So here's a potted update ...
Lymington was fine and we enjoyed two trips out to eat and drink, and on the second occasion join in a folk sing around courtesy of our old friends from our canal boating days Andy and Caroline. On the second night we also had the pleasure of meeting up with another old friend and festival colleague Guy.
Lymington was fully booked from the weekend onwards and although they'd have tried to squeeze us in somewhere we'd have had to vacate the berth we were in so we decided to make tracks for Portsmouth where we'd have more to do over the weekend.
Rik joined the crew shortly before departure and no sooner had he settled in, we were off
It was a dank, blustery and rolly polly sort of day so we just got the hammer down and motored to Haslar. On the way, we passed the USS George HW Bush, the newest and last Nimitz class nuclear aircraft carrier.She wasn't. we all agreed, quite as impressive as we anticipated and, like every US warship we saw over the weekend, surprisingly rusty too!
The next day, a visit to the Mary Rose followed by a wander around the traditional boat building display and HMS Warrior took up the day
In the evening, we tried to find somewhere to eat in Gosport but the Castle was wall to wall reserved signs and full of crew from the Clipper fleet. We didn't fancy anywhere else so we caught the ferry back over the river. The Ship Anson had dreadful and loud karaoke , the next couple of pubs had boom boom music blaring out but we hit paydirt with The Old Custom House and had a fabulous meal and excellent beer in a lovely venue
Sunday was taken up with Jane and Maire departing homewards followed by a few beers in the evening at The Castle.
Yesterday morning, Rik and I visited the Submarine Museum, which was very interesting, and then in the afternoon we moved upriver to the Hardway Sailing Club pontoon. This is a popular spot as it's only £10 a night but thanks to some assistance we secured a good berth alongside.
The purpose of our visit was to borrow a dinghy from my friend David who was also alongside the pontoon. We had a test run with the temporary replacement flubber and it's a very good dinghy indeed.
We departed Hardway this morning whilst there was still enough water to get off (the keel was in the mud overnight) and motored out of Portsmouth Harbour. We had to keep over on the Western side of the channel and somewhat too close winded to the Southerly breeze until we were almost down to Horse Sands Fort due to the departure of the two US Navy frigates from the carrier battle group that had been alongside Portsmouth Naval Base for a few daysWe were determined to make the most of the best sailing weather we're likely to get - an F3/4 Southerly that backed more and more Westerly as the day went on.
I had a strop on with a dredger that emerged from Langstone Harbour and made off to pass around the outside of the Owers which totally failed to obey Colregs forcing me to take evasive action. There was no response from the ship on the VHF so I reported the incident to the Coastguard
We had a cracking sail and even debated pushing on through to Dover but discretion being the better part of valour decided we were both a little too tired to go through the night. After passing by Beachy Head, we shaped up for Sovereign Harbour, Eastbourne.
A meal, a hot drink and an early night (shortly!) was welcome
Tomorrow, we need to make haste ahead of yet another low pressure system moving in and wherever we are tomorrow we're likely to be staying until Saturday. We'd have liked to visit Rye but as it will be either a 3am departure to get in to Rye in the morning or a delayed departure to get in around 6pm tomorrow evening it isn't a practical proposition. By tomorrow evening, the wind will be strengthening and may well have a significant Southerly component making an entry into a drying harbour by no means a sure fire proposition
So it's a dash for Dover leaving before 6am in the morning
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