Leaving the Solent - going home!

Waiting an extra night at Warsash on Monday was a good move. The wind blew really hard in the afternoon and overnight, so much so that our new this year LED strobe light for the life ring was flicked out of its holder and smashed against the transom! More expense!

 

After a lie in on Tuesday morning we got showers at Warsash Sailing Club and, newly cleansed, treated ourselves to lunch at the club while waiting for the tide to turn so we could get out of our berth. In the afternoon we sailed for Cowes with a strong westerly wind. With just a reefed genoa it took us an hour to cross and moor on the Whitegates pontoon on the east side of the river, where we had stopped for lunch on Sunday. With no means of getting ashore unless we blew the dinghy up we chilled out for the rest of the afternoon, not least for David to try to get rid of the cold and cough which he had developed over the weekend. Too much contact with the rest of humanity! We arranged our last gathering of friends, agreeing to meet John and Carol, Stephen and Anthea and Nick and Jill at the Duke of York in West Cowes for lunch on Wednesday.

 

We assumed that we would get a water taxi ashore in the morning, only to find that there were no water taxis operating on the river that day. Nick came to the rescue with his rubber dinghy from East Cowes Sailing Club, a very short row to the pontoon. We picked up David's prescription, which had been sitting in the pharmacy for over a week waiting for collection, then went back to the Bredon residence to see their newly acquired land next the house where they plan to put a garage/bike store/boat bits store!

 

Heading across to the Duke of York we discovered that foot passengers now have to pay to use the floating bridge, but not if you have a bus pass. The admiral was upset! After lunch it was throwing it down, we got pretty wet, even with waterproofs, making our way back to the car in East Cowes, which didn't do the captain's chest cough any good at all. We gratefully accepted the offer of a night ashore with Nick and Jill rather than face another soaking getting back to the boat.

 

With a reasonable weather window developing over the next few days we developed a plan to head west as soon as the tide turned off Cowes Green, heading for Swanage, which would be a beat into a SW force 4 to 5. This would then leave us a bit of a lie in on Friday morning, leaving Swanage at lunchtime with a fair tide past Portland Bill and a wind veering NW or North and easing giving us a reach across Lyme Bay with a bail out to Weymouth if we felt too tired on Friday morning. We would get to Torbay in the early hours of Saturday morning but planned to anchor in Anstey's Cove, a mile or so North of Torbay, so we could arrive in Torquay refreshed in the afternoon.

 

As planned, Nick dropped us back aboard Lacerta on Friday morning and we left at 1250, after ringing the harbour authority as no one had called to collect any mooring fees. Too honest or what? Off Cowes Green we hoisted the main with one reef and unfurled a reefed genoa for the beat westwards, always very satisfying with a strong favourable tide to help. As we approached Yarmouth with the tide getting stronger the apparent wind increased and we took in another reef in the main. We opted to take the North channel after Hurst Narrows as the captain, doing all the winching of course, couldn't face short tacking up the Needles channel or the lumpy sea that we would find when we got to the Bridge buoy. All worked to plan other than hitting some overfalls going too close inshore at Hengistbury Head. We were anchored, well inshore in a slightly rolly anchorage by 18.40.

Approaching Hurst Castle

Swanage, looking less rolly than it was!

The captain doing the passage plan to Hopes Nose.

 

On Friday we left the anchorage at 1300 in a calm after a rain squall killed the wind. Around Anvil Point heading South of the St Albans Head overfalls we were motoring into a head wind as anticipated. Between St Albans Head and Portland Bill the wind veered enough to put the sails up, first with reefs, then with all the reefs out, then, as the wind dropped further we furled the genoa and were back to motor sailing!

Sunset, Lyme Bay, the last one while we were at sea.

 

We never got the predicted veer in the wind to the North so continued to motor sail westwards. We also never got the smooth or slight sea, it stayed decidedly lumpy. When the wind did pick up enough to sail the sea prevented us from maintaining enough way so we stuck with the engine and motor sailing. The autopilot decided it had had enough and the drive kept cutting out so we had to hand steer the last few hours, mainly the admiral, giving the captain a bit more time to rest. We passed the wreck buoys East of Hopes Nose at about 2300 and found our way into Anstey's Cove by the light of the stars, anchoring under the cliffs at 0035 on Saturday morning. Nearly home! Only 4 miles to do in the morning. It was such a clear night that we poured ourselves a wee dram and sat in the cockpit for a while looking at the stars.

Anstey's Cove anchorage.

 

Saturday morning was bright and sunny with only a light breeze. By mid morning, when we were enjoying a late breakfast, Anstey's Cove was buzzing. The cafe was open and doing a good trade and a group of girls were starting a coasteering experience in wet suits and helmets climbing and jumping off rocks into the sea. By late morning there were at least another 10 boats anchored in the bay enjoying the sunshine so we chilled out and did a bit of boat cleaning, ready to enter Torquay Harbour in the afternoon. Just as we were getting ready to leave an orange RIB appeared with Richard, friends James and Emily and godson Harry on board, Richard in the bow waving a bottle of champagne, a splendid welcome back!

The coasteers hit the water en mass!

Harry, our youngest guest yet.

Harry and Emily.

Team Crikey head back to Torquay.

Getting ready to leave Anstey's Cove

A gentle sail for the last leg.

The last leg, Thatcher Rock and the Orestone in the background. The weather held fine to welcome us back.

Minor hiccup, our welcome party needs a tow for a while!

Celebrating the journey's end.

Taking the sails down for the last time.

Back to Torquay harbour.

In our old berth, saved for us by MDL.

 

And so it's ended. The trip which we have been planning for a few years and which has occupied the last six months comes to a glorious end. We have seen and experienced so much it is very difficult to decide on favourites but we are back in one piece, the boat has looked after us very well, despite a few decks leaks and we have had a memorable experience.

For the first time since the first post the blog is written sat at our dining table overlooking the trees and hills of Torquay with the sea in the background rather than at the forefront of our view.

For those who are interested we will do one more post on this trip with some of the statistics, when we've worked them all out!

We wrote the blog mainly to remind ourselves of the highlights of the trip and keep them in the right order but if you've been following us throughout the trip we hope you have enjoyed reading our posts.

The Admiral and her Captain

 

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