Catching up with old friends

While we were anchored at Itchenor Reach the admiral made contact with Debbie and Mike Wigmore, who we have known for some years as Mike's father used to be David's GP and the two Debbie's had been involved in international women's sailing events. Debbie and Mike live in a splendid house overlooking the water at Birdham so we spent a lovely evening on Wednesday with them catching up on what we and our offspring have been up to.

Also on Wednesday we met up with very old friends (that is we've known them for a very long time, not that they are ancient!), Jill and Nick on their Sadler 26 'Zulu' and Anthea and Stephen on their Moody 42 'Sir Jasper IV'. We joined them in Chichester Yacht Harbour, the best showers we have been in for a long time! A happy hour or so was spent over beers in our cockpit catching up. They were on an Island Sailing Club rally including a theatre visit, very civilised.

Zulu.

Sir Jasper

On Thursday we locked out of the marina and promptly ran aground in the entrance channel! Despite the lock master recording 1.8m in the channel we managed to find a lump at 1.2m! As it was soft mud and a rising tide we were soon able to wriggle our way into deeper water and be on our way. Destination Bembridge and meeting up with yet more friends. This time Jane and Pete Best who were sailing on a friend's boat and Anne and Richard on 'Harvard', a splendid Rustler 36. Jane and Pete we know from sailing in the Midlands and our children sailing Optimists and 420s. David was at university with Richard and we have been in regular contact over the years. Anne and Richard were responsible for us owning Lacerta and doing this trip as we had a fantastic cruise with them on Harvard to the Scilly Isles which rekindled our desire to sail bigger boats than dinghies.

Gordon Wight and his team at the marina went out of their way to look after us, being there to help with our lines and dealing with any queries. We were allocated pontoon space in Bembridge Marina for Lacerta and Harvard to lie next to each other, always a recipe for much eating and wine consumption!

Harvard arriving in Bembridge.

On Friday the Harvard and Lacerta crews decided on a walk, walking down the pontoon we saw Ron and Beth, who we had met through Nick and Jill and Stephen and Anthea, with their splendid old gaffer.

Ron and Beth and their gaffer.

The walk took us from St. Helens to Brading and across Nunwell Down to Sandown, where we had a late lunch on the seafront, then by train to Ryde where we walked through Seaview, stopping for liquid refreshment at a pub on the sea wall, and back to St. Helens and the marina. Further refreshment then required in Harvard's cockpit before dinner on Lacerta, a splendid concoction of the contents of Lacerta and Harvard's food lockers!

The view from Nunwell Down.

Saturday saw us catching up with some shopping and Debbie catching up with FLP and home accounts while waiting for enough tide in the afternoon to get out of the harbour. After a bit of classic parking by a powerboat behind us both Lacerta and Harvard extracted themselves from their windward berths and headed for Portsmouth, Harvard to Royal Clarence marina and Lacerta to anchor further up Fareham Lake in a very peaceful, and free! anchorage. As Portsmouth was to windward of Bembridge the beat saw a little friendly rivalry with each of us getting the best out of our boats. As Lacerta left Bembridge first and arrived off Portsmouth first there probably wasn't much in it.

The Portsmouth skyline.

With high pressure dominating, Sunday has proved to be a light wind day. We managed to sail, albeit slowly with the tide against us until we approached Ryde Middle bank when the wash from passing ships and powerboats proved to be too much to keep the sails full and we reverted to the engine. We entered Cowes through the new Eastern small boat channel, which appeared to be quite shallow, inside of the new stone breakwater being built to protect the harbour from North and North East winds. By 1550 we were tied up alongside the walk ashore pontoon at the Folly Inn, a first for us. Previously visiting the Folly at weekends there has never been any space on the walk ashore pontoon so it was a luxury to be able to walk up to the pub for a pint before dinner.

Cowes new breakwater under construction. Must be behind programme, working on a Sunday.

We are going to be doing some zig zagging around the Solent visiting more friends before ending up at Marchwood on Thursday to visit the Southampton boat show on Friday. More of that in the next episode!

 

 

Posted with Blogsy