West Solent Bank Holiday Weekend

Saturday 27th May ... Unusually for us we set sail on a Saturday. However, the forecast looked better than tomorrow's and the night was forecast to be calm so we intended to anchor somewhere. We were being blown on fairly hard at Wicor, so Dean performed a manoeuvre which enabled him to spring Thesee's stern out and then motor backwards. It was a bit hair-raising letting the lines go but the plan worked perfectly we're pleased to say. Once we reached the large harbour area near the QHM, we put the main sail up. During this, Linda spotted a lonesome boat hook sticking out of the water, and so we went back and rescued it. It was slightly damaged, but now has a new loving home in our port side lazarette. 

We spotted the old Cowes chain ferry in Gosport

There was a boating festival going on at Haslar Marina

Haslar Light Ship - Famous landmark

The Mont St Michel ferry followed us out of Portmouth - yikes!

We left the harbour and chose to go down the Inner Swashway. Everything was fine but once we got into the Solent proper the wind was blowing a hooley and we soon got fed up with the uncomfortableness of the situation. Dean had a hissy fit about the British weather (again? i hear you say), and it was up to Linda to save the day and come up with a cunning plan to tack and head across to Osborne Bay, where we found some shelter, anchored, and put the kettle on. 

Independence of the Seas - we could hear the partying going on!

After an hour of de-stressing and watching cruise ships we set off again, reaching Newtown Creek at 7.30pm. We anchored along Hamstead Ledge (the first time here for us) as it was low tide and there was not enough water to get through the narrow entrance into the creek. Anyway, it's always packed with boats so we knew there would be little chance of us getting a place being Saturday/Bank Holiday etc etc...

It's 10.30pm now and the wind has dropped and it's real calm. Hope we can sleep tonight, but i doubt it very much.

Sunday 28^th May… We did actually get some broken sleep last night, being woken at 2am and 4am by the anchor alarm. We have it set to sound at 0.03 mile movement, so sometimes if we swing around with the wind or tide the alarm goes off. But better to be made aware that you are potentially dragging the anchor than not, we think. Then at 6am the depth alarm sounded, but it was only 30 minutes to low water so we knew it would not go much lower. We have that alarm set to sound at 3 metres. Our draft is 1.8m so that gives us a bit of leeway. We stayed up anyway and had an early breakfast. 

Sunday's breakfast went down a treat

Dean took Saffy off to the shore for a run about. When they came back the sun was peeping through, and Dean missed a perfect photo opportunity of Linda drying her nails in the sunshine (er… some people might call it sunbathing).  

Returning from Saffy's morning walk

By 10.30am it was time to leave, shame really as it was very pleasant. We motored along the shoreline to Cowes and arrived at Folly Reach by 11.45am. Dean’s getting good at these close quarters manoeuvres and he came into the pontoon a real treat. Yes there were people watching too!

A lovely afternoon followed, with a snooze here and there. There are a lot of boats about and some are rafted up. Still, it's a good atmosphere and the weather is being much kinder than expected. We're so glad we decided to get about this weekend, it feels like we have done so much, and being on the Isle of Wight always feels like we are on holiday. Here's the rest of the day's photos...

Colourful sails

Think this is a bus stop

Desirable residences

The view looking behind as we enter the River Medina, Cowes

 The new Cowes chain ferry.... that is still Out of Order by the looks of it

Monday 29th May... There was rain and thunder during the night. It didn't really bother us and we got some good sleep. It was still drizzling after breakfast. We took the dinghy across the river and walked up through Whippingham to the Cowes Harbour Commission and Kingston Boatyard. We're hoping to get the boat lifted here in a couple of weeks time, and we wanted to have a look around. Thesee has a few jobs in need of some attention, plus a few extras.  

Crossing the meadows in Whippingham

...and the stream

Solar Panel fields

After lunch we departed the Folly and motorsailed back to Fareham. It was quite bleak crossing the Solent, but very calm. Lots of boats about heading back to their bases after the Bank Holiday frivolities. We arrived back at our base in Wicor, and almost glided onto the pontoon. During the berthing procedure the bowthruster made a gagging noise and stopped working. Once we had secured the lines, Dean summised that it had sucked up a bundle of weed, and our ever useful waterproof Go Pro camera was put into action on the boat hook. Dean puts it under the boat to have a look at things like the prop and anode etc. Not getting a great view he decided to use his old metal coathanger to see if there was any weed which could be easily dislodged, and WOW loads of it came out. That's the first time that has happened to us, and fortunately the bow thruster is fine and working again.

