Midday Spring HT's to take advantage of as the Solent "travelator" would be at full chat at certain times. For going westward we could have a fairly leisurely start as they wouldn't be full bore until near hight water.
Convened at Rod's gaff at 0845 then, and headed for the boat. After a slight panic when Dave realised he didn't have his driving licence with him for photo id, but then remembered he had his passport with him (😧) we were on the boat and slipping the moorings at 10'ish.
Winds were (and had been all week) fairly spicy - it's hot here at the moment and I think the heatwave is contributing, all that hot air rising has to be replaced somehow (what is that? if I remember rightly from my old RYA skipper courses is it a catabatic? or an anabatic? Or neither at all and just a heat induced breeze.. 😁) Either way it was enough for us to put the second reef in and we had no reason to regret the decision most of the day..
Both days were easterly's, so the trip to Lymington was ostensibly a super long, tide assisted, run/very broad reach. A little over 5 hours door to door (and we've done trips to Cowes that have taken that long) comprising food, chat, banter, nonsense and a sunny warm glittering Solent... glorious..
Log:
Distance: 49.11 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Speed (Max/average in knots): 7.0 / 4.7 (average of the two days)
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| Moored up in Lymington.. |
Destination for the night was the Yacht Haven which we all love purely because of their FANTASTIC showers! 😁
Dinner was in the Fisherman's Rest, which was good (if not outstanding) before retiring to the boat for some of us to watch England play their semi final in the World Cup ..
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| This one was moored up opposite and caught my eye.. beautiful colour.. she's a Swallow Yachts boat.. |
Return trip started early so we could catch the 'travellator' in the opposite direction - with a F4 on the nose the entire way up the Solent, we knew we were going to need all the help it could provide.. so we were up for 0600, and dropped the mooring and were motoring for the Solent at 0700...
We'd kind of assumed we'd be motoring all the way, so for the western Solent we plugged away under said motor, doing 6.5/7 knots SOG (!), cooked breakfast (sausage baps) under way, and slurped tea, as we watched the sad sight of the sunken yacht ("Aliunde") slip past incredibly quickly..
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| "Aliunde".. more here [clicky] |
..she's been there since last September.. no sign of her being moved any time soon.. 😏
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| Nice view to eat your sausage bap to... that's the sun glinting on the Needles in the distance.. |
...we passed the Bramble bank (to the north) no more than an hour or hour and half after we left Lymington, and then put the sails up just after Calshot for a long and slightly tight'ish beat to Gilkicker point, before putting the motor on again for the last stretch up the inner swashway (where the wind was on the nose again) to the harbour and the mooring.. one end of the Solent to the other in just about 4 hours - got to love that 'travellator', and especially on Springs! 😏
Excellent trip - the next overnighter we've decide will be Cowes which gives us time to do a side trip on the way or way back...
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| Red 15th, yellow 16th.. |
Wind (Speed; Direction):
- 15th : F4 gusting F5; ENE
- 16th : Top end F4; NExN
Speed (Max/average in knots): 7.0 / 4.7 (average of the two days)
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