Tag: Newtown Creek

Solent Potter

With warm sunny weather but strong winds forecast, Niki and I decided to enjoy a few lazy days aboard and visit some of our favourite anchorages. Our first stop was in Chichester harbour.

We beat up from Gosport against a lively North Easterly. We had some trouble tacking against the wind and noticed that we did much better on one tack than the other – it was then Niki realised that one of the shrouds had worked loose. I recalled that when I had re-stepped the mast, I had not had time to properly adjust the rig tension and so had not secured the turnbuckles!

There are several popular encourages in Chichester, which offer great protection from the prevailing south westerly wind direction, but there are fewer options when that direction is reversed. East Head looked far from pleasant and conditions at our customary spot under Pilsea Island were not to our liking either.

The chart indicates that there is anchorage in the Bosham channel, so we poked our nose up there. However this was no good for dropping the pin either, as the moorings extend the whole way down the channel. At this point, we admitted defeat and picked up a mooring.

The harbour master arrived later in the evening to collect the dues and pointed out that the mooring we had picked up was not for visitors, but told us we could stay out as the resident was away. I was glad of this, as this location was much more sheltered than the visitor moorings near the main Itchenor channel.

We passed a comfortable evening aboard, cooking a delicious steak dinner and slept soundly, after carefully securing halyards to prevent rattling in the strong wind. In the morning I spend some time checking all the shrouds and adjusting them to equal tension and then securing the turnbuckles – a job I should not have left home without doing.

We had decided to stay on for another day, as the strong wind remained steadily in the eastern quadrant. After a leisurely morning, we rowed ashore for a walk. I had noticed that there is a footpath which follows the whole peninsula of Chidham. Niki got rather muddy disembarking the dinghy, but we found a tap at the nearby sailing club and she was able to wash her legs.

We were rewarded with a spectacular walk with salt marsh and fields to one side and Bosham Creek on the other. We had beautiful views of the very picturesque Bosham Quay and then turned inland to follow the footpath through lovely farmland to the village of Chidham and its most welcome pub, “The Old House at Home”. This is quite an unusual name and I had thought it a Black Country term, as that is the only other time I had heard it. According to Google, the name comes from the words of an early Victorian song popular with soldiers far from home.

A welcome pint of excellent beer at the halfway point of our walk

The circumnavigation was completed with a walk along the more open western perimeter of Chidham and the last part along a footpath on the flinty foreshore itself, complete with stern warnings about the dangers of the tide. We passed around Cobnor Point to the welcome sight of Molly on her mooring.

Having spotted a slipway at the sailing club, I saved Niki more mud and rowed the tender from its muddy landing place to collect her and return aboard. We were a little low on provisions but wanted to spend another night at anchor and decided on Newtown Creek, after some food shopping in Emsworth, for the following day.

We were started awake just after first light by a call of “you’re on my mooring, please move”. I stumbled groggily into the cockpit to find a bright yellow Dragonfly with its solo skipper circling us a little impatiently. It was the work of moments to start the engine and cast off mooring, whilst Niki charmed him with her explanation that we had been given permission.

We thought of setting off then and there, but that was before we looked at our watches and discovered it was but 5am! A (visitor) mooring was picked up and we returned to bed for some more sleep.

At a rather more civilised hour, we cast off the mooring and sailed into the Emsworth channel, where there is a short stay pontoon. The pontoon was thick with small children and their parents, who seemed oblivious to our shouts but nevertheless moved reluctantly out of our way as we arrived. A prominent sign prohibited crabbing, but was completely ignored; we took this prohibition not to apply to Molly either! Though it was around high tide, there was just 2m of water so, not knowing how long the shopping sortie would take, I stayed aboard Molly whilst Niki strode out.

I needn’t have worried and Niki was back in half an hour with all our vittals procured. We followed the now-ebbing tide down toward the harbour mouth and ran before the wind down the Solent. As usual, there was a wide variety of craft to occupy our attention. Sadly the wind dropped and our progress was slower than hoped and, as we passed Cowes, the tide turned against us. I took to the shallows to avoid the worst of the tide, but we arrived at Newtown Creek much later than planned.

A clipper aground on Ryde sand. There was little aid the Sea Start RIB could render

The shallow water extends a surprisingly long way off shore…

…but the hovercraft has no such trouble with the shallow water off Ryde

“Stealth gas”? I think not, on a ship that colour!

The ferries crossing outside Wootton Creek

I had hoped for another pub walk at Shalfleet, but we arrived too late for this. We crept along, plate up past the moorings in the Western Haven; a boat was already anchored in the shallow water of the upper reaches, but we squeezed in on the end.

