More socialising in the Solent

Last Monday we left the River Medina and sailed to Lymington in warm sunshine to meet some more friends. By 1455 we had picked up one of the fore and aft river moorings close to the Town Quay and welcomed our first guest aboard. Colin Merrett found us on Facebook, we had not seen him since our days sailing 470's, nearly 40 years ago. Good to see that, apart from going greyer and being wider round the middle he was still the same Colin with a fantastic sense of humour that we remembered from all those years ago. After a beer with Colin we then collected Clare and Neil Carden and Pat Farrell, who we had sailed with in the Caribbean in January of this year, switching to g&t's as the nearest equivalent to the Caribbean rums! The 5 of us rowed ashore in our rather overloaded dinghy to be treated to dinner at Neil and Clare's, a great evening reminiscing and catching up on events. Neil dropped us back to the quay and Pat to the ferry to take him back to Yarmouth.
The next day, after stocking up at M&S simply food we headed out through Hurst Narrows to Totland Bay, where we anchored off the beach to meet Pat again for lunch at his house, which is just at the top of the coastal path steps leading up from the beach, what a great place to live.

Pat waves us off from the beach.

After lunch Pat saw us off from the beach. The water was very clear and calm and the skipper decided to take to the water to see if he could see what state the propellor and anode was in after nearly six months sailing. The admiral persuaded him that it wasn't worth getting his wet suit all salty so he went in just swim shorts. Big mistake! This is not the Caribbean, the water was freezing, much too cold to be able to breath properly for diving under the boat so a quick lap around the boat was all he managed. Being rinsed down with a bowl of warm water was very pleasant though!

Not to be repeated in these waters!

Leaving Totland Bay we headed back into the Solent and into Newtown Creek where we anchored in Clamerkin Lake, which was surprisingly busy. Plenty of places to anchor but all the mooring buoys were occupied. After a quiet night, the next morning we planned to head over to the Beaulieu river but as the sun came out we decided that we were as well off enjoying the sun and the peace where we were as moving to the other side of the Solent. We spent the afternoon reading and sunbathing then, as the wind died in the late afternoon we rowed the dinghy up to Spur Lake, through the ruined timbers of the old sea wall and as far up the creek as we could go before we ran out of water.

Through the old sea wall.

On the way back we drifted down wind so as not to disturb the seals resting on the bank and got quite close to them. A fine end to the day.

Seal watching.

On Thursday morning we sailed for Warsash, where we were due to meet Penny and Bob Marchant, who we met originally in Tenerife. Bob is a keen birdwatcher and was keen to find out what we had seen on our voyage. With the wind in the East and the tide ebbing we had everything against us but the wind strength was just right for full sail. We sailed straight across to the North shore then tacked to the East in the shallower water out of the main tide. By lunchtime we were moored to the Harbourmaster's pontoon at Warsash in time for a spot of lunch before Penny and Bob came on board. By 1500 we were under way again, bound for Marchwood where Richard and Anne Vie had arranged a mooring for us to leave Lacerta on so we could have a couple of nights ashore with them and visit the Southampton boat show. At 1700 we were alongside the Marchwood YC pontoon to offload our gear and an hour later Lacerta was securely attached to a mooring at Bury, upstream from Marchwood.

Container ship being swung off the Marchwood pontoon.

As always when we get together with the Vies we had a very sociable evening over dinner and a couple of bottles of wine followed by a night in a proper bed!
Fortified by a good breakfast we caught the train from Romsey on Friday morning to Southampton and the boat show. Unusually for us we didn't go aboard any yachts and didn't pay our usual homage to the Rustler 42, instead spending hours talking to sailmakers about new sails, after nearly 3000 miles on this trip plus the trips in the previous 5 years our mainsail and genoa are starting to look tired, and the captain was never happy with the shape in the first place! We also bought a new vhf radio with a bigger and brighter screen and a remote handset for the cockpit. Tired but satisfied we returned to Romsey where we were joined by Anne and Richard's daughter Charlotte and celebrated Anne's birthday with more wine. Terrible influence these Vies.
On Saturday while Anne and Charlotte went to the Romsey show and did horsey things Richard kindly took us shopping to Waitrose so we could stock up for our next round of visitors. We were due in Ocean Village in the afternoon to collect Debbie's September FLP order and pick up our son, Richard and his friends Cathie and Matt for a day's sailing. Proceedings were delayed by a great aerobatic display by the Red Arrows, which we watched while rafted alongside Harvard.

Red arrows entertainment.

The delay meant we picked up Richard, Cathie and Matt at 1815 and headed off to the Beaulieu river where we picked up a mooring in the dark. The next morning we were able to read that the buoy was intended for a max length of 18ft. Good job it was a quiet night! We were still charged a mind boggling £20 for mooring for the night. If we had known it was that much we would have anchored.
Sunday was a busy day. We sailed from Beaulieu to Cowes with Matt on the helm where we stopped for lunch, avoiding any charges this time. We logged 3000 miles on the trip during this sail. With an increasing wind we headed back to Southampton to drop our visitors off at Ocean Village before sailing back down Southampton Water to Warsash for a night on the Harbourmaster's pontoon.
On Monday morning more friends, Debby and Hugh Myers and Caroline and Nick Martin came on board for tea and a chat, another nice catch up session. Our plan had been to sail in the afternoon to Cowes but with an ever increasing wind and force 7 to severe gale 9 forecast we opted to stay put for another night. At least there's an opportunity to catch up with the blog. Cowes tomorrow when the wind has died down is now the plan!

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