Tag: Solent

From Canal to Channel

I left Nieuwpoort before light and experienced that sailor’s privilege, to see the sun rise out of the sea. I made my way close inshore against the last of the eastgoing tide. There was no wind and I abandoned attempts to sail.

Anchored ships near the shipping lanes. From a distance, hard to discriminate from the fast moving ships in the separation zone

The sea was glassy smooth and the day grew very hot. Visibility was not good and a haze hung across the horizon, making it difficult to judge distance. I was monitoring VHF channels 16 and 74 (channel VTS) and heard no less than three reports of large inflatable boats carrying migrants. This was the first day of calm weather after a period of strong winds, and evidently boats were setting out uptide on the French coast. A French navy vessel was patrolling and deployed its two fast RIBs to track the migrants along the edge of French waters. From the VHF traffic, it seemed that the migrants were picked up by a lifeboat and taken to Dover.

The MOB markers on the east of the chart were the reported locations of inflatables trying to cross the channel. The MOB marker to the west was a group of channel swimmers!

Approaching Dover harbour I was welcomed by a porpoise gliding past, as well as a seal inside the harbour. I paused to refuel before taking my berth, and this took some time. Although the fuel pumps had the mechanism for self service, a rather uncertain looking man leaned over the high quay and said that self service was not working. Only one pump was working, so I had a wait and once I had filled my tank, I had to visit the man in his shed. He was in charge of a most Byzantine computer system and after a few minutes of “hunt and peck”, suggested I might type it faster. All of this contrived to occupy an hour from entering the marina to tying up. Fortunately, I was not in a hurry.

The EU administration of border control had been accomplished by visiting the cheerful border policeman in his office the previous evening. The UK side of things was achieved via an efficient looking web site. However, the information was far from clear. “We have sent you an email”. No, you didn’t. “You must ring yacht line as soon as you enter UK waters”. When I rang, the automated message told me no call was needed. “You must fly a Q flag until contacted by border control”. I’d be flying that still, if I’d followed that instruction!

The next morning was forecast for northeasterlies, increasing in strength and swinging to SW. I left early, but not early enough. The promised SE wind was light and variable and not long before Dungeness head, I noticed a yacht ahead of me on a parallel course bear away to the south, close hauled. Sure enough, a few minutes later, I experienced the same 90-degree wind shift. I decided to drop sails and motor into the wind, the other boat beat on. I took an offshore route past Dungeness, to maximise the tidal lift but progress gradually slowed across Rye bay. The wind increased to about F6 and though Molly bravely plugged into the short steep seas this created, her speed was rather curtailed. I watched as the boat I had seen earlier crossed and recrossed my path, evidently with much better boat speed than me.

The day started well enough – a three sail reach (I had second reef in anticipation of the forecasted winds)

The new Royal Sovereign light under construction (the stump of it to the right)

Late, I crept up to Beachy Head on a foul tide, slower and slower until the speed over the ground was less than two knots. He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day, so I reluctantly turned tail and sped downwind into Eastbourne at seven knots!

Beachy Head in more benign conditions the next day

The “Seven Sisters”, west of Beachy Head. There always seems to me to be eight, but it depends on how you count them. These are often shown when a stock shot of “the white cliffs of Dover” is needed for a film or TV programme. They’re white and cliffs, it not Dover!

The next day was much calmer, with wind in the north. However it was too light to be useful, so I motored across Sussex Bay past the Rampion wind farm.

I was earlier than planned at Selsey and the current was still foul. However, it was neap tides and the sea was very flat. I therefore decided to avoid as much of the tide as possible by approaching from somewhat south of the Looe Channel and then motoring over the Outer Owers.

This is an outlying reef usually carefully avoided, but this very shallow water (4-12m observed) carried perceptibly less current. The breeze woke up at that point too, so I got a little help from the sails just when it was most helpful!

The Looe channel. For me this is the boundary of the Solent, so I was back in home waters

The beautiful Queen Mary 2 departing the Solent.

This cruise ship (My Resilient Lady) has a much higher capacity but is not exactly pleasing to the eye!

