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.

Thursday 8th July - Yarmouth

Thursday was a lovely day in Yarmouth and having had two quite long and hard days on the water we decided to have a day off and explore more of the island.

Catching a bus from the stand just along form the marina offices, we elected for the long trip, and managed to get a seat at the front of the upstairs deck.

The Solent look blue and inviting as we trundled down to Alum Bay. I had forgotten how many times a local bus service stopped, but we eventually set off along the southern shore of the island, which, in contrast to the north, was very misty.

Having passed numerous thatched houses and other very nice properties, we eventually arrived at our destination, Newport.

Adam has an ambition to go to the Isle of Wight festival and we thought that using the boat as a base would be good so we planned to use the day to recce the festival location and the mooring options.

Seaclose Park still bore the evidence of this years festival which had taken place the month before. The visitors moorings were quiet when we went but I suspect they would have been crowded with vessels bringing festival goers a few weeks earlier.

After lunch and a visit to several fashion shops to buy some sunglasses for A, we caught our bus back to Yarmouth where ice creams on the pier were the order of the day.

There we got together the makings of a BBQ and found a place on the foreshore to cook. Inevitably we attracted the attention of passers-by, one of whom was a skipper of a yacht moored out in the river. As we discussed who had been where during the season so far, he remarked that he had been in Weymouth a week or so before when some intrepid Drascombers had been in for the night and had set off early the next day to travel inshore to Poole. I waited until he finished telling us how much he admired them before telling him that I had been in the group he was talking about. His admiration grew when I told him that we were actually on our way back from Dartmouth. It was a nice moment.

Wednesday 7th July - Shepherds Wharf - Cowes

Although warm, the day dawned grey and cloudy and we decided to to set off early to get the best of the tide, in spite of the wind being light but quite southerly.

Soon after we set off the wind increased and became more westerly, on the nose. As the tide built so did the waves so it was an easy decision to put into Newtown Creek to sit it out until the tide changed and the waves would diminish.

We revelled in the 'comfort' of the Shrimper. To be able to go below and sit in the warm, drinking coffee, reading or watching a DVD was luxury compared to the exposed feeling of our old lugger 'Chloe'.

3 hours later and we emerged into a totally different Solent, warm, sunny and with a slight sea state. Unfortunately the tide was coming in swiftly so after a brief sail we put the motor on and hugged the shore, heading for Yarmouth.

Outside the harbour, Wednesday night racing was in full swing, but having dodged the fast cruisers we entered the harbour and were directed to a nice spot on the walk ashore pontoons.

After further liaison with Brad we decided that the weather window to get to Poole, and back again, didn't look good so reluctantly we abandoned that plan and decided to use the rest of the week to explore the Solent instead.