Trip on Galaxy starting 2017-11-11
SOLENT SAILING 11/12 NOVEMBER 2017 – report by Bob Buchanan
Boat Bavaria 36 “Galaxy ”
Skipper R Buchanan crew Becca Goddard and Hugh Hayward , C Evans and K Lay
We chartered the yacht from Lymington Yachting, the first time that we have chartered from them.
The handover was done on the Friday evening with Andy the owner of the yacht. The yacht was in very good condition, and Andy told us the keel was made in lead not cast iron, and we would find that she was very stable in strong winds (with the weather forecast predicting strong winds we would hopefully find out). That evening we had the usual few beers and wine then a meal with one of Becky’s delicious pies.
The next morning we set off at 10.15 hrs and out into the Solent, hoping to sail out through the Needles channel and over to Poole. Unfortunately, the wind was a F4 from the west and all we could do was to sail over to Yarmouth, back to Lymington and back over to Yarmouth. At least we kept the ferry company. We abandoned the plan to sail to Poole and decided to go to Cowes. With a F4 we had a very good sail with full main and Genoa, and yes we found the boat was very stable and was easy to handle. We berthed in Cowes Yacht Haven at 13.30 hrs.
That evening we had a meal in the Anchor, a pub that we have had many good meals in, unfortunately some of our meals were not too good, Hugh had a burger and it was atrocious, he called the waitress over to complain, he said look at this it’s like a piece of cardboard, I can’t eat that. She took one look at it and said, I don’t blame you, I wouldn’t eat it either. With that the manager was called over. He was a young chap about 25 and explained that he was in the process of taking over as kitchen manager in two weeks and would be making many changes. He apologised to Hugh and offered him a pint of beer while he waited for his meal. After our meals we all had a very good talk to him and he offered all of us a complimentary free dessert.
Back on board it was a few nightcaps before bed.
Sunday. We slip our moorings at 09.00 hrs
We had planned to have a sail down to Yarmouth have a bit of lunch then sail back to Lymington, but as soon as we were out in the Solent we were greeted with NW winds of 35 knts. We put two reefs in the main and reefed the genoa. With everyone having a go on the wheel we were all surprised how well the boat handled, even with the wind going to 45 knts. Just before the lighthouse (we gave going into Yarmouth a miss) they let me get on the wheel for the first time, we turned at the lighthouse and headed back, the sea state was quite calm but the wind was now getting up to 50 knts. The boat was handling so well that I took out my camera and started to video. I recorded our wind speed and it shows 51 knts, we hit a peak of 52 knts, they were not gusts as such but nice steady blows.
We all agreed that it was one of the most windy and enjoyable sails that we have had.
Back in Lymington we arrived at our moorings at 13.00 hrs and logged 37 NM.
Clean up the boat etc. And go home.