Sunset behind No Man’s Land fort, with spinnaker tower standing over Portsmouth harbour entrance

A great breeze from the north east filled in and gave me a lovely sail across the eastern Solent – what a fabulous way to end this wonderful adventure. I was enjoying the sail so much that I sailed right into the harbour, dropping the main right opposite HMS Queen Elizabeth. The police boat mooched over to give me marks out of ten, though I’m glad it was dark, because it was not a tidy fuel! I had breeze and tide pushing me into my berth, as well as being full dark by that time. I was pleased I managed that nicely but was pleased someone came by to help had I needed it.

So that’s the end of Molly’s Netherlands meander, and what a wonderful adventure it’s been. I’d like to publicly thank the wonderful Dutch organising team, Dirk and Linda Peeters for their guidance during the return leg and to my fellow UK OGA members who were such great company.

The season is mostly over, but Molly will stay in the water this winter because I hope to make a few local trips in the coming months.

Bembridge Rally

The weekend of July 20-21st saw Molly attend a gathering of gaffers at Duver marina in Bembridge. Niki and I had a lovely sail across to the Island and rafted up with the fleet. This was our first rally of the season and it was most enjoyable to catch up with friends.

Afternoon tea at Mark and Rosy Hickman’s boat workshop

Molly crossing the Solent back to Portsmouth (picture by Huw Hallebone)

Drills on the river

Less than favourable weather made a trip out of the harbour an unattractive prospect today. Nevertheless Niki and I spent the day gainfully employed in the harbour calibrating the log, some drills up at the Wicor pontoons and a lovely downwind sail back to our berth.

The millennium bridge raised at low tide

Dramatic sky over Portsmouth (we were in the pub by this time!)

Bank holiday ramble

A busy bank holiday at Portsmouth harbour entrance

Looking for a relaxing way to enjoy some slightly mixed bank holiday weather, we arranged to meet Puffin Bach and her skipper Brian (with whom we cruised to Suffolk last summer) at The Folly Inn on the Medina. We had a very pleasant downwind sail from Portsmouth to Cowes and motored up the river to arrive not long after Puffin and were directed to raft alongside on the mid-stream pontoon.

Molly and Puffin rafted at The Folly Inn

Having enjoyed a sunny afternoon with a few drinks in the cockpit, we elected to have some exercise. The water taxi took us ashore and we followed the riverside footpath past Island Harbour into the island’s county town for a curry at Tamarind.

We had decided to visit our friends Grant and Amanda whose boat Meagan is moored on the Beaulieu river. This was both upwind and uptide, so Molly and Puffin motored across from Cowes and then up the beautiful river. We both easily found visitor moorings and Grant graciously picked us up in his tender. We spent a lovely afternoon chatting in the sun and enjoying the fizz we intended to drink during the OGA60 rally last summer, but which was rather precluded by the deluge during the parade of sail.

Brian joined niki and I aboard Molly for supper, after which I rowed Brian back to Puffin. The river is such a peaceful place to spend the night and I enjoyed the range of woodland and coastal bird calls to greet us on the following morning.

Just after low water we dropped the mooring and trickled down a peaceful river to its mouth and then back out into the Solent. The fair tide and and gentle breeze carried us back to Portsmouth and our home berth.

Contessa 32 rally fleet at Buckler’s Hard

Fellow Cornish Crabber 26 going great guns off Cowes

Afloat for the new season

Molly has been ashore for the winter, giving me a chance to more easily carry out some maintenance. When people ask me if I had much to do, I’d reply that I didn’t, but I kept a list and it seems pretty long in hindsight. Most of it was normal maintenance but a couple of things were significant- I have fixed the holding tank pump and I also stripped the spars back to bare wood and varnished them to match the mast, restored last winter.

Molly spent the winter with mast down, sporting a mast cover which Niki made, so was well protected from the elements. The varnish stood up well during a very active sailing season last year and only needed touching up in a couple of places. Raising the mast went very smoothly – it was certainly easier doing this whilst ashore, rather than afloat!

With Molly on her new berth for this season, I spent a day cleaning the topsides and bending the sails back on. To my relief, I had not made any mistakes in my preparation and all went remarkably easily, except for dropping a main sheet shackle in the drink!

