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The Southampton Boat Show was worth the visit and allowed us to get a few bits and pieces for BV. We also did the rounds of the insurance companies to get quotes for sailing around and into the Mediterranean. In the evening the Rustler Owners dinner was also very good. A couple of fellow owners enthused about the Spanish Rias we plan to visit next year; it sounds like a great place to visit and we are both really looking forward to that adventure. We were also able to discuss our leaking window experience with another pair of owners who had had the same symptoms of just a few drops of water but more than could be put down to just condensation. They found that it was the rubber seal around the glass that had started to perish. It looks as if we will have to remove our window and send it away for the seal to be replaced. Getting the aluminium frames out is apparently a time-consuming job and it's easy to cause damage to the interior trim and gel coat so we will have to do that very carefully. Also, given that one of the frames has started to leak we really need to refurbish all of them. Not ideal but not unreasonable given that the rubber seals have been exposed to all weathers continuously for the last 12 years. It's also much better for us to do them now; one less thing to worry about, plus we know a company that will do the work well.

The first of many loads we moved to the car

And so after all of that excitement, it was time to sail back to our mooring. The Solent was busy with yachts and lots of people were out enjoying the end of season sun. However, we spent the afternoon emptying our clothes and food from BV. We also removed the genoa and staysail as they need some stitching replacing and some other small repairs. The kit piled up on the pontoon and in the end the car was jam packed for the trip home. It felt very strange to be driving again having not been in a car for 5 weeks.

There will be the usual mountain of mail to deal with and we will then start to work our way through the list of jobs on BV. One of the compass lights has failed; the galley needs a new coat or two of varnish, as do a number of other areas; the winches generator and engine need servicing; we want to put in some extra teak shelves in the galley cupboards; we need to clear out the junk in lockers we don't use and replace it with stuff we will use.... the list goes on and looks like it will keep us pretty busy for the next few months.

However, we have had a great time in south Brittany. It has proved that BV is pretty much ready to go but, more importantly, that we are too. We've been at home now for less than 24 hours and we are already wanting to get back to BV and sail away to new places. But first to the chores!

St Peter Port and back to the Solent

Enjoying the sunshine

Stopping in St Peter Port, Guernsey, again was very pleasant. It turned out that we had several days before the funeral and so would be able to get BV back to her normal mooring in the UK. It also meant we had time to catch up with family and friends on Guernsey over some really nice meals including a barbecue to which we cycled. I think Nicky’s ‘scenic route’ there took us up and down every steep hill on the island. Great views across the west coast though, so the extra pedalling was worth it. That pedalling, along with another run along the coastal path, were a small waistline-reducing token gesture to try and compensate for the fabulous meals out.

Castle Cornet

The tide crossing the sill at Victoria Marina

On Tuesday 18 September it was an early start with our alarm going off at 0515hrs, just as the water was starting to come over the sill into Victoria Marina. It was a spring tide and so, with a tidal range of 8.6 metres, the water really rushed in. Amazingly just 45 minutes later the water level had risen by 2 metres and we were able to slip out of the marina at 0610hrs.

The tide ran strongly pushing us north and then north-east through the Alderney Race. Between Alderney and Cap de la Hague we turned north. With the wind from the west-north-west, and being so strongly pushed east by the tide, we ended up close hauled with 2 reefs in punching north through a very lumpy sea with, at one point, 15 knots speed over the ground on the GPS! The cockpit stayed dry but a lot of water came over the deck on several occasions in some confused seas. We discovered that we have a slight leak on one window in the saloon plus some water came in through a hatch we had not tightened down enough; lesson hopefully learnt on closing hatches properly plus and extra sealing job on the list for when we are back home.  The sea didn’t really calm down until we were about 10 miles north of Cap de la Hague but BV took the brisk wind and confused sea in her stride; she is a very confidence inspiring yacht. The ideal heading for our passage back to the Needles was about 010 deg Mag but the wind was forecast to veer more north-westerly and we were anticipating arriving at the Needles as the tide turned to the west.  Given that, it made sense to maintain a close-hauled course, which took us up to weather, and, if we slowed at all, would put us up-tide of the Needles too. Inevitably, the expected veer did not occur, nor did the wind reduce, so we ended up bearing away to about 040 deg Mag for the last 3 hours of the passage. This made for some very fast and entertaining sailing at the end of what was still a quick passage; we came in through the Needles Channel 12 hours after leaving St Peter Port.

Entering the Solent past the Needles Lighthouse

Once back into the Solent we moored up in Yarmouth and after a quick dinner crashed out for the night. In the morning of Wednesday 19 September, we made a short hop east and anchored in Newtown River for a maintenance day. By fluke there was a chap I knew from work on a yacht anchoring near to us. We’d sailed together in Croatia and, suitably enthused, he was now in the middle of taking his Competent Crew course. He and two of the other guys on the course rowed over to say hello and take a look at BV.

Despite the blue skies it was distinctly chillier in England and we missed the warmer temperatures to which we had become used. Nicky cleaned the grabrails and the teak in the cockpit and then gave it all a coat of teak oil. She had done the cap rails whilst we were in Guernsey so all of the teak has now had enough TLC for a few months. I pickled the watermaker and serviced the aft shower-sump pump; another job where an extra joint or two in my arm would have been very handy to help reach the screws and connectors.

The next step would be a trip up Southampton Water so that we could spend a day at the Southampton Boat Show. Then, in the evening, attend the Rustler Owners Association annual dinner at the Royal Southampton Yacht Club. After a month away finding a smart shirt without creases could prove to be tricky.