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by Mark Hitchin with additional material by Louise George!
As always the Friday of the cruise started with a mad dash down to Hardway to get the weekend underway. Gerry, Louise and I loaded the water taxi with our kit and rushed off to Spider Lake to bring Blue Scherzo down to Hardway Sailing Club to await our fourth crew member for the weekend, Teresa. In due time she arrived (Carrying her personal stash of cider!) and Gerry knocked up a pasta to stand us in good stead for the 5am start to catch a favourable tide for Brighton. A thick fog early had caused some concern in the evening but by the time we bedded down in the forepeak we could see stars clearly through the open forepeak without a trace of mist.
5am Saturday the alarm went off for us all to rise and shine! We were struggling into our clothing when Gerry popped his head outside to be faced with 40 metres of vis! About the only clear thing that morning was that Brighton with anything even approaching a fair tide was no longer an option. We all tried to go back to sleep and rose again two hours later to find the fog as thick as ever. Gerry reckoned Brighton was still possible with use of the engine and tried the coast guard for a weather check. When asked about the sea state he said he couldn't even see the sea! Consultation with Sea Holly moored further up Portsmouth revealed the fog was no better south of us. This was a bit of a blow for all concerned but most of all for Gerry as he had planned to meet Mary in Brighton later that evening for curry! Every cloud has a silver lining though, a quick mental calculation indicated the curry was now going to be split 4 ways instead of 5!
With the days plans up in smoke or should I say fog, Gerry put us to task. Teresa gave Blue Scherzo a spring clean, I serviced the bilge pump, Gerry installed a new deck speaker and Louise sanded and oiled some of Gerry's teak!
By early afternoon the fog had lifted enough for Gerry, and Ian on Sea Holly to discuss making our way east. With Brighton now well out of the question we decided to cut our losses and head for Sparkes, Chichester.
Departing Portsmouth it was clear and bright but just outside the entrance the blanket of fog fell again. We were determined to sail all the way to Chichester so we pressed on with Gerry plotting us every 10 minutes as we tacked between the shipping channel and Southsea.
In the event a light fickle wind prevented us beating through the Submarine Gap and we powered through on the engine. The fog was intimidating, with fog horns warning of the presence of invisible ships, but with astonishing speed the visibility lifted from maybe five boat lengths to several miles. We were able to sail all the way to Chichester and negotiate our way into Sparkes without incident where we found Ian and Jean Sandell waiting for us. We swapped stories of the fog before joining the Sea Hollies for a drink and a chat. When Ian and Jean later returned the visit Ian noticed a Gin Palace with lighting effects casting a blue glow in every direction in the darkness - like the pride and joy of a spotty teenager parked up outside a chip shop. Ian nodded at it and came out with the classic quip "Not so much Nav lights as chav lights!" That set the tone for an evening of bonhomie in the peace of Chichester Harbour.
Sunday was a beautiful morning in Sparkes. With an eleven o'clock departure planned we all had time to shower and enjoy sausage sandwiches outside as the sun flooded the cockpit. There was even time for some useful jobs. On our arrival Ian had mentioned that he needed someone to go up his mast to look at his windvane. There was a shocked silence from Blue Scherzo's horrified crew until it became clear that he wanted to go up himself rather than delegating our skipper, the living answer to the question 'Who ate all the pies?!'
We departed Sparkes shortly before Sea Holly and when we reached Hayling Island SC we popped up the sails and began to beat out of the harbour. On Gerry's instruction we tacked each time the echo sounder read three metres to make the most of each tack. The look on an elderly dog walker's face was a picture as we purposefully sailed on within three boat lengths of the beach. (This reminded me of dinghy racing on the River Severn where we used to say the wind veering round a grazing cow would give a noticeable lift!)
As we beat out of Chichester Harbour Gerry went below just before a fast looking yacht of about 45 feet undertook us to leeward pointing slightly higher than us. He scored this victory just before the harbour began to shoal up and the helmsman indicated he wanted to tack and take our stern. On receiving our nodded agreement he threw his helm down and in a perfectly choreographed move tacked neatly behind us. I think the towering topsides and a 45kg CQR that completely filled his view took Gerry by surprise, my Swiss finishing school did nothing to prepare me for the expletive that emitted from the saloon!!!
