Something for the weekend Sir?

I'd like a Nor'easterly F3 please

Fat chance

Forecast for the next few days is more of the bloody same. Strong winds from the South West and more low pressure systems with fronts all over the shop marching in from the Atlantic

We've got a berth booked in Poole for the weekend but with tomorrow's forecast being for WSW or SW 5 gusting 6 or 7, following days of strong Sou'westerlies, I suspect that the sea state from here (Lymington) to Poole would be decidedly unpleasant

My current thinking, in consultation with the crew, is to head back to Portsmouth tomorrow (ideally, we'd stay put here in Lymington for the weekend but it's full booked in advance and the forecast isn't bad enough for me to refuse to leave!). Haslar, whilst not cheap, is convenient for crew changes - Rik arrives sometime tomorrow and the ladies are being picked up on Sunday - and there's stuff I'd like to do that I didn't get around to doing (the Mary Rose for one, and the submarine museum etc.)

It'll still be a fairly enthusiastic 18 mile blast but it'll be downwind, down tide and down sea and pleasant or otherwise will be done and dusted in less than three hours!

The advance forecast suggests conditions will improve next week but I'm not counting on it. I'm not sure what Rik and I will do - I had been contemplating a cruise up the French coast but that's looking much less attractive at the moment. We've got, or at least planned to have, until a week on Tuesday for a bit of serious sailing but with the winds, albeit more moderate, staying largely Sou'westerly I'm disinclined to head further West and if we had back to the East we'll be back home before the end of the week! I shall ponder upon it