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
28th 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
No comments:
Post a Comment