Looking pleased with himself and the faithful coathanger

Mid May Chill Out

Saturday 13th May... Stopped off in Abingdon and picked up a 'Folding Sack Truck' for Dean for a bargain £19.99 (That's a folding trolley to you and me). Nice day down here, sunny but breezy. Linda set to work making her first on-board trifle (not that difficult but she wanted to test out the small blender plugged into the inverter). Meanwhile more work was going on in the alternator department, with Dean having to fit a relay to extinguish the ignition light..... still no joy i'm afraid. Later on we tried the second-hand Windscoop acquired from ebay for a snip. The aim of the windscoop is to divert air into the foreward cabin to circulate through the boat. This is obviously for when we reach warm exotic destinations....no need for this in the UK, lol. We tried to velcro the corners but the wind was too strong and it detached eventually, so more consideration needed for this little project.

The windscoop at work before it went AWOL 😕

The best part of the day was when Dean completed the bookcase he has been making at home. There was a space under the wardrobe in the forward cabin that was the ideal spot, and the ever resourceful Dean used a spare matching cupboard shelf and a strip of old teak. The exciting part is that the teak was from a dodgy old bit of pontoon that was lying waste in Port Solent a couple of winters ago. Now shaped to size and varnished to match it's perfect. 

This teak no longer looks like a bit of old pontoon

Ooh nice....these books are going nowhere!

Sunday 14th May... BIG news today, Saffy has a boyfriend! Leonard (the dog) belongs on a boat a little way along our pontoon, and he comes here for weekends just like us! There's been quite a few people around this weekend, and we got chatting to Leonard's mum and dad. They inspired us to let Saffy have 'freedom to roam' on deck and pontoon instead of walking her about on the lead. Maybe Saffy will come round to the idea that she can pee in private on the deck (without us knowing??). We still put the life jacket on her, and then let her walk up and down the deck as she pleases. She's getting used to it and seems to be quite happy although rather flummoxed at first as to what was going on. We, the over protective parents are also slowly warming to her new found freedom, and keep a constant eye on her. We don't really want a DOB (Dog Over Board).

I'm not sure what's going on here, where's mum and dad?

Might as well have a look around then

There was still a pretty stong wind but it was very pleasant and sunny. We couldn't really decide whether to go for a sail or not, so in the end we stayed put. Maybe that was a good idea, because Dean needed to lend a hand to two nearby boats this afternoon that were finding it difficult to berth in the strong winds. One of them was on a neighbouring pontoon and so Dean quickly jumped into our dinghy and motored across to help. We also saw another boat across the river which was having real difficulty, even with people on hand helping. The problem is that if you are getting blown off the pontoon you can't get in close enough to tie up before the wind takes you, especially if you only have a small space in-between other boats.

Linda spent the afternoon methodically detailing our array of nautical charts we have gathered so far, and downloading the Chart Corrections from the Imray website. Dean recently bought her a special Chart Corrections pen. Looks like it's up to her to keep all in order. This could be a long job, thanks for that Dean.

Later on the wind dropped considerably and we were able to tackle another job, that being Dean going up the mast to lubricate the roller furlers. He's been up there quite a few times now for a variety of reasons. He always says it's exhilarating but at the same time glad to get back down safely. This time, Linda managed to get a photo looking upwards from the cockpit. Can you spot him?

Dean's mast walk, well sort of...

Monday 15th May... As predicted we woke to dark clouds and wet windows, and it pretty much stayed that way on and off throughout the day. The place was somewhat quieter with nearly everyone gone home after the weekend. Either that, or they were hiding inside their boats. During a dry period we turned the boat around to face South because Dean wanted to scrub the hull's port side waterline, having scrubbed the starboard side earlier. Of course, the ever resourceful Dean has a home-made gadget for this job, made from two empty pop bottles and a bit of coarse material.

Doing our best to keep Thesee's bottom clean

Two pop bottles help to keep pressure on

The rough scrubbing side

Not much happened today really apart from another attempt at sorting out the ignition light....still ongoing, and a quick clean of the joker valve in the forward heads. Plus the last helping of Trifle went down very well after dinner.

Nice to have a relaxing weekend here at Wicor for a change