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By Betty Soller
Saturdays are normally for lie-ins, but not this one. I got up really early and raced down to Portsmouth to take part in a weekend cruise organised by Gerry Raby. I managed to get down to Hardway just before 9 o'clock, where I had to catch the water taxi to Spider Lake. Gerry was already on board, and the two of us set off to pick up the two other crew members from the jetty. On the way there we suddenly noticed that the dinghy, which had been tied on to the boat, had come lose, and was floating somewhere on a journey of its own. We quickly picked up Stuart Ritchie, the first of the two other crew members and turned round towards where we had come from. Luckily, Alan, in the water taxi, had spotted it and was coming towards us towing the dinghy behind him. This little escapade didn't delay us long, and after the arrival of Keith Sinden we slipped the mooring at noon and set of for Wootton Creek for lunch. After a leisurely 2 hour lunch break we sailed on to Newtown Creek. The sailing conditions were excellent, we all really enjoyed the afternoon. By 17.35 we were at anchor in Newtown Creek, and Gerry was getting dinner ready. Lucrece was anchored at shouting distance from us, but unfortunately too far for them to join us for some after dinner drinks. While we were waiting for dinner, a visitor from the RNLI arrived rowing a dinghy. He promised that he wasn't after any money, but he could do a safety check. Gerry had wanted to do that at some time anyway, so he invited him on board. We never got his name, but it took quite a while to get through the list. It only remains to be said that Blue Scherzo is not lacking in anything, and Gerry has everything in place that is necessary for safety at sea. The next morning we set off towards Cowes in brilliant sunshine and sparkling blue sea. We could see a mass of boats just off Cowes from quite some way away, and Gerry took the helm to manoeuvre us through the throng, leaving us to check out all the fantastic boats. Ellen McArthur's catamaran was there (moored) plus lots and lots of huge sailing yachts, a fantastic sight. We had got there just at the start of the Fastnet Race.
At 12.25 we hoisted the spinnaker off Lee on the Solent, and had it flying for half an hour, to come down off Gilkicker. Then at nearly 1 pm we picked up a buoy off Rat Island and had lunch. I never noticed the name at the time. We slipped the buoy after an hour and a half and sailed to Hardway, where we refilled all the water bottles to put back on board, and returned to Blue Scherzo's mooring on Spider Lake. Gerry had booked the water taxi for 4 pm, and we just made it to have everything cleaned and packed away before being picked up. Both on Saturday and Sunday we had good winds, force 3 or 4, with good visibility, a promise of rain on Saturday, which didn't materialise, and gorgeous sunshine on Sunday. It couldn't have been better, and we all had a great sailing weekend.