 | 20 th to 21 st of August 2012 - The Isle of Wight |
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| Crew : | Helen and Andy | |
| Destinations : | Yarmouth. | |
| Distance : | 20 miles |
Monday 20th August
We were up and had weighed anchor just after it got light, around 0700. The nights are much longer now. We motored through the moorings and out of Poole Harbour. We were able to get our sails up fairly quickly, accompanied by other yachts all hoping to catch the tide through the Needles Channel, or North Channel, into the Solent. It was quite choppy as we passed Shingles bank and we were being pushed sideways by the strong tide, so we motored briefly to pass the worse of the rips and then sailed again. Yarmouth Harbour was just on our starboard side as we entered the Solent. We followed a couple of other boats past the breakwater and were met by the harbour master in his dory. We were lucky as they had just got a free berth for a boat our size on a walk ashore pontoon, so by midday we were safely moored. We went for lunch and a walk along the river Yar to Freshwater Causeway, a very rural idyl. When we got back to the boat, unsurprisingly, two boats were rafted on us. The harbour became incredible busy. By late evening yachts had been packed in like sardines.
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There was no way any of us could get out again until late the following morning. We decided that, as we had to make a very early start to get to Eastbourne before dark we would need to be somewhere else the next evening as we wouldn't be able to slip out from the inside the raft at 0600
Tuesday 21 st August
Today we had an enforced leisurely start as we couldn't have gone anywhere even if we'd wanted to. By 1200 the boat on the outside of our raft left and we quickly made our exit, helping our neighbours back onto the pontoon. I left Andy to singlehandedly take Speedwell to the fuel pontoon, where I met him to take our lines. After filling our main tank we headed out to pick up a mooring buoy just outside the breakwater. This was in a very tidal part of the Solent and the wind was picking up so we had a very bumpy afternoon and evening to prepare ourselves for the following day. The forecast was for strong south westerly winds so we were looking forward to a speedy trip the following day.
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