunday dinner and a night in front of the telly (or the computer in Linda's case!). Here's some photos from our walkabout...

Nice neat line up

One for you Sarah Celestine

3,2,1, fire

Pretty shoreside footpath for Saffy (and us)

Colourful bushes around the Common

Looking across Southampton Water... a different view altogether

Warsash Lifeboat Facility

Who put these doggy bowls so high up?..i've only got little legs

Monday 1st May... Bacon and Mushrooms for breakfast today, then we got ready for our ramble up to Royal Victoria Country Park. On leaving the marina we saw this shrink wrapped boat....

After a good walk along the coast we finally arrived at the country park and headed straight for coffee and cake in the tearooms. Yum yum, Linda's victoria sandwich was delicious, and Dean's coffee and walnut cake didn't last long either. There were lots of people about...bank holiday of course. After we'd stuffed our faces we followed some of the paths that threaded their way through the park, and the path through the swamp land at Horse Pond Wood was especially nice. Some of the plants were almost giant-like versions of the norm. We were almost back at the tearooms before the heavens opened and the brolly went up. 

On the edge of the country park

No crazy golfers today

  This map looks like a fish

Following the boardwalk through the swamp

We took the path past the miniature railway (still transporting paying passengers in the rain), and then past Bluebell Wood, and along Lover's Lane back towards Hamble Common. Poor Saffy was drenched, but she didn't seem to mind too much. Once we got back on the sea-shore Dean spotted a seal in the water, but it was too camera shy to wait for a photo. By this time the sun was coming out and we sat and ate our fruit whilst we watched a few boats coming in. Back at Thesee we sat outside in the cockpit and Dean had a beer. We spotted 'Charlie's' River Taxi going by....remember when you were at the helm Charlie?

Come rain or shine

Right time of year to visit Bluebell Wood

Hamble-le-Rice was the home of an aircraft training centre during WWII

Monument commemorating the village's history

 Oil Terminal Fuel Jetty

 Dean drying the umbrella

Charlie's Water Taxi

Tuesday 2nd May... We left the marina at 12 noon just as smoothly as we had arrived two days ago. The boat we had been berthed next to was called Acamas, and as always we wonder why people name their boats as they do. Linda looked up the meaning on the internet, and we were both taken aback. Turns out in Greek Mythology, Acamas was the son of Theseus... WOW (our boat Thésée is the French translation of Theseus)!


As we departed Linda spotted this unusual navigation marker. Red Green Red means the preferred channel is to Starboard.

Don't see many of these navigation marks

The wind was a mere 6 knots on average as we headed up Southampton Water. The sun was out and we weren't in any hurry so we just drifted along at 2-3 knots passing the coastline that we walked yesterday. Not a great deal of shipping movements about today, and after two hours we crept past Southampton Docks and moored up on the pontoon at Marchwood Yacht Club. Right opposite us was a huge container ship being loaded.

Frio Mogami - On its way to Rotterdam & Tallin

Look, no hands, just feet

It's OK, this tanker is just turning

Colin and Richard from the BOA arrived and joined us for a beer and a catch up, along with Trevor from the MYC, and Richard & Mary who had also arrived on their Beneteau. Then Trevor kindly took us for an informative tour around the club and boatyard. 

Marchwood Yacht Club... est 1963

Linda's ready for the evening's entertainment

At 6pm we went for our pre-arranged dinner in the club. It was a bit of a wait as the place was filling up fast, but WOW (second wow of the day) the food was just wonderful. What a fabulous little club they've got going there. Just lovely.  Afterwards was the big event of the weekend.. A Weather Presentation by Penny Tranter. Penny is a Chartered Meteorologist and a member of the Royal Meteorological Society, along with having spent a number of years as a weather presenter for the BBC. The club was packed with both BOA and MYC members. Our thanks go to Colin and Richard for organising this well attended event and to BOA who paid for it!

Thanks to the active club members at MYC, this is an attractive welcome

Floral MYC close-up

We've had a busy weekend, time for a rest next visit?

Beaulieu Boat Jumble Weekend

Saturday 22nd April … Firstly Linda had to amend the title of the previous blog as she found out that Saffy had sabotaged it and wrote all about her own weekend’s antics, naughty dog.

A great start to this weekend….. Dean won his ebay country flags and wind scoop that he bid on yesterday. Then Saffy was a good girl and peed on the pontoon. It’s Beaulieu Boat Jumble weekend and so we set off from Portsmouth with the tide. We found out from a QHM Notice that three swimmers were about to swim across the Solent at 12.30pm from Gilliker Point to Ryde Sands. However, we didn’t see any sign of them. Just before we approached Cowes Roads we passed a race going on, here’s a picture. Just beforehand they were all flying cruising chutes.

Who will be the race winner? 

