Most weekends this summer have been marred by: 1. too much wind; 2. too little wind; 3. rain; 4. plague... etc.. In other words a typical British summer. This one was rather better. Charlotte and Michele joined Toucando on Friday, and after a crab salad we set off for Yarmouth. We had a pretty good sail down Southampton Water, then tacked down the western Solent. Yarmouth unfortunately had its "Harbour Full" sign up, so we went to Lymington instead. We had a few exciting minutes stuck on the mud by the Lymington River channel, but were helped off by a passing rib (rigid inflatable boat). We stayed on the excellent Dan Bran pontoon.
On Saturday we had thought about going to Poole, but it would have meant a ridiculously early start, so we went with the tide to Gosport instead. Haslar Marina gave us a good berth - easy to get on and off. We had a walk around the town centre and up to Royal Clarence yard: then curry on board Toucando and a viewing of "Deep Water" the documentary about Donald Crowhurst's ill fated participation in the 1968 Sunday Times Round the World Race.
On Sunday we thought we would take advantage of the tide and sail east first towards the Nab Tower and then come back into the Solent and up to Southampton with the tide. It all worked very well. We went on every point of sail and only had to tack twice to get all the way back from the Nab to Weston Shore and the entrance to the River Itchen. Thanks to Charlotte, Michele and some decent summer weather.
I am going to try and upload a video: let's hope it works.
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