Goodbye to the Isle of Wight.... we miss you already!

Gosport was OK, but a little choppy. The constant ferry traffic creates huge amounts of swell on a regular basis. The noise from the pontoons was probably worse than the motion and provided an early morning wake up call. We got up and began to get ready for our trip a couple of miles up river to Port Solent. We had read in our Channel guide that there was a supermarket and lots of shops at Port Solent so we didn't need to stock up at Gosport. The weather was gloomy to say the least and the tide quite strong as we left the marina. It became very clear that today would not be a good day to head out to sea - at least not for us - the sailing boats were still out in force however. The rain and mist crept in as we followed the buoyed channel. Some of you may remember our adventure through a certain firing range near Rye, well, this is one big firing range. The signs tell you that if they are firing you must just pass through quickly, how reassuring. For those of you hoping for another exciting story regarding this firing range I have to disappoint you. We passed through without incident! We did however spot a sailing yacht that had veered out of the channel, possibly trying to take a short cut. By the lack of movement it would appear the shortcut may have been unsuccessful. We did hang around a while to see if they needed help but they didn't seem to be too concerned about the situation. We passed the huge grey warships and Portchester castle, finally locking in at Port Solent. We got a lovely reception here from the staff. Ominously the chap operating the lock said "If you have any trouble with the berth just give us a call". Umm.... "Should we have trouble with the berth" I asked. "Oh no - just being polite" he said smiling. So off we went in search of berth G09. Concerned by his comments I started looking at the berths as we passed. Note no.1 - lots of very expensive white motorboats, note no.2 - very small berths. Our black hull and 18 tonnes of steel makes us unpopular at the best of times, no more so than in the marinas. We found our berth, next to a Fairline Targa, 40 foot of very expensive plastic. The wind was not in our favour so we proceeded with caution. Luckily a very helpful lady took a rope and helped us in. We would have been OK though with Martyns expert maneuvering!
Berthed up and plugged into the electric we paid our dues and set about looking for the supermarket. The first sign for concern was that no supermarket showed on the plan of the marina. We found a bookshop, a rock climbing shop, a shop selling pots and pans and a cinema. We also found a Wetherspoons, a Chiquitos, a pub offering 'silver specials' for a fiver among other eating establishments. There's a picture building up here. What we didn't find was a supermarket..... Back to the boat, Internet on. According to the Internet there was a supermarket on site, there may have been once, not anymore. We didn't see this as being a major problem as the Internet said there was a Tesco less than a mile away. We decided we would get the shopping done before getting cleaned up and relaxing. Good job we did. The Tesco less than a mile away didn't exist but the one two miles away did! A four mile round trip to the supermarket in the rain made for too very sorry, soggy sights on our return to the boat. We resisted temptation to hit the pub that night and watched Big Brother instead. We thought we might treat ourselves the following day.
We both noted that although the staff at the marina were very friendly and helpful the boat owners in general seemed quite the opposite. People would make a point of shutting doors and gates behind them even if you were just approaching them. I understand that this is probably a security thing but they did it to the extent of being rude. We also noted that not one person berthed in the marina ever spoke to either of us apart from the lady who took our rope when we arrived. This is bizarre behaviour to say the least. You have to wonder if these people ever even speak to each other!
We attempted to have a more social evening on Saturday but returned back to bar Elephant Daze after a dirty glass in one pub and warm white wine in another. All that money around but no class!
So what do we do now? Sunday looked like a good day for sailing, a heavenly force 2 - 3 forecast with sunshine to boot. The Portsmouth area was the last one on the list of places to see before we made the decision that would either take us home or keep us down here. For those of you that know us we are very terrible decision makers, we still have not decided! We made one decision though, following a shock at the cashpoint. That decision was to head back to Brighton, at least from there we would either be on the right route for Hull or not too far away from The Solent.
It was a glorious day as forecast, I donned my shorts and slapped on the suncream. Would today be the day I finally got to sit outside? We did a forecast check, the weather warning that had unexpectedly appeared last night had gone again now and all looked good. Flat calm was the order of the day. First we had to negotiate Portsmouth. Oh what joy! It was like wacky races, I quite enjoyed the madness of it all, probably slightly more than Martyn did. Small boats have to use the channel at the side of the shipping lane. This is OK but there are large number of small boats all looking for their own piece of water. We timed it quite well ferry wise though and made it out to open water without too much stuff ending up on the floor. Before we knew it we were saying goodbye to the Isle of Wight, I admit I shed a tear. It felt very sad to be saying goodbye. We felt quite at home on the Isle of Wight much more so than the mainland (Elephant Boatyard being the exception!). I think we struggle with the marina mentality and feel happier in the mud! Mud seems to be good!
I would love to tell you that we had a lovely trip to Brighton.... I did get to sit out, something I've not been brave enough to do before, and it was great! Something happened to the water though as we passed Selsey Bill, it began to roll, not badly at first, but unnervingly. I saw Martyn tightening up the catches on the window and picked up on a sense of foreboding. I started to move things from the worktops and ram them in cupboards. Pretty soon we didn't have time to be sad, we had other things to worry about. As the Isle of Wight slipped further away we seemed to loose some of the shelter from the mainland and a cold wind crept in from the South West. No sitting out now, the door was shut, it was freezing! We were around the area of Littlehampton when it got uncomfortable. The waves were hitting beam / stern on so we were rolling again. Progress was already slow as we hadn't been able to pick up a good tide. We knew we were in for a few hours of this, unless we ditched in. Poor Martyn, I am going to retire from weather forecasting, I'm clearly rubbish at it! We passed Littlehampton and kept going, next possible stop Shoreham. We passed Shoreham, it was getting slowly worse but Martyn wanted to continue. The waves were lifting us sideways and breaking underneath, you would see what looked like a growing mound of water on one side, feel it lift you and then break into white water on the other side. It was actually quite mesmerising to watch, if not a little scary! I knew by Shoreham that we had 5 miles to go, 5 long miles though. We reached the pier and saw the marina breakwater up ahead. We knew by this point that we had to get into shelter. It wasn't the easiest entrance to a marina, but we made it. We looked at each other and laughed, you know that "were you as scared as I was laugh?" that you do when you've just been through something unexpectedly terrifying.
Days like this really make you think. We travelled about 48 miles today and thought the weather window was sufficient to do so. We had bolt holes we could use so it wasn't too bad. If we head for Hull the luxury of boltholes on long trips become few and far between. Not sure my nerves can cope with that just yet......!

