Aka "The hardy sail while the rest of us think about sailing!"
The forecast was not good, F3-4 strengthening to F5 for Saturday, overcast but dry, and F5 strengthening to F6 with rain and showers on Sunday. Just the sort of day for a good sail!
With Victor as skipper, Susie and Robert sailed on the Saturday out of Hamble to Cowes in Nemo, a 38ft Bavaria, in fact, the same as we chartered to Cherbourg earlier in the year. So with two reefs and a reduced genoa we set off. The tides were extraordinarily high springs, you walked down the ramps from the pontoons at Cowes. Put another way, with Nemo’s 2.1 m draft there was enough water to cross just east of the shallowest part of the Bramble at about high tide but you don’t take the short cuts coming back in on a falling tide. We would have been able to cross to Cowes directly but a container ship came across our path and we hove-to for it to past – it did us a favour because the westward going tide brought us in line with the Medina River so we did not have to tack to enter Cowes.
After a sandwich lunch Victor and Susie went into Cowes for some retail therapy, while Robert took his Shabbos schluff.
Again with two reefs in the main, we were able to goose wing up the greens west of Bramble to the North Channel in winds up to 17kts, then a beam reach to just before the spit on the Hamble River, down sails and motor into the marina.
Saturday evening we ate in the Victory Inn in Hamble Le Rice. The barmaid showed her full menu, similar fare to the Ketch. We did not starve.
After our extra hour in bed our Sunday crew arrived- Martin, Michael and Bob at 9.00hrs.
Victor decided that the Solent would not be suitable with the rising wind force and sea state so we went up Southampton Water on three reefs and a genoa that was smaller than used on Saturday. The wind was a definite, rather than a “story in the pub afterwards”, F6 gusting to 30kts. We had the full guided tour – the QE2 was in dock being refuelled, and another cruise liner was in port as well, at no extra charge.
It was raining quite steadily by now, and we had options – tying up on a pontoon where the Southampton boat show is held, or eating on the hoof and returning back to Hamble without stopping. We chose the latter because to have moored for lunch would have been difficult to enter or leave, fenders out, lines out, sails down, and then all the reverse – and it was raining, Thanks to Susie for proving the crew with hot soup, we felt better, and decided to go back to Hamble. We had three hours of sailing and covered 17 miles according to the chart – how much was tide and how much actual I do not know because the log was not counting the miles. Back in the Hamble, after refuelling and safely in the marina, courtesy of Robert, we could breath again, dry off and have our sandwich lunches, clean the boat, and bid farewell in the rain.
All that was left was to drive back to London – end of school half term on a wet Sunday afternoon – to our drivers, thanks, to our crew and thanks for giving us the opportunity to do have a sail at the end of the season. Maybe we plan for the summer months next time.
Thanks to Victor for skippering, and Susie for being game enough to share a boat for two nights with two strange men (I can hear the chorus – we are not strange!).
Robert Falk