Breeze

Lymington to Portland Delivery Trip - Tayana 58

Cracking sail from Bembridge to Yarmouth.  Downwind around Ryde Sands then beating all the way up to Yarmouth with a spring tide beneath us.  Wind consistently16-22 kts, making speeds over 9 kts otg. Saw the Ryde hovercraft and then a military-looking one.  Picked up a mooring outside Yarmouth to avoid the snide carnage and to make an early start, log showing  2.4 kts past the boat, just sitting on the mooring.

Bembridge to Yarmouth

Motored out of Chichester Harbour then sailed up to Bembridge, dead upwind but with gusts over 30 kts.  2 reefs in the main, handled it beautifully!

Chichester Marina to Bembridge

Simple downwind sail in a F5-6.  Went under jib alone.  Sheeting the self racket out on the spinnaker blocks aft worked a treat

Cowes to Chichester Marina

Straightforward motor across to Cowes. Hunkered down there for a couple of nights to avoid some wet and windy weather coming through. 

Beaulieu River to Cowes YH

First time with the new tender and new davits.  Worked well!  Dead downwind in 20+ knots - good fun!  Occasional little surfs too.  Beautifully flat once we hit The Solent, doing >9 kts OTG.  Picked up a visitors mooring on the Beaulieu River for the night.

Poole to Beaulieu River

Solo sail from Hamble down to Lymington.  Given a last minute but very convenient berth on the end of Dan Bran pontoon, ready for an early morning getaway.

Mercury YH to Dan Bran, Lymington

Lovely sunny day but sadly not quite enough wind to make good headway under sail alone.  Hit a 15 minute fog bank after the Christchurch Ledges - down to maybe 50m visibility.  Motored up The Solent to Mercury YH on the River Hamble, ahead of a pair of weekend sailing courses.  Great crew!  First time out on “Breeze” for Matt.

Poole to Mercury YH, River Hamble

Tayana 58 delivery from Lymington to Portland.  F6 E’ly blowing us all the way, with a big spring tide beneath us.  Hit speeds up to 13.6 kts OTG surfing down some of the waves.  A beautiful sunny & breezy day - perfect conditions if it had been 10 degC warmer! 

Another early start, locking out of Sovereign Harbour at close to low water, with 0.9m beneath us at one stage in the channel outside the lock.  Much smoother passage than the previous day, passing Dungeness, Folkestone, Dover Harbour and up past Ramsgate & Broadstairs.  Slowed down from our early 20 kts to ensure we didn’t arrive too early.  Coming up past Southend pier the channel markers ran out but we were les into the boats new home in a mud berth at a small marina in Leigh-on-Sea.  Destined to stay in the dock as a live aboard for her new owner.  A fun couple of days passage, making around 190 nautical miles or so.  Burned through an awful lot of fuel - don’t think I need a motorboat at the moment!!!

Eastbourne to Leigh-on-Sea, Essex

Angel II

Delivery trip with Colin Paddy.  Left Salterns in Poole Harbour well before dawn.  Headed across to and then through the Solent.  Weather pretty miserable as we followed a weather system up the Channel.  Once through the channel at Selsey Bill the wind increased and the sea roughed-up; some of the waves were probably 3m high!!  Put into Eastbourne for fuel and decided to spend the night there instead of pushing on to Ramsgate.  

Chris Monk