Bembridge jaunt

I had Thursday and Friday off work so thought I'd have a little last minute solo trip. I had planned to come down straight after work on the Wednesday to get a head start but not getting away until 22.00 or so put paid to that.
As it was with the tide times etc I got down mid morning on the Thursday and headed down the harbour to get out by about 13.00.

Passing East Head I came across Richard Goldsmith in Egret who had just come back form Bembridge and told me that Adrian Kneller ( Torridon) was still over there.

A quick phone call and Adrian cancelled his plans to return and stayed in Bembridge, securing two berths for us that night.

Once out of the harbour it was soon apparent, even with a reef that I couldn't make much head way under sail, pointing alternately towards the submarine barrier or the Nab Tower, in uncomfortable seas so it was engine on, sails down and plug across to the island.

Bembridge was a calm tranquil place after the trip across and was made even better when I managed to secure a table at the Beachcomber restaurant (as recommended in the Telegraph) on the front.

The hilarity of the evening was topped when there was a loud  ping and crash as Adrian's knife bounced off what he was trying to cut and shot across the restaurant narrowly missing other diners. We decided that the 'thermidor' in crab thermidor meant something like 'served in shell' ...not a good thing to try and cut through
...........

The next day dawned bright and sunny after a few clouds had been chased away by a fresh south westerly and we set off as soon as there was sufficient water in the harbour .. or so I thought...we found that inside the pontoons at Duver marina is very shallow close to and had to scrape over the mud to get to deep water within the harbour.

Following Torridon out of Bembridge

Just outside Bembridge the weather was calm and I shook out the reef that remained from yesterday, but perhaps I should have left it in...out of the lee of the island we got the full benefit of the F4 rising 5 and covered the 12 - 14 miles to Chichester in less that 2 hours.

A brief stop in the lee of Pilsey Island for lunch and I left Adrian to a quiet afternoon as I headed for the marina and home.