The Four Day Cruise

(or to be more truthful the two and a half day cruise)

by Chris Rayner

The suggested plan for the four-day cruise on 3rd/6th of July was a cruise across the Channel. As there was little interest from club members and only the one boat - Layla; my plan "A" was to go to Weymouth and back over the four days.

Kath and I went down to the boat on the Friday, knowing the weather was not very promising, and having warned our crew; Yvonne Snowdon and Linda Zaben, that we would phone them once we had an up-to-date weather forecast. The forecast was terrible; gales and rain being forecast for the Saturday, but a promise of moderating weather on the Sunday. We now had a three day cruise, destination, not sure really, depends how the weather turns out.

Yvonne and Linda turned up Sunday morning are we were off; well we weren't really! Layla just about got off the berth, but was not very happy at all going forward or backwards - back to the berth. We partially inflated our dinghy and with the three ladies on the bow, along with Alan Waller, who had come over to see what was happening, and anybody that was passing; I was able to reach our prop from the dinghy, and clear the tube worms that had built up on it, thereby destroying the prop shape. By midday Layla was back operating properly, I had showered and this time we really were off - now a two and a half day cruise.

We got out into the Solent only to find a force 4 -5 wind and we sailed off quite nicely westward, at this stage with no real destination in mind, but probably Cowes initially. I suppose we got as far as the forts when it started raining and we were well and truly wet by the time we got into Cowes, with a little bit of a sense of humour failure. We had a large distraction on the way in the shape of the aircraft carrier U.S.S.Enterprise which was anchored in the Solent just west of Gilkicker point, just had to sail round and have a look at her. She is apparently too big to get into Portsmouth Harbour. Anyway back to the plot, like a lot of summer evenings, just after we had got sorted out in East Cowes marina, the sun came out. We dried the wet weather gear on the rigging and we had a drink or two sitting in the cockpit; not a bad day in the end!

The next day, Monday, we woke to wall to wall sunshine, so after a rather late breakfast we left for - well as it turned out another look at the Enterprise. There was very little wind in the Solent and nobody wanted to motor to any particular destination, so we just let the wind and tide take us and sat back and enjoyed it. We didn't go far and just before midday the wind dropped completely and we decided to motor into Portsmouth, pull up a buoy and have lunch. Once we had eaten we became aware that other people were managing to sail so we left the harbour again and had a bit of a sail until once again the wind dropped. We decided to give up at this point and made our way into Port Solent for the night.

The next day we woke, again to brilliant sunshine, but with the promise of a bit more wind. Out in the Solent the wind had indeed freshened and we were able to make our way home at a sedate pace, under sail.

Over the four/two and a half days we had not been anywhere in particular, other than the Solent; and we certainly had not broken any speed records, but I think we all enjoyed the outing, it was very relaxing, and I certainly enjoyed it. I would like to thank Yvonne, Linda and Kath for their company.