New Destinations Cruise – 15th – 16th July

By Val Dibble

There were six boats taking part on this cruise. They were Fizzgig, Dyak, Lucrece, Pelagian, Lady J and Sea Holly. I was on Fizzgig.

After a dubious weather forecast, Fizzgig set forth from Chichester Marina in about a NE F4. We set the foresail off the entrance to Bosham Creek and sailed out of the Harbour. Then we went westwards and took the Dolphin passage through the submarine barrier, off Portsmouth, and onwards towards Beaulieu, setting the mainsail on the way. It was a relaxing and enjoyable sail in glorious sunshine. How wrong the predictions of F 5/6 had been.

We arrived in the late afternoon at the Royal Southampton Yacht Club, at Gin’s Farm in the Beaulieu River, and tied up alongside Sea Holly and Lucrece on the pontoon.

The Club had very good showers, so we spruced ourselves up for what was an excellent evening meal at the Club The views on such a beautiful evening were wonderful and a good evening was had by all.

This was only my second cruise with the Ashdown Club, but I was taken by the friendliness of the Club members and the obvious enjoyment they had in sailing together. I really enjoyed myself.

Sunday dawned and we slipped our moorings around 10.00hrs. There was only a zephyr of wind and that was from the East! So we motored. John decided to go west of the Bramble Bank and through the North Passage in the hope of having a better chance of wind, but it was not to be. We tried several times to sail, but the wind was not strong enough until we had nearly reached the Forts.

We then had a glorious sail back to Chichester, made fun by a little tussle with Lucrece on the approach to Chichester and through the Harbour until the entrance to Bosham, where we, sadly, had take to the engine again. Free Flow started soon after we arrived, so we had a fairly speedy return to the mooring at the end of a really enjoyable weekend.

It is thanks to Jean and Ian Sandell for organising the event and is one well worth repeating.