Midweek Sail 25th & 26th February

Winter often has a sting in it's tail at the end of February, and 2004 was no exception. We slid down the frosty pontoon to join Chris & Kath on Layla for the midweek sail, put on layers of clothes, thawed out the water hose, filled with water, and set off for Cowes. No queue for the lock, no traffic on the route to the harbour entrance, and we were soon set on 270 degrees in a bitterly cold force 4 north westerly and a fair tide, making good progress towards the forts. It's amazing how clearly the various bays and headlands of the Isle of Wight can be seen when the air is so cold and dry. Through the forts and a couple of tacks later we came into the Medina as the sun was losing what strength it had had. No trouble finding a berth at East Cowes, and the coffee and brandy on arrival started to get some feeling back into our extremities. Being the lone boat on the cruise we socialised with ourselves that evening, and got a good heat up in the boat before retiring, as the forecast was for -5 degrees that night.

A beautiful winter's morning on Thursday, and a 0800 start to get the tide back to Chichester. Only one problem - the forecast NW force 3/4 hadn't arrived and the sails were a waste of time, so we motored back towards Chichester in glorious winter sunshine in a deserted, flat Solent. As we made such good time we popped into Portsmouth Harbour just for a look round, the continued, through the dolphin, back to Chichester. Although we had almost unbroken sunshine all day, a bit of ice breaking was necessary to get Layla back to her berth that afternoon. The lack of wind, and the afternoon sun meant that it was warm enough to eat lunch in the cockpit whilst gazing on the icebergs in the marina, a really enjoyable end to a great midweek 'weekend'.

Thanks to Chris and Kath Rayner from Mike Duke, David Bennett, and Trevor Denham.

Trevor Denham