I’d always struggled with getting our tender in and out of the locker, but during this trip discovered how much difference it makes to use the pump to draw out as much air as possible when deflating her. So I quickly had Aurelia out on the coach roof, inflated and in the water. Niki stayed aboard and I had some welcome exercise rowing through the moorings to the tumbledown quay at Shalfleet. In the golden hour, the deserted harbour was a lovely sight and I had a short but pleasant walk around the boats ashore. It did seem like a place boats come to die, but that seems true of many a boatyard. I did spot a more cheerful sight – our friend Julian’s Cape Cutter on her mooring.

Molly in the distance, viewed from ashore in Shalfleet

One of the most beautiful places to spend a night.

Our laying of the anchor had been less than perfect and I realised that we would be on the mud during the night and not be able to get out at the time we wanted, so we lifted the pin and moved to a mooring in deeper water later in the evening.

This was just as well, because when I rose at 0530 for our return passage, there was barely enough water for us to creep towards the mouth of the haven. The early start was called for, as it was a beat back to Gosport and I wanted a fair tide to help us.

Interesting rock formations on the eroding Isle of Wight shore

The lovely Lady Belle also beating up Solent

The wind seemed light and I raised full main, but it quickly became clear that we were overpowered and I had to stop and take in a reef. I beat across the width of the Solent arriving directly outside the mouth of the lovely Beaulieu river. I stood on as long as I could into the shallows before tacking off, hoping to avoid the need for another tack before Cowes. This was indeed how it turned out and in fact a wind shift helped us onto a course directly towards Gilkicker point. At that early hour there was little traffic and I only had the fast ferries out of Cowes to watch for. The wind gradually decreased during the morning and it was not long before I shook out the reef and carried on under full sail. A few tacks were needed to get around Gilkicker but we made surprisingly good time and were soon back on our home berth.

A French gaffer that passed us – I believe she was returning after a classic yacht event in Brixham.

I was quite pleased with this track. You can clearly see how long it took me to sort a reef shortly after we started, but remarkably few tacks were needed to get home. You can also see that Portsmouth is thick with AIS targets!

Newtown for lunch

Looking down the western Solent with Newtown on the left and Hurst Point light in the distance

The weather and tides collaborated to provide ideal conditions for a shake down trip down the Solent to one of my favourite spots. Phil and Jo, fellow members of the yacht club were keen to have a sail on Molly, so we set off down wind and down tide in the sun with a picnic lunch.

The sea was smooth, to the extent that we anchored outside the entrance to Newtown Creek to eat our sandwiches and wait for the tide to turn.

We completed the trip in a series of beats along the flood tide, with the westering golden sun, in the company of Golden Vanity, a 38ft Gaff Cutter, built in 1908 as a yacht for the maritime artist Arthur Briscoe.

Newtown night

Autumn weather is often volatile, but offers lovely opportunities if you pick your moment. This weekend was a case in point. With three days of sailing available, I wanted to travel a little further afield but the forecast showed that that would be a little unwise. Accordingly, our plan was to take advantage of the best weather day and make a shorter trip to the lovely anchorage at Newtown Creek, dodge the showers the following day to return to port and hunker down for the next day of wind and rain.

The busy hovercraft heading for Southsea

The coastguard helicopter lowers a wire to the inshore lifeboat.

Crew in the air! First lowered into the lifeboat and later recovered again back into the helicopter.

We had a bright and spirited sail down the Solent from Portsmouth. Having motored out of harbour and along the shore to Gilkicker, with a plan to sail along the northerly shipping lane from Spithead towards Bramble. However, with the SW breeze, the mainland shore of the Solent was pretty choppy. We had a good tide under us, so we put reefed main up and took our first tack across to the island shore. Sure enough, the sea was much smoother when we tacked off, passing close to Cowes. There were plenty of other yachts out, as you might expect on a sunny Saturday and almost no commercial traffic to avoid and the coastguard helicopter provided an interesting display. We needed only one more adverse tack to bring us outside the entrance to Newtown Creek and had averaged about 6kt.

I have anchored at Newtown Creek many times previously, but this was only Niki’s second time. Newtown Creek is where the confluence of several small rivers empty into the Solent. It offers shelter from every wind direction and is a haven for wildlife. Understandably, it’s a very popular anchorage, so best avoided at peak times but at this time in the season was not too busy. Most craft pick up a mooring near the entrance, but we decided to pass West, up past the dinghy sailing club at Hamstead and dropped our anchor just past where the moorings end. We had the birds and just one other yacht for company and passed a relaxing afternoon. The best of the day was behind us and we listened to the showers periodically rattling onto the cabin roof.

