Sojourn to the Solent

Coming soon ....

Although at times I've been tempted to be more ambitious, I've cast off that temptation!

Pagan will be coming off her berth a week on Monday (10th July) as I've booked a lift and scrub on the Tuesday. I don't think she's badly fouled, in fact she's still clean as a whistle above the mud line (well below the waterline!) which bodes well and I'm interested to see how the lower hull and keel, which sit in the mud, have faired with the hard racing antifoul

The Bosun (Glen) arrives late Tuesday to crew on the first leg of the cruise

Leg 1. North Fambridge to Portsmouth via Dover and Newhaven

Weather permitting (as always), we'll be departing North Fambridge early on Wednesday 11th July towards Dover. We plan to spend two nights in Dover as Glen has never been to the castle

On Friday 12th we'll make a decently long day sail to Newhaven (alternate Brighton) and then on Saturday we'll head for Portsmouth. We'll probably go into Haslar although Royal Clarence would be cheaper. Haslar though will be more convenient for the ferry to Portsmouth and has better facilities

I plan to go to the Mary Rose exhibition on Sunday which was closed when Jane and I visited the docks some years ago. Glen went recently and still has a valid ticket so he gets to go again!

Glen leaves on Monday morning and Jane arrives on Tuesday afternoon so it looks like four nights in Haslar at £32 a night. Hence the temptation to go to Royal Clarence which is a Transeurope marina where we get up to seven nights half price. I'm in two minds and neither of them is made up!

Leg 2. Isle of Wight, Chichester Harbour, Beaulieu River finishing in Poole

Jane and I have ten days to get to Poole where we'll meet Rik. We're hoping that my cousin Maire will be joining us for at least part of this leg

Given that Cowes Week starts on the 28th, we'll get the Isle of Wight out of the way pronto so that'll be our first port of call. We'll certainly head into Cowes, for the experience and maybe somewhere else too but we'll be heading back across the Solent by Friday

Then the weekend of the 22nd/23rd will probably be spent in Chichester Harbour (my cunning plan is to get settled down at anchor or on a mooring by Friday lunchtime and let the weekend madness pass us by!). We may well stay in Chi until Tuesday or Wednesday

We'll then move on to the Beaulieu River and Bucklers Hard for a night or two before fetching up in Poole on Friday 28th to meet Rik

Leg 3. Poole to North Fambridge via ... who knows? 

Jane has to be away on the train again on Monday the 31st so we'll probably toddle along the coast from Poole to Weymouth over the weekend.

Then Rik and I have 8 days to get back to Fambridge.

If the weather is good and looks set to stay good, we might get a wee bit more ambitious with the sailing on this final leg. A channel crossing and a port hop along the North French coast is tempting. However, that's as detailed as the planning is going to get at this stage!