Monday 17th July... Hoorah! The fridge man called. He is available tomorrow so we changed our booking at Port Solent to suit. That meant we had an unexpected free day. The weather was good so we motored across to Priory Bay just outside Bembridge. It was low water and rather shallow in places but we were aware of this and so kept a close eye on the transducer. We dropped the anchor and had a bite to eat for lunch. It was such a lovely hot day we stayed there for 3 hours. It was just like being in Antigua (well that's what it felt like when you closed your eyes!). Saffy wasn't settling well so we put her downstairs with the fans on and the Windscoop doing it's thing. It worked really well, it's definately earning the £6.50 Dean splashed out for it.
The Wooton Creek Car Ferries crossing in the Solent
The windscoop's working better now after modifications
Dean sitting on the scoop dipping his toes
Linda and Saffy staying firmly out of the water
We caught the tide going back to Portsmouth and got a little sailing in with the genoa....a maximum 3 knots which was fine as we were in no hurry to get back. It was very calm, so much so that Linda took the chance to practise berthing Thesee when we arrived at base. All under the watchful eye of the skipper of course. Later on we took Saffy ashore for her walk. Unfortunately the outboard engine on the dinghy started playing up.... another job for the resident engineer. We didn't eat dinner until almost 9pm. I don't know where the day has gone to!
Tuesday 18th July... Up early with the alarm clock today because we needed to be at Port Solent Marina for 9.30am to meet up with the fridge man. The morning was calm and so Linda helmed Thesee from the pontoon. Not that she had to do anything really because once the lines had been released the wind gently eased us in the right direction and off we went. We haven't visited Port Solent for quite a while. To get there you need to follow the well marked channel through Portchester Lake. It's a bit twisty turny in places so we got the paper instructions out as a back up.
To get into the marina there's a lock, but we had already agreed just a short stay so they allowed us to berth on the outer waiting pontoon instead of going inside proper. On arrival Dean decided he wanted to turn the boat round so that it was facing the right way for when we left. Forgetting that Thesee has a newly cleaned bottom and he's currently slipping through the water like a dream, when Dean made the turn Thesee's bow almost hit the pontoon. Dean had to give a real good blast of reverse gear to avoid a very embarrassing situation! Phew a close call that was.
The fridge man turned up at 10am and Linda took Saffy for a walk whilst the men did their thing connecting up the keel coolers. I'ts a big job and took around 4 hours to complete. It was a really warm day and Saffy was very thirsty when she returned from her walk around the marina and local park. She loved the grass and kept rolling about in it. Linda was at a loose end not being able to get in the boat with the work going on, so she did some relaxing in the lovely sunshine and then took a little walk to view the nearby boats. They were all Sunsail Training School boats (about 20 of them) and she very observantly noticed that all of the anchors were missing. Thinking they were all probably going to be replaced she reported the 'news' to Dean, but he had a better idea and said that they had all probably been removed for racing.
By the time we left Port Solent the tide was on the flood, enough for us to navigate the channel we thought. It was still shallow in places though, at one point showing a mere 2.2m. Thesee's draft is 1.8m so we only had 40cm clearance! All was fine though and we reached base without any problems. As we approached our mooring we realised that there was another boat on it! The poor skipper and his crew were sitting there having a nice cup of tea when it dawned on him that we were heading his way and his time was up. We had a bit of a laugh with him about it, and he graciously got off on his way. Quite often we see visiting boats just stopping for an hour or so here on vacant berths, and the main visitor of all is the Police Patrol Boat.
Time was getting on and we treated ourselves to a Pot Noodle from the Bad Weather Locker. We commented to each other that you would be grateful for one of these on a cold dark passage. Rain was forecast so we left the boat at 6pm and got on our way. We had only been in the car for 10 minutes when we had the most torrential downpour, thunder and lightning. We would have been absolutely drenched if we had been caught in that.
There will be today's photos once Linda finds the camera. She must have left it on Thesee. Hopefully.
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