I’d brought ingredients to make a steak and kidney casserole, prepared in our thermal cooker and accompanied with a nice bottle or red wine. The creek is a very peaceful place and I always love to hear the water chuckling under the boat as the tide gently ebbs and flows, coupled here with the sound of the wind and the curlews. During the night, we had a few thunderstorms pass over and awoke to a rainy Sunday morning. Ideally, we’d have made an early start to use the flood to return to port, but I decided we’d wait till mid-morning when the rain was forecast to have passed.

Sailing back up the Solent towards Portsmouth, we had a light sailing breeze and a foul tide. We made good boat speed, but slow progress over the ground. At first, we tried very close inshore to the Island, but the reduction in wind was more than the reduction in tide, so we worked our way further out again. As we passed close inshore to Egpyt Point approaching Cowes, we could see walkers on the promenade moving faster than us, so we put the engine on so we could pass the busy harbour entrance quickly.

The wind backed during the morning and we ended up being headed over towards the Lee-on-Solent shore and needed to tack to pass around Gilkicker Point. Up to this point we had enjoyed bright sun and relished our leisurely sail up the Solent, but I could see the forecast bad weather approaching, so we motorsailed our beat up to the harbour entrance.

As we motored into harbour the black clouds overtook us and I hurriedly got the main down and bowsprit raised as we entered (I usually wait until we’re well inside the harbour); it was just as well, because we were battered by a squall of heavy rain and hail, as well as thunder and lightning – just as well that we are familiar with the harbour and were not put out by the 50m visibility. Fortunately, the bad weather was short-lived and we were soon, dripping wet, back on our berth.

Into The Solent

Wednesday dawned bright and fair. Ben and I had a leisurely breakfast whilst admiring our beautiful anchorage. The anchor alarm showed that we had held firm through the night, which increased my confidence in the holding ability Mr. Spock, our Vulcan anchor, as we had had strong gusts during the night. I wanted to fly my drone, but sadly the anchorage fell within the scope of Lulworth firing range, which prevented takeoff.

Today was expected to be a “no wind” day, but there was a lovely southerly sailing breeze as we lifted anchor and continued our voyage east. With a fair tide under us we passed off St Albans head, turning to follow the coast past Peveril Point, Swanage and finally Old Harry Rocks. The water was very busy with all kinds of pleasure craft, from canoes and small dinghies to large yachts and motor boats, everyone enjoying the sun and sea breeze.

At this point, the tide had turned against us, so we angled into Bournemouth Bay to minimise to its adverse effect. There were obvious overfalls at Hengistbury Head, where the ebbing tide was pouring off the shallow water of Christchurch Bay, over a ledge into the deeper water of Bournemouth Bay.

We had time to kill before the tide changed once more and we could enter the Solent. Our hope was to poke our nose into Christchurch h harbour, but it looked like we would be trapped by the falling tide if we had done so. As an alternative, we sailed into the lee of Hengistbury Head and anchored for an hour or so.

The was not a very comfortable experience initially because I had not allowed for the tide. The anchor bit immediately but Molly did not rest head to wind into the waves, but lay almost broadside due to the flow of the tide. I could not believe that just over 0.5kt of tide could beat 15kt of breeze, but the evidence was clear: as the foul tide eased, Molly turned head to wind.

By the time we lifted the anchor, the breeze was a steady F4 SW and we made excellent progress across the bay, keeping fairly close in and shaping our course for North Head buoy. This marked the beginning of our track into the Solent close round Hurst Point. I wanted to show Ben the full effect of Solent tides, he being unused to strong tides in his home waters of Falmouth, but the wind dropped once we were in the shelter of land on both sides and also shifted to dead downwind.

We shook out the reef we had been carrying and moving quickly, despite sailing slowly, soon made Newtown Creek. I had particularly wanted to show Ben this marvellous anchorage; we had a clue how crowded the anchorage would be by the number of boats anchored outside sheltering under the low headland. Crowded through it was, we did not have much trouble finding a place to anchor. Little scope is needed in this shallow water; in fact we had to raise the centreplate within the anchorage.

As the sun set, the wind faded and we were treated to a most beautiful sunset and rise of the young crescent moon, to the soundtrack of the calls of oystercatchers, geese and terns.

I was very glad of the oven and had put our tinned pies in as we approached the entrance to the creek, so by the time the tinned vegetables were warmed we had a welcome hot dinner.

We had had an amazing passage, covering almost 40 miles and only using the engine for an hour in total – not bad for a “no wind” day!