Very old Spanish ship with crows nests in Cowes

The sun was beginning to show itself. We passed Cowes and the wind dropped to zero, so after 10 minutes or so drifting we motored to Thorness Bay, where we had decided to anchor for a few hours whilst we waited for the tide to rise. There’s a sand bar at the entrance to Beaulieu River which only has about one metre at low water Springs …. not enough for Thesee’s 1.8m draft, even though it’s a Neaps weekend we wouldn’t take any chances.

So we anchored in Thorness Bay and it was gorgeous, so warm and peaceful we did some sunbathing. The only little annoyance keeping us from napping was occasional wash from passing boats in the distance.

Wake me up when it's time to raise the hook

If i were a cow i would live here

Saffy never rushes her lunch

We’ve got a problem with the AIS again, so Dean spent some time troubleshooting, but to no avail as yet. Also, we’ve lost our heading vector on the Chartplotter so something seems to have gone amiss.

It was a shame to leave the anchorage, but nevertheless we headed across to the Beaulieu River at 4.30pm and navigated our way up to Bucklers Hard, our home for the next two nights.

Entrance to Beaulieu River

River Pontoon at Bucklers Hard

Sunday 23rd April … and a happy St George’s day. Here at Buckler's Hard we were up before 8am for breakfast and shower.

Buckler’s Hard (originally named Montagu Town) is an 18^th Century shipbuilding village situated on the western bank of the Beaulieu River, here in the lovely New Forest. It’s here where Sir Francis Chichester began and finished his single-handed voyage around the world in Gipsy Moth IV. Three ships built here went on to see action at the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar, including Admiral Nelson’s most favoured ship, Agamemnon. The onsite Maritime Museum tells all the stories. If you've never been here it's well worth a visit.

Ready to set off to the boat jumble...look at that sky

So, this morning we waited outside the marina office for the shuttle bus to Beaulieu, but the day got off to a bad start when the bus driver said Saffy wasn’t allowed on board. For some reason or another he had a quick change of heart and so we hopped on and were on our way to the Boat Jumble. 

Waiting in the boatyard for the bus 

On arrival we could not believe the monstrous queue to get in, it was moving fairly quickly though and it took about half an hour before we arrived at the pay desk.

Once inside the grounds we made our way methodically around the stalls. We were feeling disappointed as we couldn’t find much to buy from our list. Dean picked up some pilot books and an almanac for a snip, and there were a few other small purchases but nothing of any note. 

Picnic lunch in the sunshine

Everyone's looking for a bargain

The afternoon wore on and we were feeling a bit fed up with not being able to find anything. After treating ourselves to an ice cream we decided to take one more look around, and we were so glad we did. Dean spotted a Honda 2kw Generator, negotiated a good price and bought the thing there and then! Meanwhile on the RNLI stand Linda picked up a life jacket to fit Isaac for £5 (you have to come and visit us now kids!) and the lovely RNLI ladies sold Dean a trolley bag for £2 (they only asked for a mere 50p) to transport his new generator. So all the action took place in the last 20 minutes.

 Fantastic mansion on the Beaulieu Estate... how the other half live

On the way out Linda and Saffy took a well earned rest on the grass whilst Dean treated Saffy to a collapsible water bowl. The RNLI Search & Rescue helicopter appeared and flew a quick display above us. Then we caught a glimpse of the Beaulieu Monorail.

It's a waterbowl Saffy, not a hat

RNLI helicopter....hope we never need to call you

The Monorail

Saffy’s put up with us well today having been dragged around for hours in the warm weather, and now back onboard Thesee she’s tucked up in her basket fast asleep. Dean’s on his laptop making a good job of emptying his wallet further and he’s just bought 3 Electronic Navigation Charts for the Chartplotter from Ebay. Looks like we’re going to be heading to Iberia, Central Med, and Eastern Med. Yippee!!

Monday 24th April … Lovely local stroll this morning with Saffy. Saw Tom Cunliffe having his boat hoisted back into the water. Departed around 11.30ish and motored back to Portsmouth as tide was against us. It never seems as good when you’re on your way back, maybe because the sun wasn’t shining today. Here's some photos we took this morning.

Thesee on the river...

I know....we're here

The SS Persia was torpedoed without warning by a German U-Boat

Museum closed...we're too early

The Village

The Chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary

These were the launchways -  in the olde days...arrrr

Told you

The Master Builder's Hotel

We stopped off at Gosport Marina for a quick walk to the Chandlery, where Dean bought us two new life jackets. Thank you Dean. Then it was just a short hop up the river back home to Wicor. Not many yachts about today. We seem to have fixed the AIS problems….all to do with the infamous NMEA 0183 baud rates, but some other issues with settings still exist. The most unusual one being the sea temperature at 50 degrees….. If only!

A very pleasant weekend enjoyed by all