Sailing on LADY EMMA 16/19 July - report by skipper Bob Buchanan

Skipper, Bob Buchanan. Crew, Becky Goddard, Colin Evans, Kevin Lay and David Winks.

‘Lady Emma’ is a Barberis Cantieri 41.

We met up on Wednesday evening at Haslar marina where Lady Emma is berthed. Our plan was to leave at 22.00hrs and sail over to St Vaast in France, but the weather forecast was no wind at all, and fog in the channel. We decided to go to plan B, sail to Lymington, Poole, Yarmouth then back to Gosport.

After a few drinks and a meal on board, we had bit of a late night as the west going tide was about midday on Thursday, so we didn’t have to get up early.

Thursday.

With breakfast out of the way we slipped our moorings at 12.00hrs and motored out into the Solent. The wind was a S/E 3/4 so all of us not feeling very energetic just pulled up the Genoa. With the tide now giving us a push we were up to 6/7 knts. Then on our starboard side we saw four of the Americas Cup yachts going past us, we thought about pulling up the main and giving them a bit of a race but the thought soon passed and we carried on sailing, past Cowes where we hit a spot on ten knts and down to Lymington. We berthed in Berthon marina for the night ( £51.91 ) That evening we had a meal in ”La Quilla” an Indian restaurant that we have visited many times before and always have had a good meal, that night was no exception. Then it was back to the boat for a few nightcaps before lights out.

Friday.

We woke up to find the wind was S/W 5, so we took down the no1 Genoa and put on the no3 (there is no no2). We left at 11.30 and motored out of Lymington, we got to the first bend, turning right and keeping the red post “cocked hat” close to our starboard side, then onto the next red “Seymour’s post”. There was a little bit of traffic about but not much. Colin was on the wheel when a power boat coming up the channel into Lymington, suddenly changed course quite a lot and headed directly for us, Colin swung the wheel to starboard hoping the power boat would see what he was doing, change tack and get back on his side of the channel; seeing that he was going to carry on Colin swung the wheel hard to port to take us into the middle of the channel, as our bow and his bow passed each other, we were all waiting for the crunch of steel and fibreglass. It didn’t happen; if I said we missed him by feet, I am probably exaggerating. As he went past he just looked down on us and carried on into Lymington as though nothing had happened, although he would have seen all the hand signals from us and also some very strong language from one of the crew, the content of which I can’t possibly print and also I do not wish to name her. Why the power boat (about 45feet long) acted in this way is a complete mystery to us.

So, after this little event we motored out through the Needles channel then pulled up the no3 Genoa, (no one felt like exerting themselves and pulling up the main) and sailed towards Poole. We berthed in Poole harbour’s Dolphin Haven marina at 16.00hrs (£52.27) for the night.

That evening we met up with Hugh Hayward, the boat’s original owner, and had a meal opposite the marina in the “Banana Wharf” a very good meal and very friendly staff, recommended.

Saturday.

After breakfast we had to say goodbye to Hugh. We all decided to go into town just to see what was going on. All along the front was a rally for Porsches, there must have been at least 200 of them, from some very old ones up to the very latest ones, we spent a bit of time looking at them. We all met up at “The Poole Arms” at midday, and Colin, Kevin and myself had a bottle of chilled white wine and a dozen oysters, very nice and went down well. After that it was back to the boat and left at 14.00 hrs. We motored out to Old Harry Rock to do a bit of mackerel fishing but had no luck, so we pulled up the Genoa and sailed over to the Needles, it was a F3 S/W and we wanted to get there at 18.30 hrs to catch the east going tide. It was then, that Solent Coastguard came on the radio to say that a member of the public had phoned in to report that two persons on a blow up craft were seen quite a way off shore using a black and blue umbrella as a sail, if anyone was in the area could they go and see if they needed assistance, we all had a bit of a laugh and could also tell that the coastguard radio operator was also trying not to laugh.

So, it was back to our sailing. We had to drop the Genoa a couple of miles out as the wind had died. We went through the Needles channel right on time, and we hit 9.6 knts over the ground. At Yarmouth we were very lucky to get in as it was almost full. That night we had few drinks and a meal in the “Bugle”

Sunday.

It was a bit of an early start for us, getting away at 10.15 hrs to catch the east going tide; again we just pulled up the Genoa as it was a very warm day with a S/W F3 blowing. About 13.00 hrs I went down below to get a few beers for everyone, I took the tops off of them and passed them up, I left mine on the galley top and turned around to do something on the chart table, the next thing I heard was a bang on the floor and then cold liquid being sprayed on my back, all I had on were my boots and jeans. The next thing that happened was It was just like it was raining, the bottle of beer had fallen off the galley table, landed the right way up and started spraying its contents skywards, it hit the cabin roof then started coming down all over me and the chart table, and for some unknown reason we actually had some charts out. I was frantically trying to wipe down the ceiling and the charts. After cleaning it all up I came up on deck with what was left in my bottle, It was about a quarter full, so it just goes to show how much beer shot out of it, I also looked as though I had just had a shower. We sailed down to the forts, dropped the Genoa and got the fishing rods out and did a bit of fishing, this time we had a bit more luck, and we caught 8 mackerel. Then it was back up to Haslar where we had a meal on board before packing up and going home.

Total NM 89