Leg 1 Port Solent to Lymington

Date:- 29.04.11 Name: Morgen Crew: RD (Richard Dempster), Frances From: Port Solent To: Lymington Comments:Last day of preparation

Wind Strength / direction: Easterly force 2/3 Sea State:smooth Distance: 22.5 nautical miles Time Taken: All day

Frances and I left home for the final preparations on Thursday evening after packing the car. However whilst driving past Northampton about three quarters of an hour in to the journey I realised that I had left all of my tools in the garage!!!!durrrr. Turn around and head home. Once at home we decided to leave for the boat early on Friday morning at 5:30am.
Once some spares where collected from Deacons boat yard we arrived at the boat and unpacked the car. The first job for me was to fit the stanchion supports which meant drilling in to the decks. This is really hard thing to do there is something which holds you back from drilling in to pristine decks and putting holes in to something which should be watertight. But the job went like clockwork and it didn’t take very long. Having said this a lot of preparatory work had already been done. The Spinnaker Hallyard  was returned from the top of the mast to the anchor bowsprit. And all the other little finishing jobs were finished, yehhhh.
The rest of the day was down to setting the boat up for a pontoon party where fellow boaters joined us from our pontoon at Port Solent for a little get together and a few drinks consumed

A good time was had by all and I think a few hangovers. I know I did. Some have said they would like to meet me on the way around the coast. I hope this can be worked out. The elder statesman Ian Wale and our most experienced sailor of our little pontoon group Christened Morgen as we had changed the boats name. Hopefully this will bring some luck!

Finally the day of leaving was on us. Up and preparing the boat for the off first thing in the morning hangover or not. Sail bag opened, Halyard attached Bow and stern lined released etc etc. The night before Ian and Jackie had said they would follow me out and possibly meet in Lymington this evening. After a few quick goodbyes I headed for the lock entrance to Port solent. Fran and a few others ran around the marina to say a final farewell. The Marina office staff came out of the office to wish myself and Freddie good luck. And then the Lock gates opened and the first leg of the journey began. The wind was an easterly and meant that it would be with me all the way to Lymington.

Ian and Jackie followed me out and stayed with me in their Hallberg Rassey 37 until we were in the small ships channel just outside Portsmouth where they took off while I turned in to wind to hoist the main sail for the first time.

Ian and Jackie sailing past Spinnaker Tower

The wind was very good about a force 3 to begin with but once past Fort Gillkicker the wind dropped, so I decided to pull the jib in and put the cruising chute up for the first time. This coincided with my second mistake, the first was almost forcing Ian out of the dredged channel on our way to Portsmouth I only realized this when he shouted at me from his boat “you should be the other side of that green pile” I can only put this down to having a slight hangover and probably the excitement of finally setting off. My second mistake was trying to fly the cruising chute whilst the main sail was up. The main completely shielded the cruising chute from any wind. After a lot of sail fluttering I finally managed to drop the main and the cruising chute filled up and pulled me along at a reasonable 4 to 5 knots in only 6 to 10 knots of wind

Then the first calamity, as I was approaching Cowes the Isle of white ferry was coming out and just at the worst possible moment as I was trying to avoid the ferry the line that holds the cruising chute block snapped and I lost all power and the chute was streaming in front of the boat making an almighty noise. Or so it seemed to me. After regaining control of the sheet I fastened it off on the rear port winch and started the engine in order to turn in to wind and avoid an international incident with the Isle of White. Surely this was the last incident of the day?

I have to say that once past Cowes everything settled down and ran really smoothly and I was able to relax in to the cruise. Great.

But as always I left the dropping of the sails and putting out of the fenders, mooring lines etc too late and everything became a rush as I approached Lymington. The Yarmouth Ferry appeared from nowhere right behind me and I had to take avoiding action again not easy with the cruising chute still up. The wind had been pretty much behind me and as I turned away from the ferry the wind turned from a following wind to a Broadreach powering up the sail and Morgen took off. This meant the Yarmouth ferry couldn’t overtake and we were approaching the narrow channel almost side by side. I set the auto pilot so I could run up on deck and snuff the cruising chute and lower it allowing the ferry to overtake. But this was far to close for comfort. I MUST learn to prepare the boat for mooring well before I think I need to. However I pulled in to Lymington Yacht Haven and the berth for the night and the first day and the first leg was over. What a start to the journey.

As Promised Ian and Jackie pulled in to Lymington for the night and we spent a very enjoyable evening in the Yacht Haven bar. Moaning about the cost of everything and telling stories of the days sailing and the past.