May Bank Holiday Weekend

The May Bank Holiday weekend was mostly miserably wet and grey.  A forecast of some fairly strong mid-Channel winds also put us off going over to France.  On its own not too much of a drama but to get across to France and be able to visit shops when they are open we have to leave on the Friday night.  From our perspective a trip to France would not be complete without the chance to indulge in some nice seafood and cheese shopping.  But after a busy week at work the last thing Nicky needed was a weekend of limited sleep and a Friday/Saturday night being thrashed in a mid-Channel gale.  Also I'm far from good in bad weather suffering from seasickness until I have spent a long time onboard and acclimatised.  Therefore the delights of French seafood and cheese were put on hold for the time being and we elected to go for a relatively local sail.  

We got up at 7 am on Saturday to get BV ready and then took the tide west aiming towards Poole.  BV has grown a significant beard on her underside and is definitely not performing at her best under power or sail.  That will all improve when she has been hauled out and cleaned up at the end of this month but for now it's a little frustrating knowing she is at least a knot or two slower than she should be.  It was close to Spring tides and so by getting up promptly we were able to gain an extra few knots of tide heading in right direction to compensate.  The weather forecasts still talked about gales due  imminently in the Wight sea region but we saw none of it.  Having made good progress west, getting into Poole Harbour would have been a slog against a strong outflowing

Chapman's Pool

tide.  With NE winds set to continue there isn't a great sheltered anchorage there we could have got into so we elected to continue on to one of our favourite passage anchorages, Chapman's Pool.  Situated just west of Anvil Point in Dorset, Chapman's Pool is an interesting spot with good protection from northerly winds.  It is a fairly wild spot really only accessible on foot or by boat.  The 400ft high cliffs dominate and in certain light they can glow or conversely look a little dark and sinister.  It's full of character with just a couple of old fishing sheds (one of which used to be a lifeboat station) on the shore and it has a sense of raw nature about it which we like.  A nice spot to watch the sun go down after a pleasant day sailing.  The photo is one I have picked up from the internet; it gives a better feel of the place than my photographic attempts from sea level.

Needles Lighthouse

Sunday morning was an early start again but straight out sailing to use the east going tide.  We were beating into the wind and did not make the tide gate to pass through the Needles Passage back into the Solent.  We therefore tried an anchorage just south of the Needles light house.  We have not anchored in Scrathchell's Bay before but from the chart it looked as though it would give good shelter from the NE.  The anchor bit in very hard bringing us up with a  sharp jolt; clearly our Rocna anchor likes chalk seabeds.  Great holding was a bonus as the NE wind was somehow channeled around to be more southerly in the bay and it was 'a bit rolly'.  The photo on the right (again poached from the internet) shows the view from the top of the cliff.  The anchorage allowed us a few lazy hours for lunch and to wait for the east-going tide to build to get us into the Solent.  A new anchorage for us but we have marked it down as one for settled weather only.

At 5 pm we were on our way again, motoring up the Needles Passage into a 10 knot wind trying to find an east going eddy in the tide on the south side of the passage.  That worked well and, as we were

Moonrise

pushed into the Solent by the building tide, the wind also picked up and even the sun came out.  We had a chilly but very pleasant beat east.

Beaulieu River was our chosen anchorage for the night but the river has a bar at it's entrance.  We arrived half an hour before my tidal calculations concluded that we had the water to get into the river and so, whilst I stowed the mainsail, Nicky motored gingerly along the entrance transit.  We figured that with the seabed being mud we wouldn't do any damage and on a rising tide there wouldn't be too much embarrassment if we touched; it might even have cleaned off the bottom of the keel if we had ploughed a small furrow across the bar!  As it was Nicky found a path with 20cms to spare and so we were able to drop anchor earlier than planned and, over a glass or two of wine, watch the steady progression of yachts progressing up river with the sounds of the Oystercatchers calling out from the bird sanctuary behind us.  After dinner we picked out Venus from a starlit sky and enjoyed a fantastic moonrise.

The tradition of it raining on British Bank Holidays was perpetuated with rain for most of the Monday as we tacked across the Solent back towards Portsmouth.  Even with our 'dirty bottom' we made reasonable progress despite the wind against tide producing a short sea which regularly kept stopping us from getting up to speed.  In comparison with the yachts which had elected to motor into wind, I think we had a much more comfortable passage as they appeared to have a ride more akin to a bucking bronco.

And so back to our mooring.  It was great to get out on the water but having to get back before we had really got anywhere emphasised how exciting it will be when we are free from our current routine of being tied by work commitments.  We are very much looking forward to the day next Spring when we set off knowing that the adventure lies ahead.