Saturday 22nd October 2005 – East Cowes – RVYC Laying Up Supper
HW wasn’t until 15:10, so we aimed to leave at 13:30, and I did the last major job of replacing the sewage pipes! As there was a light Westerly and was very light in Chichester Harbour, and we were on a timescale, we motored all the way - it being on the nose out in the Solent. It would have been a good sail but taken ages beating and it’s a way to Cowes.
So we gunned it and got into East Cowes in three hours!!! What an engine!
We then went to RVYC for the Laying Up Supper there and had a fantastic evening – we sat with Hilton’s crowd and David & Ann. Sarah organising – crew of Hilton’s boat “Lillian Rose” included Samaya and Martin and Rob. The young barman is Tom – main man of course David Shotter.
Sunday 23rd October 2005
Light winds but very sailable – we motored to the entrance to Cowes, put up the sails and broad reached home on a SW 2-3 sometimes a bit more. Saw a lot of sunshine early, and then rain, cloud and sun all over again.
Great sail and we sailed all the way back to the top of the Emsworth Channel, getting some 16-17 knot gusts and of course we were on a beam, reach so we flew! Got in and sorted but had to rush off though as I had a squash match to get to! Mooring was hard as the flood one hour before makes A pontoon very difficult to moor against. Lessons being learned all the time!
Saturday 28th October 2005 – Haslar
Set off with Vulpes and APB as crew on Selene at 1030. Southerly F4-5. Vulpers left ahead of us. Motored out and passed a boat called Ransom of which we will hear more later.
Put the main up on the way down, and turned the motor off at West Pole after putting in one reef as the wind was just on the 18 knot mark. Had a super reach to Horse Sand Fort, overtaking Vulpes on the way.
Had some fun and games trying to get the reef out when we turned the corner for Haslar with all the lines jamming, but then ran in fine. We then steamed in on the motor against the strong ebb stil doing 7 knots in. We found some good space inside Mary Mouse 2 and had to wait for Vulpes as they struggled against the current as we used to in High Tension.
We then cracked the champagne and met a young couple called Jeremy and Nikky on the Hustler “Ransom” who were flying the ECA pennant and turned out to be new members having just joined a week ago. So we introduced them to the alternative side of the ECA!
We also invited Simon Powell who was one of the brokers for a drink and all set off for Gunwharf.
Of course we had a great evening at Levant folowed by drinks on Selene.
Sunday 29th October 2005 – Haslar
The clocks went back and it was 0930 HW, so an early start. After a fry-up, we left at 0800 and the wind was blowing! Chimet showed F6 already. We rasied the main with a single reef in Haslar and again motored past Vulpes on the way out as the tide was against us again. We started sailing by Spit Sand Fort and had a fast fetch with the wind a steady 22-23 knots and building. As we got to Langstone it got stronger and the sea really built up. Julia gave her breakfast back to Neptune but Selene handled beautifully.
We started to see gusts of 28/29 knots as we approached West Pole and the sea was by now 5/6 metres high. However, with only a mile or so to go I just left the single reef in and feathered the main. Slene was fine.
Andy had some fun getting the main in as I motored into the face of some massive waves off West Pole. I decided to motor rather than risk running downwind, which Selene would rather reach on, and also I didn’t want to be thrashing around getting the main down amongst all the racers in a blow. Again the power of the Volvo was great and made life easy for us.
When we got back we hooked up with John & Jackie in the pub and they came back for drinks later.
