Ciao Bella: Change of plan

I have been planning to go the Alderney for some time, We were all set to go on Wednesday morning. Another Hurley 20 owner was set to join us as well but by Monday it was obvious that the weather wasn't going to play ball.
As I'd taken the time off work I wanted to do some sailing, it looked like we'd be able to go to the solent and back on Wednesday and Thursday so I started to hatch a plan.

We motored out to Studland bay on Tuesday night and picked up one of the Bankes Arms buoys. We spent an amusing 30 minutes trying to inflate the tender. I don't normally take the big inflatable with me but as John is rather tall there was no way my little wetline 180 was going to work. After much jumping on, pulling at and pushing in and nearly falling in it was inflated, thrown over the side and engine attached. We would need this in the morning to find some facilities.
It was a beautiful evening and we settled down with a beer or two in the cockpit listening to tunes on the ipod.
Wednesday morning and to be fair, we weren't exactly up with the Lark. We climbed into the tender and motored over to the National trust site on Studland beach for our morning ablutions. We were hoping for traditional sinks but they only had the hole in the wall type handwash stations, a tricky manouver trying to have a decent wash at one of them :o))

RNLI visiting Studland bay

We were back on the boat and on our way by 10am. The wind was variable F3 from the south east giving us a good heading for one long beat to Hurst. As we crossed Bournemouth Bay we were treated to a display from a Hercules dropping stuff into the sea for the marines to retrive, not sure what it was as they were just too far away.

Hercules dropping bits for Marines to find

With full main and Full genoa and good steady wind we were struggling to make even 4 knots, I was expecting much better. Fortunately we had plenty of time to get through Hurst channel and up to Newport before the tide left us.

Towing the tender cost us about 1.5 knots

As we approached Barton on Sea our one long beat ran out and we had to start tacking to make it into the solent. Into the narrows and wind dropped, the tide was running in all directions and we eventually fell out the other side. The island was shielding us from the wind and headway was slow. As we made our way along the solent the Lord Nelson came into View. We tacked across to take a closer look, this was near to Newtown creek, The Lord Nelson is a tall ship operated by the Jubilee sailing trust and is set up for taking able bodied and disabled crew.

JST 'Lord Nelson'

Eventually about 1 mile from the entrance to the Medina the wind died completely so we rolled away the Genoa started the outboard. The final leg along the Medina, even though on the motor, was very relaxing. The gradual change from Town to industrial to countryside with an eclectic mix of water craft all the way.

A nice sculpture near to Newport.

The one telling thing was that even with the engine on full throttle the boat speed through the water was only 4 knots. Towing the tender was really having an impact and I don't intend to be towing long distances again.

On the way up the Medina I spotted Peggoty coming the other way, Peggoty is the Hurley 20 that was going to join us across to Alderney, we had a very brief chat as the tide was falling and we needed to be be in Newport ASAP.

Ciao Bella on the Visitor Mooring

Getting ready for a pint

Once tied up and ashore I could hear my name being called, Liam, the owner of Peggoty had driven round and was prepared to get the beers in while we tidied up.... Hurley owners are just the best ;O))

We had a great night in Newport ending up in the 'Newport Ale house'... Tip top.

The next morning... once again we were hardly up at the crack of dawn, in fact my first words were Sh@t, we'd better go. We quickly tidied up, packing the tender and stowing it and the engine in the cabin and motored back down the Medina to Cowes. Just so you don't think I've forgotten my roots, I passed this Fantasie 19 moored in the middle of the Medina. Very nice with roller furlung jib, baby stay and back stay.

It's not one that I recognise, I was keeping an eye out for 'Pamala' but this was not her.

We stopped at Cowes Yacht haven to use the Showers and grab some breakfast at Tiffins, a good call. We left Cowes just after 11am and motored out before raising the sails. The forecast was for 4's and 5's from the South East, become F6 later turning more southerly. It was perfect conditions, we put up full main and most of the Genoa and we set off at a pace. We saw 6knots on the NASA with nearly 8knots on the GPS.

The tide turned against us by the time we were in Christchurch bay but it was have little effect on our progress. We were back in Poole harbour in 6 hours with the only really lumpy bit being around Henisbury head.

The forecast increase in wind was bang on time as we tried to pick up the mooring. We got it straight away but really hard to pull it on board.

It hadn't been the planned trip to Alderney but we had had a great couple of day sailing.