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| ...our ride for the weekend... Halberg Rassy 342 "Ocean Wave of Albany" |
As the washing is now done, I guess it's the time to do the log entry for the
now nearly mythical event that is the Jolly Boys Cruise..
So yet another triumph - they always are - but I would say not without some
less pleasant challenges this time round... however, you'll be pleased
to know that yet again there was no Lymington cock up this year.. but
only because we never went...
Friday
So it was the team conjoined early on Friday morning at Rod's place for a swift trip to the boat which was reached about 10 for a departure about mid-day (on HT). First days target was Cowes, an easy 2 or 3 hours away, but conditions were good, and also breezy while not requiring reefs despite a number of other boats doing so. Passed Cowes within an easy hour or two, and we just carried on enjoying the Solent tidal escalator that whipped us down to almost Yarmouth within what seemed like a stupidly short period of time.
We should have realised.. for every idyllic tidally assisted "downhill" run, there is always the "uphill" slog to get back to where you wanted to be until the tide turns, and with 3 or 4 knots of adverse tide for 3 or more hours to come, and an upwind beat, Cowes was a way away now... as it turned out I had the helm for this, and have to say that it was the most glorious sail I've had on Ocean Wave.. Halberg Rassy's are not built light, and she just went up wind in a good force 4 like she was on rails.. fantastic...
Our destination in Cowes was a first as well - Shepherds Marina, where we also had another first as we were rafted outside of another boat.. nice people with two little one's so we tried to be as quiet as we could..
By the by, all those years of doing Jolly Boys cruises earlier in the year had not really prepared us for some of the difficulties of this one.. a mix of Covid, lack of overseas holidays, start of school holidays, and it being mid July meant that almost every marina in the Solent was rammed.. thousands and thousands of berths and not a one to be had in most places.. Rod ("Captain, my captain") had started phoning round last week and had got spots for two nights - this one, and Yarmouth on Sunday, but we were berth-less for Saturday at this point.
Food at the Duke of York was (still) very nice I thought.. it being Friday it was fish and chip night for me which was very good, the restaurant manageress made us laugh, and a good time was had by all.. cracking day, but that upwind sail from just short of Yarmouth to Cowes was a blast, and I was still grinning..
We should have slept well, but overnight there was the mother of all
thunderstorms what seemed like immediately overhead... sleeping directly
under a 40 foot lightning conductor does focus the mind...
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Picture courtesy my Sis.. |
Saturday
Saturday dawned grey, still and mizzly - forecast was not brilliant - we knew
we'd get sun later but there was little wind around (and by the end of the day
the forecast was proven right). Quick call around while we were waiting for
breakfast to cook, and we found ourselves a berth for the night in
Port Hamble
What to do with the day though? Decision taken to have a gentle motor up Southampton Water to have a look at the simply huge liners and container ships.. there were loads of them in... a lovely warm day, no wind, gentle putter back up the Water towards the Solent and then turned for Port Hamble and the mooring.
Now this was where it all turned a bit brown coloured - suffice to say we were
on Springs and there was a fair amount of water flowing out of the Hamble
(river) into Southampton Water, but what we didn't realise was how much of
that tide was also flowing through the actual marina pontoons. Long
story short, our turn into the berth was not fast enough and we ended up
t-boned on the anchor of the boat next to us - took out two stanchions on
Ocean Wave but with the help of a couple of people on neighbouring boats we
managed to haul her in on warps.. shi**y end to the day, but as we said,
no one had died, no one was injured, no other boats except ours was damaged^^
(one of us had a roving fender..tick), the damage didn't look awful, but it
was very much time for a beer while we sent Rod to the marina office to tell
them it was all his fault, and report the accident....
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Berth was about where the red circle is - tide was running right to
left (yellow arrows) - pic courtesy Ancasta |
Dinner at Ye Olde Whyte Harte was OK, not as good as the previous evening, but a day on the water does wonders for the appetite, and certainly the beer was good.
Sunday
Sunday dawned grey again - with mizzle again - another full English breakfast (this time cooked by t'other Dave) settled the nerves, and forewarned and forearmed by the knowledge of the previous day we made what must have been one of the quickest exits we had ever made from a berth! Plenty of engine revs to counter the tide that was again flowing adversely - even with that we had to do a little shuffle in reverse to get the angle on the exit... huge sigh of relief to get out without further issue.
Few hours of motoring and the wind began to fill in, and this turned out to be the second best sailing day of the trip.. we had a good tidal assisted sail down to Yarmouth, albeit at one point in time through a cloud burst, and with the odd rumble of thunder over the island..
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Smithy in full cloudburst mode.. being the caring bunch of
mates we are, we of course disappeared down below to drink tea, eat
cake, and hurl abuse... |
Such a good sail in fact that we arrived too soon so turned up wind for a little additional sailing time against the tide. a good afternoon..
Sails down we motored into Yarmouth and were treated to the sight of a large seal surfacing, fresh from a kill - looked like he had a nice big flat fish of some sort.
We had our own berth, but were caught out again by tidal flow in the marina (this time from the river we think) which threw us a little out, but a quick push by the marina's rib, and quick throw of a mooring rope ashore got us out of danger pretty quick.
A shower, a few beers, and a much needed dinner at the Bugle ended the penultimate day - the food was very good, but a limited choice...
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What a shower... Yarmouth pier selfy... |
Monday
Early start to catch the tide east - we were leaving by 0800 - breakfast
cooked and eaten on the go - I have only ever seen the Solent so completely
still and flat once before. Not a breath or a ripple...
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Leaving Yarmouth |
Despite that, the tidal escalator was in full flow, and despite being on only tick over, we were doing 4 to 5 knots over the ground.. hot sun, Solent, and sausages.. perfect.
Passed Newtown, passed Cowes, passed Gilkicker, passed Ryde - took just over 3 hours - amazing. A decision was then taken to head to Seaview to pick up one of the sailing clubs buoys for lunch.
A very enjoyable couple of hours eating lunch and watching the local dayboat class (Seaview Mermaid class) racing - pretty boats..
Time at last to get back - one of the charter organisers wanted to see the damage as they had another charter later in the week. Good fast sail back to Portsmouth, and after a little flutter when we assumed we had engine issues (no/limited forward drive) that turned out to be weed, we were back alongside for 5'ish..
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"Golden Horizon" - worlds largest square rigged sailing ship - a
passenger ship - departed her berth as we packed up.. |
Log:
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| Red Day 1 (Fri); Blue Day 2 (Sat); Green Day 3 (Sun); Yellow Day 4 (Mon) |
Distance: 119.42 miles (c/w 62.76 last time!) (cumulative totals for the year in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind:
- Fri F4 gusting F5; SEE
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Sat: F1/F2; SE quadrants
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Sun: Started F2 ended up top end F4; NxW going NW
- Mon: Both ends of a F4; SWxW
Speed: See distance section above.. Friday was a day of big speeds and big winds.. 10.2 knots over the ground and an average over almost 8 hours of over 5 knots!
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