This was the last full weekend sail of the season, organised as a massive get-together by Sandy and Gill culminating at an eatery in Lymington on Saturday evening. We were expecting more than 20 fellow members and they all arrived safely and on time into Berthons on one of the sunniest Saturday afternoons this year!
We welcomed Arnold and Rosie aboard Glissando, David, Nicky, Holly and Nigel aboard Ulysees, David and Trish aboard Celestra, Sandy, Avi and Richard on Sea Dream, and the two charters, Phil and Gill, and Mario on Blue Lady (Hallberg-Rassy 34) and Robert, Victor, Michael and Wendy on Jasper (Dufour 36).
The two charter boats set off from Hamble after a Friday eve meal in the Ketch. On Saturday morning the crew of Jasper were honoured with the haute cuisine of our resident chef, Wendy, who prepared pain-perdu avec thé de menthe, spoiled by the oversight of not having salt, pepper, proper tea or coffee. We had enough milk though. Had we known, we would have stopped off at Tesco on the way down. So next time, folks, the culinary grab bag will contain the rudiments of haute cuisine. (for more info… provisioning list will be available on the HSSC web-site very soon!)
The tides on Saturday were favourable for a westbound passage, but the wind was not that co-operative, just F2 to 3. Certainly not winches under water weather. On Jasper we tried tacking downwind, goose-winging first one side then the other.
Eventually we reached the Needles at the turn of the tide, had thoughts of “turn left and keep going” to France, but there was not enough wind, so instead we took the obligatory pics of the lighthouse, the birds on the rocks above the lighthouse, the coloured sand at Alum Bay cliffs, and wandered back towards Lymington.
Sea Dream found quite a few pockets of wind and reached 6 knots at one time, but sadly not for long… the goose-winging leisurely passage however, was spiced up by piped Rugby into the cockpit, with alternate cheers and boos depending on whether it was the ex Rhodesian Englishman or the Welsh fanatic that was uttering the cry!
Sea Dream also had intersting encounters (not at close quarters!) with the JST training ship Tenacious and another beautiful little minature square rigger.
We reached our allocated berths in Lymington and got in without crunching any of the other boats already there (true for Sea Dream as well!). A quick trip by Robert to Force-4 chandlery got a replacement shackle to fix the Genoa back onto Jasper’s Furlex, followed by a quick trip to the showers – they are actually quite good there, drinks on Sandy’s boat – thanks Sandy and Avi, and then a meander to the Ship Inn for dinner. For some of us that journey may have been a blur; could that be due to the rampant consumption of Brazilian sugar cane rum-based Kyperenias on a bed of sugar with a hint (more like a couple of wedges) of lime? The food was good, the company great, the sleep afterwards peaceful if you had your ear plugs in against the snoring and halyards bashing against masts – not sure that was a problem this time because some of us have never been woken up by our own snoring and there was no wind.
Waking up on Sunday morning was a leisurely affair, alarm set at 9, wake up at 7 without it. (Sea Dream woke up much, much later!!!)
Companiable visits to all the boats followed by a spot of retail therapy in Lymington (great deck trainers on sale at Harken store), preceded a leisurely exit and departure, boat by boat.
The tides were against us. The sites of interest we could have visited were Yarmouth, Newtown Creek, and / or Cowes. Progress was slow, Progress was very slow. Yarmouth gave way to Newtown Creek, and what with the marked depth of water in the creek, a falling tide, and the depth of the keel, and the fact we were not making much progress anyway Jasper decided to head for Cowes. When they got to the Beaulieu River there was just enough wind to get a sail up, to give all of 2 kts, but in brilliant hazy sunshine. Think, instead of a F2 or 3 it could have been raining, and a F6, or even worse a F1. Progress was of such a speed that the thought of going to Cowes just to motor the whole way back did not appeal, so Jasper headed straight for the Hamble, arriving there just after 16h30. Sea Dream followed much the same process and after floating around whilst generous portions of pizza, pitta, corn on the cob and salad were consumed, boosted the engine back to Gosport.
Blue Lady anchored in Newtown Creek for lunch, Glissando rafted-up alongside and a peaceful lunch in the sunshine of fish balls, smoked salmon, humous, chollah and salad was enjoyed together in Blue Lady’s cockpit ! Gill reckons that Newtown Creek is the nearest the Solent can offer to the Carribean particularly on a beautiful sunny Sunday!
Another fine HSSC outing and despite the lack of wind, it was a much appreciated warm and sunny Autumn event.
Many thanks to all those who organised the event, the cooking, the cleaning up, etc. from Jasper and crew, and many more thanks to all members for contributing enormously to the success of the weekend.
Robert Falk
Sandy Kattan
Gill Woodbridge