From Chi we reached to the Looe channel. An awkward sea state meant Louise's first time through the Looe Channel was celebrated with a 'technicolour yawn' depositing a recently drunk cup a soup for the fish! She perked up after that though! In spite of a forecast of easterly winds bearing off for Littlehampton we were easily able to get Gerry's black and red masthead kite out. Although the wind was not strong we foamed along nicely with the tide. For Louise and I this leg was far and away the outstanding sail of the weekend. Indeed, Littlehampton arrived far too early and like the Teletubbies we wanted to go 'Again, Again'! With my expert presence on the foredeck the spinnaker was soon safely stowed in its rightful place. Or at least it would have been, if its rightful place were wrapped round the forestay rather than in its bag. As the old adage says, a team is only as strong as it's weakest link and to the continued amusement of my fellow crew members I shamefully shovelled the wayward sail into its bag until Louise took it off me shaking her head slowly and put it down in the saloon!
Littlehampton was completely new to all of us and although the pilotage was trivial it was still a joy to go somewhere fresh. We arrived at the town quay to be welcomed by the larger than life Harbour Master who moved various power boats along to make room for the Ashdown Boats. After a brief game of musical boats Lucrece and Sea Holly rafted up alongside Blue Scherzo and Fizzgig went alongside Summer Song. Sea Holly was flushed with success after beating a much larger boat with bright white asymmetric on a sprint from the Looe Channel to Littlehampton. Although we couldn't recognise either boat we'd watched the two boats behind us all the way, the larger boat changing gybes all the way down to make use of his asymmetric dead down wind struggling to pull away without success.
Safely tied up, the cruise enjoyed the hospitality of cruise leader, Pam, on Summer Song. The evening ended with a gathering on Blue Scherzo when Gerry fished out his 'Shrub', the concoction that had kept the January cruise crew warm on their January blast round the Island.
It is hard to do justice to how welcome Littlehampton made us feel. The Harbour Master was a character and Arun Yacht Club willingly sent a dory over to collect hungry and thirsty sailors and helpfully ferried us back after a super feed. For future reference the harbour office has limited showers but I am sure showers are available at the Yacht club a quick row or walk away. At only 5 hours away from Chi I hope we will be going back if the tides are right later in the season.
Monday was a wet start so we donned wet weather gear. Louise took Blue Scherzo off the pontoon and we departed for Portsmouth. We felt slight pangs of guilt as we left Lucrece suffering from a problem with her throttle cable but we only had so much tide to play with. Apparently the classic Nich 32 had been so overloaded with beer that something had to give way! However, John was on the case and she was able to continue with a pair of mole grips performing the job of a throttle cable.
The predicted SW wind had more south in it than west so we were able to sail comfortably at first in light rain. However as the weather improved the wind dropped and with our speed dropping we were forced to resort to the iron foresail while 'Summer Song' manfully chose to sail on. We'd established already that the previous evening the Commodore had shunned his jacket in favour of his 'beer coat' and left his fleece on board Blue Scherzo. So with Teresa at the Helm our diesel powered speed gave us the chance to perform the handover to 'Summer Song' in the Looe Channel. Simon was able to give up his job as human Jib pole and take the garment off Gerry.
Ian and Jean had alerted us to the presence of a dolphin around the Looe Channel and as we approached our eyes strained to catch any sight of it. It signalled its presence by breaking the surface with its fin while we were some way off. We killed the engine and sailed slowly on. Fresh back from a cruise on the west coast of Scotland Louise and I were both pretty used to seeing dolphins and seals but this encounter was something different. Instead of a flash of grey fin disappearing as soon as we saw it, it swam close to the boat and could be seen both under the water and regularly breaking the surface a few feet away allowing us to get a good look for a good five minutes. The only previous time either of us had ever seen a dolphin in the English Channel was off Guernsey and the whole crew were moved by the experience. With expert knowledge of dolphin body language gleaned from watching 'Flipper' we were pretty confident it was seeking help for a photogenic and wholesome American boy. We decided to carry on and let 'Summer Song' who was following in our wake carry out the rescue! (Incidentally ask Gerry about his family connection with the lad off 'Flipper'!)
The relatively prompt return to Portsmouth Harbour gave ace helmsman, Teresa, the chance to pick up buoys while Louise cracked on preparing lunch, which was consumed al fresco on a mooring. As Gerry washed up we came to terms with the fact the cruise was over. Teresa and I took the hastily packed kit from Hardway SC to the cars while Louise and Gerry put Blue Scherzo on the mooring and came back to meet us on the water taxi. Despite the disappointment on Saturday when the fog prevented us from getting to Brighton the weekend was a resounding success for all the boats on the cruise. Louise and I are already looking forward to the June Cruises. Will they be as eventful - fog, dolphins, new places to visit? - I'm sure they will be.
We hope Mary forgives Gerry for the missed curry - after all, we didn't do it on porpoise!