Drascombe rally to Selsey Bill - Tuesday 2nd August

Jeff Lander organised a day trip to Selsey Bill and having never turned left out of the harbour it seems a good idea. So Adam did his paper round in a record time and I made the sandwiches

before setting off to get to the boat and then down to East Head for the 10.30 briefing.We managed it and set off with the rest of the fleet out though the harbour entrance.

We arrived and moored up under the direction of John who then kindly ferried us to the shore.

Jeff had laid on a feast at a local friends house where the rally participants enjoyed catching up with each other whilst enjoying smoked salmon sandwiches and a cream tea.

The fleet then set sailed back to Chichester. We paused at East Head before continuing on up the channel where we r/v'd with Stewart to spend the night at anchor.

The next day dawned fine and bright and we returned to the marina before driving to Southampton to collect Adams new drum kit.

Tuesday/Wednesday 20th/21st July

Grabbed a couple of days on the boat on the pretext of tidying up after Adam's trip....

Motored down to East Head for lunch and then had a superb sail up to Emsworth and back. It was obviously Shrimper week in the harbour, I passed 6 or 7 going each way. They must have been confused as they obviously assumed I was part of their rally.

Down at East Head overnight - watched a seal catch and eat his supper lying on his back before settling down to a quiet night. It is amazing how quiet it is midweek.

Woke up the next morning to glorious sunshine and decided to sail up to Northney, garb a pasty from the garage and then have a leisurely sail back up to the marina.

The houses and the pubs at the top of the harbour looked lovely, not so good at Northney marina though. Called them on VHF - no response, phoned them up and they wouldn't let me tie up for 2o minutes whilst I visited the garage to get some supplies. They wanted to charge me short term berthing and put me in a empty slot even though I only wanted to nip and get a pasty and some milk - I ask you......

I explored the top end of the harbour and could see the garage 50 yds from the bridge but on a falling tide the water there disappears very rapidly so I played safe and went off back down the channel.

All in all, apart from the inflexibility of Northney, it was a lovely couple of days.

Sunday 11th July - Portsmouth to Chichester

The following day we set off for home, enjoying a good sail and anchoring off East Head for lunch and a game of football. Unfortunately we managed to let the tide slip away and had to wait for a couple of hours for the water to come back - hence the photo - before making our way up to the marina and home.

So, although we hadn't achieved our objective of reaching Poole we had had a great few days out in the boat and Adam quickly became a reliable helm and crew mate. We learnt more about the boat and her characteristics and earmarked even more kit that we don't need to take with us. Slowly slowly we will arrive at the optimum cruising requirement.

Saturday 10th July - Keyhaven to Portsmouth

We set off from Keyhaven at about 12.00 to get the tide and current to take us to Portsmouth for the night. So after a late breakfast we walked into Milford on Sea to stock up.

Leaving Keyhaven we took a narrow channel heading east that brought us out near the entrance to Lymington. From there we had a cracking sail up the Solent - pursued (and overtaken) by three large yachts whose crews were all kitted out in uniform. They seemed to set football fields of canvas and were very impressive sights.

Near the ship channel we were followed by a more modern leviathan.

We tied up in Gosport marina and took the ferry across to Gun Wharf keys to enjoy the fleshpots (of which there was a great deal) but settled for a pizza before turning in for the night.

Friday 9th July - Yarmouth - Keyhaven

The next day dawned fine and bright.

Whilst breakfast was prepared Adam had some practice on his Uke, ready for the Poole rally in August.

We set out in a gently breeze and made our way down to the Needles, catching a mackerel en route.

The Needles was very calm, and we were surprised to see a man, apparently unconnected to the light house in any official capacity, standing on the top waving down at us.

We heading back into Alum Bay and anchored. Having rowed into the beach had had a walk we decided to take the chair lift to the top of the cliffs. I would recommend this trip to anyone... but... do be prepared for the assault on your senses when you get to the top. The change from a peaceful beach to kiss me quick is quite dramatic.

It is worth it though for the view coming back down.

From Alum we made our way across to Hurst and into the narrow channel leading to Keyhaven. Another visit ashore to look at the fort itself, before we headed up to Keyhaven itself and met up with Barry and Pauline. We had a drink with them at the Sailing club and then adjourned to a local pub to eat.