Sailing the Solent
Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 1:10 am
Just wanted to publicly pass my thanks to RickJ for taking this temporarily boatless Mac owner out for a weekend on the Solent.
After walking, tubing, training, busing, ferrying, chain ferrying, and walking some more, Rick picked me up at the West Cowes public pier just before lunch on Saturday. Since there was no wind at the moment we motored over to Osbourne Bay for lunch. The winds picked up after lunch and we were off...it was amazing...there must have been 1,000 sailboats (and I am not exaggerating) under sail in the Solent under a beautiful blue sky.
We headed East on our 2-day planned "round the island adventure" on Milestone. After a few hours the winds started picking up so Rick decided to put in reef. So we did the ol' "Heave To"...marvelous...I had never seen or done that before. It worked like a charm. The boat was extremely stable. Had to pick my jaw up off the floor of the cockpit.
After about 6.5 hours (including about 4 hours beating pretty much directly into a 20 mph wind with building waves) we reached Ventnor harbour around 1900. We got the only available mooring left in this very small harbour...probably about 15 boats overall (10 on bouys, 5 at the small pontoon). Harbour master was out of town so no water taxi. So we inflated his dinghy and rowed over to the pontoon and tied off so that we could walk into town for dinner at a local pub.
We walked back to the marina at about 2130 and "lo and behold" the entire harbour was dry...wet slimy mud actually....doh! Back to the pub until they kicked us out at 2345. There was just enough water to float the dinghy so we got back out to the boat and went to sleep.
The next morning we had to depart before 0830 to ensure there was enough water. We got out with no problem but the winds were blowing 20+, the waves from the South were 4-5', and the skys were very low, gray, and rainy. So, discretion being the better part of valor, we decided to head back the way we came rather than continuing on around the island. We were concerned the weather on the South side of the island would be a little "iffy". And by going back North we only had to go about 13 miles until we were back in the Solent where the island would block the waves and wind coming from the South.
We motored North with a following sea...it was an interesting ride. The visibility was only about 1 mile but we made it back to the Solent. Sails back up and off we went. Unfortunately we were fighting the tidal current and not making much SOG...but we were sailing. Eventually the sun came back out. We hove to a couple more times. We had some issues with shallow areas. And after about 5 more hours of sailing we motored back to his Marina on the Medina River.
The next day I rode in a car, ferry, bus, train, tube and walked for my return journey to London. It was a great weekend.
Thanks again to Rick and his wife for hosting me. I hope I can return the favor someday.
Jim
After walking, tubing, training, busing, ferrying, chain ferrying, and walking some more, Rick picked me up at the West Cowes public pier just before lunch on Saturday. Since there was no wind at the moment we motored over to Osbourne Bay for lunch. The winds picked up after lunch and we were off...it was amazing...there must have been 1,000 sailboats (and I am not exaggerating) under sail in the Solent under a beautiful blue sky.
We headed East on our 2-day planned "round the island adventure" on Milestone. After a few hours the winds started picking up so Rick decided to put in reef. So we did the ol' "Heave To"...marvelous...I had never seen or done that before. It worked like a charm. The boat was extremely stable. Had to pick my jaw up off the floor of the cockpit.
After about 6.5 hours (including about 4 hours beating pretty much directly into a 20 mph wind with building waves) we reached Ventnor harbour around 1900. We got the only available mooring left in this very small harbour...probably about 15 boats overall (10 on bouys, 5 at the small pontoon). Harbour master was out of town so no water taxi. So we inflated his dinghy and rowed over to the pontoon and tied off so that we could walk into town for dinner at a local pub.
We walked back to the marina at about 2130 and "lo and behold" the entire harbour was dry...wet slimy mud actually....doh! Back to the pub until they kicked us out at 2345. There was just enough water to float the dinghy so we got back out to the boat and went to sleep.
The next morning we had to depart before 0830 to ensure there was enough water. We got out with no problem but the winds were blowing 20+, the waves from the South were 4-5', and the skys were very low, gray, and rainy. So, discretion being the better part of valor, we decided to head back the way we came rather than continuing on around the island. We were concerned the weather on the South side of the island would be a little "iffy". And by going back North we only had to go about 13 miles until we were back in the Solent where the island would block the waves and wind coming from the South.
We motored North with a following sea...it was an interesting ride. The visibility was only about 1 mile but we made it back to the Solent. Sails back up and off we went. Unfortunately we were fighting the tidal current and not making much SOG...but we were sailing. Eventually the sun came back out. We hove to a couple more times. We had some issues with shallow areas. And after about 5 more hours of sailing we motored back to his Marina on the Medina River.
The next day I rode in a car, ferry, bus, train, tube and walked for my return journey to London. It was a great weekend.
Thanks again to Rick and his wife for hosting me. I hope I can return the favor someday.
Jim
I've only just spotted it cos I don't drop into this forum very much. It was good to have your company, and sorry about my propensity for shallow water. 
