Midweek Sail 26/27th March 2003.

There was not a lot of support for the first mid-week sail of the year; however David Bennett, David Groves, Kath and Myself, and of course Layla left the berth at Chichester on a misty Wednesday morning just after 08.30. We cleared the lock and made our way down the harbour while David Bennett made breakfast of bacon sandwiches.

After breakfast we raised the sails in the harbour, cut the engine and passed the West pole heading in the direction of - well Yarmouth, Cowes or Port Solent depending on the wind; we had all day so we left our options open. Light breezes had been forecast so we decided to see what wind we actually had before we made up our minds. WHAT WIND? What wind there was, was easterly and there was hardly any of that. We tried sailing westward, tried gull winging, had a look at the cruising chute and put it away again; bit more of the learning curve to learn, couldn't work out how to rig it; and eventually ended up sailing towards, Bembridge I suppose. After about an hour and achieving a stately speed of a maximum of 2 knots we decided to give up and put the motor on.

We then discovered we could see no land, either mainland or the Isle of Wight, or the Forts, or the Nab tower. Down to the charts and the G.P.S. to find out where we were and a bearing towards Portsmouth; having decided to make Port Solent our destination. We played with the auto-tiller and that kept us amused until we found the Forts and then Portsmouth harbour. We entered the harbour and passed what was left of our Navy in port and made our way up the top of the harbour to pick up a buoy for lunch. The Naval vessels had a 50m. exclusion zone around them and were patrolled by a police vessel, sign of the times I am afraid. We duly had lunch, washed down with suitable liquid refreshment and then made our way up to Port Solent and onto a berth for the night. Suitably showered and refreshed we took a stroll through the bars and restaurants, had a beer on the way back and ate dinner on the boat.

The next day there was promise of more wind, but as we did not have to be back into Chichester until early evening, we took our time and left Port Solent about 10.00. We cleared Portsmouth harbour to find a better wind and so we cut the engine, worked out a bearing which in the fullness of time would allow us to tack back and bring us to Langstone harbour, our selected lunch stop. We duly tacked when we calculated and eventually, there in front of us was the entrance to Langstone harbour. David Bennett was on the tiller and suggested we sail into the harbour, I agreed but as skippers insurance insisted we started the engine and left it in neutral anyway. We sailed into the harbour and were going to sail onto a buoy for lunch. David insisted he was only looking at the first couple of buoys until he liked the third and with David Groves on the sails, Kath and I picked up the buoy. I think the wind may have had some influence on David's third choice.

We had lunch, sailed off the buoy, again with the engine running for insurance, and left the harbour. Outside the harbour we turned the engine off and again sorted out a bearing that would bring us straight back on a tack into Chichester harbour; easy stuff this sailing!!!! AH NO !!!. We followed another yacht, on the same bearing as us that had to be on a tack into Chichester harbour and we both missed the entrance - too far west, a bit more of the learning curve I guess. After another couple of tacks we entered the harbour, started the engine and lowered the sails. An eerie scene the harbour was too, the mist had come down over the land so we could not see the tree line, the wind had dropped and the sun had gone.

The yachts, on their buoys were all still with a misty backdrop, that made quite a picture. We made our way up the harbour, through the lock on freeflow and got back onto the berth just after 19.00.

I thoroughly enjoyed my two days out in the Solent, and hope Kath and the two Davids did as well; thank you all.

Chris Rayner.