Yacht delivery - "Kings Ransom" - 14th October

So no sooner had the salt dried on our deckies from the hugely enjoyable lunch trip to the Island sailing Club than it was time to deliver t'other Dave's boat round to her winter mooring..

Now tother Dave is a member of the same sailing club I'm at, and while he enjoys a summer mooring in Port Solent, in the winter, despite it being a marina he likes to bring her out for odd jobs and drying out so the four of us yet again volunteered for a spiffing day on the briny..

While the two old(er) men spent the whole week deciding how we were going to get four blokes to the launch/start point, while still allowing a car to be left at the destination point for delivering aforesaid to their respective domiciles and cars (and trust me - Hitler's general staff would have taken a shorter time to plan the invasion of Russia.. 😂) so it was that at a very civilised hour of the morning I got picked up and whisked to Port Solent for what turned out to be quite possibly the best days sailing of the entire summer (outside of a few of the sessions on Ocean Waves possibly?) - a superb day, though chilly with it..

Departure point - taken while slaving at the kettle...

Covers off, lines singled up, and just a brief wait for the lock to become available and we were off..  HT was a big one (4.7 mtrs - we were on Springs) and due at 13:20 - we left the mooring around 2 hours before, which gave us plenty of time to get out of the harbour and then get the east going tide for the short trip to Langstone Harbour entrance..

The Harbour was busy - big NATO warship meet and greet on that weekend, and we met a representative of the Canadian navy on the way in, as we were coming out...

HMCS Fredericton apparently, a Halifax-class frigate that has served in the Canadian Forces since 1994.

Test

Once we were out of the harbour we struck east on the dying legs of a good tide, but with a good breeze..  aiming for the outer gate through the submarine barrier (too cold for any girls in bikinis to be on the beach so the inner gate was ruled out.. 😃) ..

Rodders looking bemused as we approach the outer gate (just by the other yacht)

Broad reach - so the genoa was rolled but even with just the main we were doing good speeds - 6.5 to 7 knots over the ground is not to be sniffed at..

That yacht ahead had perhaps the smallest spinnaker we've ever seen - pulled all the way to the mast head, and as a result he was rolling like a rolly thing..  😄

Rodders finally admits defeat..

All too soon we were tramping through the entrance to Langstone listening to mayday in the harbour - sounded like a kayaker had become separate from their craft and was holding on to a mooring buoy and shouting for help - not the warmest day of the year by any stretch, and we were too far away, so we were pleased to hear both kayaker and kayak had been rescued..  good job by the fisherman who'd called it in, and RNLI inshore who transferred him to the slipway..

An hour later and KR was coming out - job done...

Damn good day...  and the soup and sausage rolls slipped down a treat afterwards!

 

Time for Sparrow to come out as well... but that's the next post..

Log:

Distance: 13.81 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): F4/5 gusting 6 ; W/WxN
Sail Plan: Full main mostly, with and without genoa at times..
Speed (Max/average in knots):  6.9/3.8 (it was a quick trip!)