Solent Sailing Part 1 - 26/27 June 2021  – report by Bob Buchanan

Boat: Hunter Impala 28, ‘Parallel Universe  ’

Skipper/Owner: Paddy Beatt  . Crew: Lucy Beatt  , Becky Goddard  and Bob Buchanan 

On Friday 25 June Becky and I got the ferry from Lymington to Yarmouth and were met by friends Paddy and Lucy. They live in Cowes and have their boat in the river Yar. It’s on a floating pontoon reached by a swing bridge. After putting all our gear on board, we headed off to the Bugle Inn for an evening meal. A bottle of wine was taken back on board and had on deck in the evening sunshine.

The next day was quite sunny and an east 2/3 wind. We went through the road bridge as it swung open, and headed out into the Solent. We had a few hours of west going tide, so headed down to the Needles. Time for a bit of sail handling to get used to the boat. We had the number 1 Genoa up, and then tried out the spinnaker. Just past the Needles we tacked around and came back with the east going tide. More sail handling was done, putting reefs in and letting them out. We finally arrived in Cowes at the Corinthian Yacht club pontoon; Paddy and Lucy are members and had booked the pontoon for the night.

That evening we had a beer in the yacht club then went into town to an Indian restaurant. (Tandoori Spice) We had an excellent meal, and the wine was quite good as well, it was so good that the waiter decided to knock the bottle over and it poured into my lap. He was very apologetic and brought us all some more wine, (accidents do happen). So, back to the boat with another bottle of wine.

On Sunday we left the pontoon and headed out into the Solent again. The wind was very light and it was very warm and sunny. We headed west and dropped anchor between Lymington and Hurst for a lunch break. We thought the wind would pick up but it completely died, so we pulled up the anchor and motored back to Yarmouth.

That evening Paddy and Lucy went home and Becky and I got the water taxi into town. We tried to get a meal in the Bugle but it was fully booked. We ended up in La Cocina, a lovely little Italian type restaurant. The service was very good, and the food was excellent, the wine was also very good but a bit expensive at £26.00 a bottle. Again, it was a bottle of wine from the supermarket and back to the boat.

Monday was a bit of a wet day. We both got wet, taking the rubbish back to the bins, and water taxi back to get the ferry.

It was a very enjoyable weekend, and it was also a practice sail for our next trip on her on 3/7/2021, the Round the Island race (reported in Solent Sailing Part 2).