On Saturday I joined the EDSC cruise to Lymington. I'd arranged to meet my crew mate 'Julian' at the club at about 7am, the tide was out which was fortunate as my tender needed some tender GRP care following a brush with the rocks. I waded out to Jelly Bean and unpacked the inflatable so that we could get our gear on the boat.
We set off about 0830, the weather was very overcast and muggy with very little wind.. The Met office had forecast F3 and F4 ... Wrong again.
Out of the harbour we were just moving along at a knot or two when 'Lapwing' motored by. After a brief chat we followed suit and started the engine. We needed to be through the needles channel by 2pm and we weren't going to make it at this rate. We motored pretty much all the way to Hurst Castle and through the Channel with Just a few breaks when the wind picked up for an hour across Bournemouth and when I needed a break from the noise and the smell of the two stroke.Once through the channel we had a lovely but all too short sail to the entrance of the river. As I hadn't sailed into Lymington before we dropped the sails before getting into the confines of the harbour.
Lymington is a lovely harbour. I have been to Lymington by car many times before but arriving by boat gives it another perspective. The town quay looks unspoilt with a good selection of Pubs and shops... We tried the former ;~)
We had a pleasant evening in Lymington... Dinner at the Kings Head then more drinks a the Ship Inn on the Quay. It was while we were sat outside here with our umpteenth pint that we discussed Sundays plan. We wouldn't be able to get back out through the Needles Channel until about 4pm so we decided to turn left at the end of the river and fulfill my ambition of going right round the Island.... Hoorah.
Sunday. We had a quick walk around the town nearly on Sunday to see if we could find some provisions for our now extended cruise. Unfortunately nothing was open so we went back to the boat and headed for the Solent. The weather was much better, a good usable breeze which had us at just off Cowes by 11am but not too
strong to bar the use of the kettle... Life is good.
The racing yachts were out in force but we managed to avoid them all, after all, I didn't want to end up as the final story on South Today. We were making really good time and decided to stop at Ryde to pick up sandwiches for the rest of the trip. We approached the pier at about 1:30 and after dodging the fast ferry and the Hovercraft we found the channel into the marina. There was a large rib anchored in the Channel who had run around.. I guess it's shallow here. We crept in the marina but round aground as soon as we were inside. 
Fortunately we were on a rising tide and after a few more bumps we got close enough to the pontoon to throw a line for our reception commitee who kindly looped it through a cleat and threw it back. I the just sat on the bow and gradually pulled us along side, ploughing a channel as I went. I stayed with the boat as we were on a private mooring while Julian went for the food. Ryde is a nice little stop over but the marina is only accessible for about 2 hours either side of high water. There was a weather forecast on the wall at Ryde which gave the tide times and the wind strength as F3, We were back under way by 2:30 and still making good time with the tide. The nearer we got to Bembridge the stronger the wind got. The new lifeboat station at Bembridge is really coming on, we were soon past it and heading out to the back of the Island. I can't say that I didn't feel a little aprehensive about the next part.
The sea was much choppier out here with white horses in front of us, Plenty of large vessels as well, I did feel a little vulnerable. At 4:30 the coast guard gave their weather forecast on the VHF, confirmed F5, we were now out here with full sail up in strong wind with potential overfalls and big boats all around... What could go wrong, Oh the Starboard inner shroud caught my attention as it flayed about in front of me. Luckily we were on a Port tack so all the strain was on the other side, sooo now we were now out here with full sail up in strong wind with potential overfalls and big boats all around... and I had my head nearly in the water while trying to re-attach the shroud. I'd love to know why they have a tendency to unsrew themselves. We even checked and adjusted them to remove mast bend and tightened them with Thread lock before setting off on Saturday :~(
We decided to put a reef in and the handling improved no end. We were actually enjoying the rougher sea state. As we were now heading into wind and having to tack, our progress was slow. Once pst St Catherines the Sea state calmed and we could make a reasonable course towards the needles. The sun was out and there was alittle rain in the air so a lovely full rainbow appeared, we didn't find any gold though. About 4 miles from the needles lighthouse the tide turned against us. We tried to motor for about an hour and a half but were making no progress at all. I suggested that 
we head for Freshwater as there was anchorage marked on the chart. We couldn't even make progress towards that so we just headed straight for the shore. I dropped the anchor in about 3m and she held fine so we decided to get some sleep and set off again once the tide had changed again.
The tide was due to change at 2 in the morning so that's when we left our anchorage. We now had a proper night sail from Compton Bay to Poole, about 24 miles. A good look out was kept as we didn't want to be the next Ouzo. A large vessel did come our way but veared off out to the channel before gettin anywhere near us. It took us about 5 hours to get back to the harbour entrance. It was fully daylight by now and our epic journey was nearly over. In total we'd done about 110miles since setting of on Saturday morning. We'd had to motor in no wind, weaved our way through the racing fleets, had to reef and cope with the steep waves around Bembridge ledge and St Catherines, re-attached the rigging anchored off an exposed beach and had night sail home.... It doesn't get any better but I do need some time to recover.
