Solent mini cruise 22nd - 28th June 2014

Sunday 22nd

Having finished jobs at home I got time off for good behaviour and set off for the marina just before lunch. Tony Wood in Martha was ahead and waiting in the harbour so once I got sorted I headed off down to join him. The Sunday queue was already forming for yachts and motorboats waiting for some water to get up the channel to the lock so I felt quite smug as I motored past them in just over a metre of water.

Tony was tied up in Mengham Rithe, just north of Hayling Island Sailing Club. I has a good sail from Itchenor, past Bosham and Thorney and put the motor back on to negotiate a catamaran that was being towed into the creek ahead of me. That's when I noticed a screeching from the engine compartment - not loud, but enough to pay attention to. Tied up alongside Martha, the fault was soon diagnosed as a worn fan belt - spare?, of course not.....

We ignored the problem and set to with a BBQ, which is probably the last time I bother with a disposable one in the foil tray - they either don't burn well or burn so well that they are over in a flash and the mess they create just doesn't seem worth the trouble. So out came the grill attachment of the cooker I reviewed last year but in honesty haven't used much since.

Well I am converted - chicken, steaks, burgers, peppers...in fact anything that doesn't roll is great on here - cooks in half the time and no mess - the grill made frequent appearances during the rest of the week.

Richard Goldsmith in Egret joined us once he was able to get out of his creek and then, with excellent juggling of commitments and quite a lot of bribery, Adrian Kneller in Torridon arrived.

Sunset - The raft in Mengham Rithe (Chichester Harbour)

We settled down to a quite night, ready for the adventures of the next day.

Monday 23rd

Up early I put a call into Sparkes Marina to obtain a fan belt and was more than surprised to find out they don't have a chandlers on site. They did however recommend ABC Marine based at Hayling Island Yacht Co. They weren't up so early so I left the raft and motored up the harbour and into Mill Rythe where they are located. Once I got through they had one in stock and gave me directions to find them which was just as well as they are right at the far end of the building line and although it was spot on high tide there was still only 1.7 m at the quay. I bought the fan belt and motored out into the rithe to pick up a buoy. Replacement only took a few minutes and all was well - note to self order another one when I get home. 

Tony called me on the VHF and was heading out of the harbour - I assumed Richard and Adrian were with him so was surprised to see them along side at Hayling Island SC. They departed soon after I passed them and we set off after Tony..

Portsmouth in the distance

We headed past the forts towards our destination at the Folly Inn on the Medina, up river from Cowes. It was a beautiful sunny day with a calm sea and a good southerly wind to set us along the course.

Our lunch stop was in Osbourne Bay, where we met up with Stewart Brown, in Bolitho, who had come out of Ashlett on the morning tide.

Osbourne Bay - rafted up for lunch with umbrellas the order of the day

The sun was very hot and umbrellas made an appearance to create some shade. We watched the world go by for an hour or so and then headed into the Medina and up to the Folly.

A Dredger?

One the way up we were passed by a gravel ship leaving the quay - not a huge vessel but it did fill up the river and a strange looking vessel pictured above, which i can only assume is some sort of dredger.

A good meal was enjoyed in the pub before we returned to the pontoon and bed.

View from the Folly Inn across to our pontoon

Tuesday 24th

Tony, Stewart and I set off to catch the tide by about 10 but stopped en route to use the public quay at East Cowes and pop into Waitrose for supplies.

The chain ferry has had new lights fitted to it - two horizontal led flashers - one at each end - illuminated to show direction of travel - much better than then previous lights that were hard to see.

Chain ferry - (new lights in insert)

 There were a number of interesting craft along the river including this huge Sunseeker, aptly named Hooligan!

Hooligan

and this which looks a bit Special Forces in its origin.

 Special work boat??

Once out of Cowes we drifted with the tide down to the entrance of Newtown Creek where we anchored for lunch. The wind filled in and we had a good sail across towards Lymington, meeting Andy Peter in Blue Peter en route, before we all turned and headed into Newtown for the night.

The raft at Newtown looking seaward

Looking back up the creek - Newtown

Wednesday 25th

We has a rude awakening in the morning as the raft dragged the anchors slowly back towards another yacht. Anchor lines had crossed in the night and it took a fair bit of juggling to split the raft up and allow boats to go and re-anchor. When that was sorted we had breakfast and set off by about 10.00 to catch the west going tide to Yarmouth -Richard and Adrian left us and headed back to Chichester, and Andy set off for Keyhaven -  the wind was good and Stewart, Tony and I had a good sail across the western Solent before slipping into the harbour for the afternoon. We tried for an ice cream on the pier but they had closed by the time we decided to go for a stroll so it was a couple of pints in the Bugle before visiting my favourite restaurant in Yarmouth - "On the Rocks" which served us fantastic steaks with prawns on skewers together with your own volcanic hot rock to cook it on. Not cheap but very good - a cruise treat stop.