Hanging a spanner from the pennant halyard to check mast rake (as nearly vertical as possible)

Easter Monday saw Niki and I take Molly out for a shake down sail. We popped out into the Solent and beat out to the Spitbank Fort on first reef before running back into harbour and sailing up to Fareham, trying second reef and both jibs. To our amazement, all the rigging had been assembled correctly (or at least the same as last year).

Obligatory “first sail of the season” photo. First reef not looking especially tidy.

The only exception was perhaps a change needed to the arrangement of the reefing lines. We also had a chance to practice man overboard drills. Fred Fender was quite happy to be the victim for this task and was successfully retrieved on multiple occasions – we’re not expecting to lose any crew, but thought we’d better practice, ahead of our forthcoming ICC assessment.

Scrambled eggs for brunch in the cockpit

Winter jobs completed

Y Make mast crutches x2

Y Service then winterise engine (oil, filter, impeller, fuel filter, gearbox oil)

Y Fix holding tank pump

Y Clean undersides, sand copper coat

Y Lower rudder bolts

Y Check centre plate wire

Y Check prop shaft for play

Y Check/Replace anodes

Y Lube prop

Y Make mast cover

Y Strip and varnish spars

Y Repair spray hood

Y Fit suppressor to VHF – suppressor fitted

Y Chart locker

Y Water tank lid seal

Y Fit pictures and OGA plate in saloon

Y Change water filter+improve plumbing to cure small leak

Y fix Eberspacher

Y Main sail rings in reef points

Winter maintenance

When Molly came ashore for the winter, I wanted to protect the mast from the worst of the weather. Withe the mast lowered, I was able to make wooden cruitches to support the top end, either side of the spreaders; the lower end sat comfortably through the tabernacle. Meanwhile Niki made a waterproof fabric cover for the mast which will keep wind and rain off not just the varnish, but also accommodates the jib on its carbon fibre furler and also the running rigging.

The list of winter jobs is not too long, but one I have been avoiding is the holding tank pump. This has not worked since we bought the boat and, though I can hear the pump run, it has no effect. It’s been no hardship to not use the holding tank but I’m expecting to need it next season and, besides it bothers me that it doesn’t work.

So, I emptied the port locker and removed the partitions to the electrical equipment and then the leisure battery for access. After a modest amount of wrestling, the “poo pump” was removed and dismantled (the model is called “Gulper”; this seems a very inappropriate name, given what it ingests!

There was good news and bad news at this point. The good news was that the reason for its lack of function was pretty obvious – it has four “tricuspid” valves that ensure the flow is in one direction only, and one pair of them had been fitted the wrong way around. Either it had been assembled incorrectly at the factory or else when the pump was installed on Molly (evidently never been used). The bad news was that the valves in the service kit I’d bought were the wrong size.

After an extra trip to the chandlery, the pump wax reassembled and tested by part-filling the holding tank with water and pumping out. Success! I celebrated by cleaning the prop. I tried vinegar to remove the calcified deposits last year but that was not very successful. This year, I tried HG descaler which worked much better. This evidently had a component which reacted with the timescale and softened it, making it easy to remove. All the other limescale removers I looked at in the supermarket seemed be mostly detergent. It’s clear the prop anode had been doing its job and needs replacing after just one season.

Sailing to the East Coast 1: Eastbourne

Our much anticipated cruise to the East coast, to attend the OGA diamond anniversary party in Ipswich, began a few days early. A forecast for bad weather caused the demise of our planned cross-channel trip, but one good day allowed Niki and I to set off on the first leg of our cruise instead.

It was was a glorious morning to set off, sunny but no wind. We made good time with tide and engine; the wind filled in later and we were able to sail the last few hours of our passage.

After a spirited run past the iconic Beachy Head, we arrived at Sovereign Harbour after 62nm and averaging 5.5kt, about an hour sooner than I had expected!

Southsea Rally

It’s a pleasure to visit somewhere new and what better way than in company! I was very happy to join a rally in Langstone harbour with the Solent OGA group. Langstone is a place I had never previously visited, sandwiched between our home patch of Portsmouth harbour and the ever-popular Chichester harbour.

