I think the biggest winner for this weekend was the fantastic sunset on Saturday evening. We assembled as always on Friday evening and had a good meal and couple of bottles of wine together in the top room of x pub. Went through what everyone wanted to get out of the weekend and then headed back to the yacht for some much needed sleep.
Saturday morning came, a little too quickly for my liking but that's life. After a safety briefing we set out to Yarmouth in moderate winds of around 10-12kts with a significant number of yachts around us as a result of the Red Funnel Cowes Keelboat Championship. After dodging the numerous yachts bearing down on us with spinnakers up we pulled into Yarmouth and proceeded to consume the largest fish and chips (as can only be had in Yarmouth) known to man in a pub/restaurant near the harbour before heading down to Poole.
On the way over to Poole we slowly ran out of wind and had to revert to motoring however the sunset was stunning and finally after a nervous few minutes of negotiating narrow and relatively shallow (marked) channels we were at Poole harbour. It suffices to say that everyone was shattered and after a few drinks and a nice italian we hit the sack for the return the next morning.
Sunday greated us with a blue sky, sun and wind! After a quick wash we headed back towards Hamble Point, with the wind gusting up to 22kts giving the newcomers of the group their first experience of sitting out on the windward side which we raced up the solent with the remainder of the Red Funnel yachts.
We had chartered an Oceanis 411 at the last minute as our first yacht had become unavailable from a previous charter company. Despite being a 1999 build the boat was in very good condition and our only complaint a worn traveller sheet and one of the heads was slightly tempremental. Overall it was a great weekend and as always much was learnt, drunk and fun was had as well as sailing a full 78nm.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 12:36PM