 Sunset over Yarmouth

Thursday 26th

The next day we needed to wait for the tide so after breakfast at the cafe on the pier, Stewart and I walked up the eastern side of the Yar, along the old railway track, to the village of Freshwater where we stopped at the Red Lion for a couple of pints before walking through the fields and woods on the western side of the river back to the harbour. 

Upper reaches of the Yar

The three of us set off at about 15.00 heading back up the Solent, into the Medina at Cowes and up the river to Newport. The aim was to visit the Bargeman's Rest to see some live music - the Matt and Dave Duo were on and very good they were to.

Friday 27th

 There is a new Wetherspoons in Newport -  a converted church in the town centre - Stewart and i sampled the breakfast there and decided it was very good.

New Wetherspoons - Newport

When we got back to the boats Stewart set off for Ashlett and Tony and I headed east with vague plans for Bembridge, Portsmouth or all the way to Chichester.

The wind was good, too good in fact and a reef was called for and we decided to head for Chichester - not the best decision as by the time we got there the ebb was in flow and the wind kicked up the waves in the entrance, but not too bad - although Tony did manage to split the wood on his tiller......

We anchored at East Head for a cup of well deserved tea and promptly fell asleep, waking just as we touched bottom and waited for an hour or so before the water came back enough to get away up the harbour - the wind had calmed down but we still had a good sail though the moorings and up to the marina. It was about 20.30 when we tied up and decided to have a cook up of all the rations that needed using up.

And so to bed....

Saturday 28th

A quick tidy up extended into full breakfast and some leisurely jobs on the boat before setting off for home - a great week with good weather and good company - only a week until I get to do it all over again......

Wednesday 11th June

Took an early flyer from work and shot down the M27 to the boat to take advantage of the glorious weather.
I had planned to come the day before but had forgotten that I was going to the Rebellion Brewery members night with Jeff and Steve - beer...sailing...beer....sailing....close call.

Spent a little time sorting some things on the boat - I had got my Garmin 451 back from repair - well, an exchange unit to find that this unit didn't work either - (Subsequent work by local form discovered intermittent break in power cable......) and a few other small jobs before setting out down the harbour.

Wind on the nose so motored slowly down enjoying the sights and anchoring at East Head with three or four other boats ( a bit of a change to the weekends when there can be dozens)

A lovely warm sunny evening - a little pasta and some red wine - very nice.

I sailed off from anchor and gently ghosted up the harbour on the tide passing one of those 'yachts' that have a 50 hp outboard on the back going down the harbour. It later came back up at great speed, slowing for the moorings and following me into the lock with some minor drama.

Speaking to the skipper later it was his second time out in her and he had been showing his wife how nice it was. He was planning to go across to the island next time - perhaps Bembridge. I mentioned the tides and the drying harbour and he looked at me blankly .. a little worrying.

Nice quite night on board watching  a film on the tablet before getting my head down for an early shower and drive back to work for 07.00 the next morning!!! but well worth it.

Review of Ezetil coolbox/fridge

Although it is early days I thought I'd post a review of my recent acquisition - an Ezetil coolbox /fridge.  To be fair I have only used it for the recent rally at the marina but by the time I get to review it properly we will be in the midst of summer and it will be too late.

 It looks like any other cool box although they do try the carbon fibre approach to make it look 'go faster'
The wires - both 240 v plug and 12 v cigarette cable are housed in the rear of the lid and are pre connected at the box end which avoids confusion with other cables and leaving the cable at home by mistake.

Inside it has perhaps a slightly smaller capacity than some at 22 litres - it's certainly enough for two or three days cold provisions.

In the inside of the lid is a fan arrangement that most cooling boxes have, but this also has a proper heat sync that gets very cold indeed.

As always it's best to put frozen or at least chilled food inside to give it a head start, which I did. I then plugged it into the car for the hour or so journey down to the boat - I stopped off in Tesco to get some more items and placed these in the box which I found the be very cool - fridge like indeed.

From then on during the rally I alternated from shore power (for the Drascombers amongst you that will seem like a foreign term, I know...) and battery power when running the engine - three days later a previously frozen pint of milk still had ice crystals in it.

The box has a boost system when running on 240 v which gets it going quicker - but on battery power when no boost is available the makers claim to be able to get approx 18 degrees C below ambient temperature and to prevent power drain the unit monitors the temperature to adjust accordingly. I'm not too techie but at 12 v it mentions 48 w - but there is no real correlation into amp hours - It claims to be low draw and evidence supports this. However I suspect you would need a good chunky battery and a means of charging it to get the best out of it.

The other reason for the perhaps premature post is that I bought it from Cost Co which means they may not hang around for long - - it was about £70 inc VAT which is average for a good cool box and very cheap for one that actual works as a respectable fridge - certainly on initial findings.

Not suitable for all but a potential bonus to slightly bigger boats with suitable charging mechanisms.

Update :- 210617

The coolbox is still going strong, in fact it was a life saver in recent hot weather in France and here in the Uk. The weak point was established to be the handle that finally gave up but I put the box into one of those large life time supermarket bags and  rogged up a bungy to connect the two carrying handles and it is fully functional again.