Bucklers Hard

Saturday morning.
Saturday started early, everything was packed the night before so John and I were able to to get down at the club by about 0730.  The plan was for me to paddle out to the boat and bring it back to the pier to load up.  Arjen, another club member was there and kindly offered to take John and some of the kit out to the boat.  I got to the boat first and realised my keys were still at the club... This is a familiar story, probably one that I will never learn from.  John and Arjen dropped off the gear and went back for my keys and some other bits of Arjens.
I was glad Arjen was there as the tide was ripping out and there was no way I could have got Ciao Bella to the pier head.  While they went back to the club I motored over to a mooring near Arjen's boat. He has a beautiful looking Finesse 21 called Woodmouse, pictures of that later.
Once set up and ready for the off we circled around a bit until Arjen was ready to go.  By 0915 we were heading for the harbour entrance, the wind was forecast to be very light but was probably at the bottom end of F3 and with full genoa and main Ciao Bella didn't hang around.

Heading out of Poole harbour with Woodmouse in the background.

Once out in the bay I took my usual heading towards the Island,  I was somewhat shocked when I heard one of the keels scrape the bottom, I bore away and headed up the Swash channel.  With the low tide and extra depth of keel I'd nearly been caught out.  Woodmouse kept his course and avoided to bank. When I checked the GPS later I only just touch it and really only needed to make an adjustment but it wasn't worth the risk.
Saturday Afternoon.
We'd had a good sail across Bournemouth bay and with the wind coming from the NE we didn't even have to tack.  Into Christchurch bay and things got more interesting.  We were going to have to tack to get inshore so that we'd have a reasonable heading through Hurst channel.  Before we tacked we noticed a plane flying low towards the needles, we wouldn't have remembered but because it was so low it took some time to see it even though we could hear it.  We put our tack in and forgot about the plane.  About 15mins later there was a mayday call from  Solent Coastguard, they had received a 999 call saying that the plane had gone over the needles battery and disappeared.  an hour and a half of helicopters and lifeboats followed with intermittent scoldings from the Coast guard for people breaking the 'See-lance' before the search was called of as the aircraft had been located back at it's airfield. 
Enough excitement for one afternoon we tacked our way into the Hurst narrows,  running the engine briefly as the wind died for just a few minutes.  Getting into the Solent had us thinking we were nearly there.  Not a hope, the entrance to the Beaulieu river is a fair way up the Solent, a good visual aid is to aim for the Fawley Chimney, eventually you'll see a white boat house on the beach and that where you need to be.
We dropped the sails before entering the river, they weren't doing much by now anyway as the wind had slowly ebbed away during the afternoon.

First view of Bucklers Hard

 We motored up the river which gradually changes from seascape to a wooded river.  At Bucklers Hard we were greeted by the harbour masters launch who gave us instructions on where to berth.  I had decided to pay the extra and have a walk ashore berth.. well worth it.

Room for a little un

 We ate in the Master Builders Arms. I can't really recommend it for food, I had Chicken, bacon and leek pie but it looked as if it had been zapped in the microwave.  The beer on the other hand was tip top :~) We eventually met up with some of the other club members and spent the evening discussing the trip over.

Leaving the river 

 Sunday Morning.
We set the alarm for 6am as we needed to be out of the Solent by about 10am.  Several presses of the snooze button later and eventually we crawled out of our pits and prepared to go.  There was absolutely no wind as we set of and as we left the river the Solent was smooth as a mirror. To make up for our lazy start we motored at 6 knots from the river entrance to Hurst castle.

Shingles bank high and dry.

 Once out of the Solent the breeze started to pick up, we killed the engine and unfurled the Genoa .  Ciao Bella responded immediately and we were coasting along at 3 knots.

Poly put the kettle on

 John learnt some new skills,  making tea on the go and using his mobile while helming... I must have been to busy to help :o))

Confidence building, John multi-tasks

 Soon after leaving the Solent we saw Woodmouse so detoured over to take some pics.The wind had picked up nicely now and we were at optimum speed.

Arjen in his 1966 Finesse 21  'Woodmouse'

Soon after this I snagged a lobster pot around around the skeg,  the marker was a good 4 meters off the starboard but it had excessive line that was lying along the surface ready to snag the unsuspecting.  I managed to free it with the boat hook and got under-way again.

Arjen kindly took this pic of Ciao Bella

Sunday afternoon.
The  wind continued to build through the afternoon and once into Bournemouth bay it was upto F5 and right on the nose.  We furled a good chunk of the Genoa but as the borrowed main didn't have reefing points we spent the afternoon on our ear.  and tacking all the way back.   Just off Bournemouth pier we did the marine equivalent of a handbrake turn.. just after a tack an unwelcome noise started, it was the anchor chain running at speed over the bow roller.  It dug in in 10m of water like someone had nailed the bow to the floor. It took a bit of time to break it out but we were soon on the go again.
We tacked our way into the harbour and back to the mooring.  It had taken us about 8 hours to get back, not to bad considering the wind was on the nose.  A great week end and a long time coming.  Looking forward to Castle Cove in a couple of weeks.