Having dived into the marina with Adrian for some respite from the wind, he and I drove to Itchenor to attend the dinner at the club. We met up with Adrian's wife and daughter and spent a very pleasant evening with the other Drascombers attending the rally.
Stewart Brown announced his intention to resign from the committee and his post of South Coast area rep but made some very complimentary remarks about the Solent Cruising Group I have set up. I should hasten to add this is not in competition to the Drascombe Association but is simply a collection of email addresses of sailors, based loosely (very loosely) on those who tend to sail in the Solent, in an effort to provide opportunities for joining up to sail in company.
The next day dawned bright and sunny - so much better than the day before. Having set out form the marina we r/v'd with the main rally group at the Visitors pontoon at Itchenor. Chris Meade-Briggs had asked Adrian to be the Sailing Master and in view of the weather forecast and wind direction it was decided to abandon the original plan to sail to Mengham Rithe and instead have a sail down to the Camber mark at the entrance to the Thorney Channel and then make our way up to Dell Quay for lunch. In spite of this being a repeat of an earlier rally sail plan it was readily agreed and the fleet set off in usual Drascombe style.
The wind was just right for a sail down to Camber and then back up through the moorings to Dell Quay. With it being the top of springs it was possible to get right up to the top of the harbour, before coming back down to the wooded shore on the northern side that offered shelter from the wind. In the sun it was pretty warm and a very pleasant lunch was had at anchor.
The fleet departed for the pontoon and having sailed back down with them Adrian and I returned to the comfort of the marina before being collected this time, again by his wife and daughter, who took us to the village hall for the BBQ.
Here Richard G embarrassed me by making a presentation of framed photos with messages on the back from the participants of the Solent Dart dash (see earlier posts). It was a lovely thought and brought back great memories of the early summer. (- it now has pride of place in my studio.)
I got my own back to some extent, with grateful help from Miles and Lizzie, who had managed to buy a birthday cake and candles in Emsworth. Unfortunately somewhere on the journey the candles had fallen out of the back but luckily I had 4 green cylume sticks with me, in case children needed entertaining, which made very good, if somewhat oversized candles. The cake was presented to Adrian whose 72 birthday it was, together with a card signed by all the rally attendees.
(Cylume sticks are plastic tubes about 4 inches long and a bit thicker than a pencil, that contain chemicals, that when cracked, mix and produce light)
The usual suspects provided musical accompaniment to the evening and our 'taxi' delivered two tired but happy Drascombers back to the marina - not so tired that we didn't finish off the 3 litres of white wine I had taken - but that's another story ( sorry Adrian .......)
The Sunday dawned bright and windy but the rally drew to an early close as the need to haul out at the right state of the tide meant an early departure for most.
I mooched around the top of the harbour, anchoring to watch what turned out to be some form of championship racing - very spectacular and very wet for quite a few.... before retruning to the marina and home in time to earn some brownie points.
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