Rod the mod (erstwhile skipper of Ami-Ly of Round the Island fame), gave me a shout yesterday morning. Ami-Ly (a Legend 290) was in Northney having some glass fibre work done, now finished for the time being, so he was going to take her back round to Port Solent that afternoon and did I fancy doing the trip with him?
Wellllllllll.,what do you think.....!
So it was that just after 1400 yesterday afternoon, we would have been found sitting on the dock in Northney Marina having a beer... the sun shone and there wasn't a breath (except that is for the exhausted gasps of the boat crew that had just rowed in after a 12 mile practice run in the harbour in preparation for a cross channel attempt in a few weeks... yee gods they were hot and sweaty... I was almost overcome enough to offer them some of my beer, but happily came to my senses... )
Not expecting much in the sailing vein, we cast off at half past and headed for the entrance to the Harbour for the run to Portsmouth...
While we'd motored down the Emsworth Channel we were delighted to see that the wind was filling in.. and not a bad direction either... I reckon just south of south west, which would be ideal for a sail to Portsmouth... a beat, but not a harsh one....
Just short of the entrance we had a fly over by the Battle of Britain flight on their way to Bournemouth - brilliant - but better was still to come as in the distance we saw the Vulcan bomber banking over Seaview on the Isle of Wight...
By the time we got to the West Pole we were getting a nice solid 15 or 16 knots (occasional gust to 19), full rig, no reefs, and we turned to sail for Portsmouth doing a nice solid 4 or 5 knots across the ground... and so it was... one beat at the entrance to Langstone where we tacked to make some ground for the approach to the middle entrance of the submarine barrier (nice lift from the tide coming out of Langstone!) was not quite enough so a second little jink got us lined up, as the tide was fairly pouring through the gap..
Once through, one last tack to line up for the harbour entrance, and we then steamed into the harbour through some very choppy and confused sea's (ebb was well under way)
Spotted a seal as we approached Port Solent - first time in Portsmouth harbour though we've seen plenty in Chichester..
...and with just enough water to oooch into the lock at the marina that was the end of the trip..
Superb days sailing - quite possibly one of the best this year after that run to Portsmouth I did earlier this year
Scores on the doors..
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| Ami-Ly - ignore the rubbing strake - that's where the glass fibre work was being done... |
Wellllllllll.,what do you think.....!
So it was that just after 1400 yesterday afternoon, we would have been found sitting on the dock in Northney Marina having a beer... the sun shone and there wasn't a breath (except that is for the exhausted gasps of the boat crew that had just rowed in after a 12 mile practice run in the harbour in preparation for a cross channel attempt in a few weeks... yee gods they were hot and sweaty... I was almost overcome enough to offer them some of my beer, but happily came to my senses...
)Not expecting much in the sailing vein, we cast off at half past and headed for the entrance to the Harbour for the run to Portsmouth...
While we'd motored down the Emsworth Channel we were delighted to see that the wind was filling in.. and not a bad direction either... I reckon just south of south west, which would be ideal for a sail to Portsmouth... a beat, but not a harsh one....
Just short of the entrance we had a fly over by the Battle of Britain flight on their way to Bournemouth - brilliant - but better was still to come as in the distance we saw the Vulcan bomber banking over Seaview on the Isle of Wight...
By the time we got to the West Pole we were getting a nice solid 15 or 16 knots (occasional gust to 19), full rig, no reefs, and we turned to sail for Portsmouth doing a nice solid 4 or 5 knots across the ground... and so it was... one beat at the entrance to Langstone where we tacked to make some ground for the approach to the middle entrance of the submarine barrier (nice lift from the tide coming out of Langstone!) was not quite enough so a second little jink got us lined up, as the tide was fairly pouring through the gap..
Once through, one last tack to line up for the harbour entrance, and we then steamed into the harbour through some very choppy and confused sea's (ebb was well under way)
Spotted a seal as we approached Port Solent - first time in Portsmouth harbour though we've seen plenty in Chichester..
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| Portchester Castle - coming up to the entrance to Port Solent - not much water - depth metre showed only 0.1 of a metre...! |
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| ..also spotted these guys.. they were in for a long wait! |
Superb days sailing - quite possibly one of the best this year after that run to Portsmouth I did earlier this year
Scores on the doors..
- 19.88 miles (overall mileage in the page at the top)
- Avg 4.5 knots
- Max. 6 knots (I reckon that was the tack we did off Langstone where we got some tidal assist)
- 3 hours 50 minutes door to door!
- Force 4, gusting 5 - SSW/SW - full rig and not pushed at all...
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