Tom Cunliffe describes Langstone as a piece of wilderness, between these two high developed and much manicured areas of water. Southsea harbour is accessed over a cill which open at about half tide. Since this window of opportunity was centred on mid-afternoon, Niki and I set off as soon as the sea breeze kicked in.

Rather than sailing the quickest route (only 5M), we reached out to sea past the forts and then tacked back inshore towards Langstone harbour mouth. The pilot warns of strong tides and that was exactly what we got – we swept in at about 6kt, but others who had arrived on full flood made more than 9kt over the ground!

The weekend was a pleasant mix of good food and enjoyable company, with an afternoon cruise on Saturday. We’d had blistering weather for the arrival day, but Saturday morning was grey and some rain, but as our flotilla passed out into the harbour for a cruise, the weather brightened up and the gentle breeze made for a very relaxed trip.

I was surprised by the scarcity of boats (or moorings) in the main part of the water (unlike Chichester) and it’s clear this is a great place to anchor. Our local guides agreed, but I got the impression they’d rather it remained off the list of popular anchorages!

Sunday morning was an early start and we crossed the cill at 7am before the falling tide confined all to the marina for the morning. There was no wind at all, so I motored along the 4m contour, close enough to the shore to watch the early morning swimmers, joggers and dog-walkers on the beach. I passed through the inshore small boat passage, past Southsea pier and back into Portsmouth, leaving us plenty of time to tidy the boat before returning home in plenty of time.

Tied up alongside *Nancy Blackett*, once owned by Arthur Ransome, bought from the proceeds of Swallows and Amazons and the model for the boat in his book *We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea*

It’s not often I get an excuse to pass through this small boat passage very close inshore

Huw, the rally organiser, on his Norfolk Gypsy, *Mincarlo*

Giving Molly’s hull a clean prior to the rally, ready for her summer voyages

Island harbour

I joined the Cornish Crabber Club rally late in their week, due to work commitments. We have been enjoying a patch of glorious June weather and it was especially pleasant to make my way over to Cowes and up the Medina river.

I started with no wind and then it filled in to F4-5 by the time I got to Cowes. The Solent was very busy with several fleets of yachts out racing, including some very impressive classics visiting for the Richard Mille Cup. I also saw a pair of porpoises off Lee-on-Solent, a first for me.

Once through the bun fight that is Cowes, the Medina calms down considerably and it’s a very pleasant trip up the river through the moorings to Island Harbour. This is a converted tide mill with a lock and a very characteristic round concrete control tower. The staff are super helpful and I was soon tied up on one of their generously wide berths among the other Crabbers.

The fleet had representatives of every model – Crabber 22, 24 and 26, as well as Shrimper 19 and 21; the latter becoming an increasingly popular model. The evening meal was at the Folly Inn, a classic Isle of Wight waterside location, which was a pleasant 15 minute stroll from the marina.

The following day, there was not enough water to get out until 1pm, so we rallyists had a leisurely morning. I walked up the well-laid riverside path to Newtown. A pleasant mile through woodlands, past the fields where the cleanup was taking place following the recent Isle of Wight festival.

The head of the Medina’s navigation at Newtown

Everyone wanted to get out as soon as water was available, to catch the last of the flood up to Gosport for our evening meal. The ever helpful marina staff had us neatly packed like sardines in the lock and out onto the river.

Once again, the Solent was thick with traffic and it was a dead run past Gilkicker and into the harbour, with most of the fleet berthing at Haslar and a few, like me, who returned to home berths before a final meal together at The Creek.

Paddle steamer Ryde gently subsiding into the saltings. She served as a ferry across the Solent at the beginning of the twentieth century and a minesweeper in the war, finishing up as a night club in the sixties and seventies.

Sailing past Jolie Brise. I was lucky enough to have a sail on her recently and made a video of of that.

The busy Solent. You can clearly see three fleets of racing yachts

Blade Runner returning to the factory (almost opposite Island Harbour marina) on the Medina to collect more wind turbine blades

Big and small – a Laser dinghy and the IoW ferry off Lee-on-Solent

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.