The grass sometimes is greener......

We have had an amazing couple of days. I haven't been able to update the blog as we have been without electric again. We couldn't wait to leave Swanwick Marina after the poor excuse for a welcome, however for the first time we were both stumped for a destination. The weather on the Solent wasn't forecast to be good in the near future so we didn't want to go far. Martyn came up with a mad idea. We had tried to get into Southampton Town Quay marina but were told they were full. They did however offer a temporary mooring for a couple of hours if we wanted - free of charge! Umm, we needed motor oil and a few provisions but didn't want to pay marina prices for the oil. Martyn decided to phone the Elephant Boatyard to see if they could fit us in for a night, they had to do a check and ring us back but said it shouldn't really be a problem. The plan was, head round to Southampton Town Quay marina, get into town, buy motor oil, head back round and stop at the Elephant Boatyard. So that's what we did - three hours later - we were moored up in the Elephant Boatyard. It was an interesting trip to say the least. We underestimated how choppy Southamton water would be compared to The Hamble as well as just how close the Fast Cat berthed to the Town Quay Marina. The port for the Fast Cat is actually adjoined to the marina! We survived with just a few extra grey hairs to show for it and a large tub of nicely priced motor oil from Lidl!
We had been told that when we arrived at the Elephant Boatyard we should just find a space and moor up.... not so sure about that one, what if the berth holder returns? It was a worry that was soon cast aside once we found a space and pulled in. We were met by a lovely chap who explained that he was surprised to see us as he was looking for a 42 ft boat with a huge mast - our mast hardly counts as huge! It was so refreshing to be welcomed by a smiling face. We soon realised that this was indeed a very special place, not just because of the name. The chap brought his partner round to show her the boat. I guess they don't see many boat like Elephant Daze down here. We discovered that the boatyard was in fact the one used for the programme Howards Way and that their boat actually featured in it. We were told that Tom Cunliffe, the chap who wrote the Channel Pilot book we have been using to navigate this area has his boat there. We were even more impressed to discover that Sir Robin Knox-Johnston has a boat there too. So much boating royalty in one little boatyard! We felt very privileged to be allowed to stay. It turns out that the only reason they had space for us was because the owner had most of the boats from there over in Cowes for the racing. Sometimes you can be in the right place at the right time! We stayed an additional night due to a bad weather warning. We were in the virtually the same place that we had been in at Swanwick Marina yet it felt like a world away. The grass is sometimes so much greener!
The Boatyard is home to some very beautiful sailing boats, many of them wooden, it was a real pleasure to look at and admire true craftsmanship instead of the usual factory made craft lined up row after row. I believe we could have stayed there forever but the owner doesn't like liveaboards apparently - plans scuppered!!
This morning we had to decide what to do again. I had saved enough battery on the laptop to be able check the weather before leaving. Two weather forecasts gave an approx force 3, however the met gave a severe warning, 3-4 then 5-6, the usual vague rubbish we have now become accustomed to. We had to leave the Elephant Boatyard as we needed to get electric, showers etc. We had two choices, head out to Gosport and see what happened or stay on the Harbour pontoon for three days. The cost of a marina in the area was £40-£50 a night. We really didn't want to pay that, neither did we want to be stuck on the river with nowhere to go!
Martyn said his goodbyes to the chap from the yard, he got a sneaky tour of the boatshed too so he must have liked him! We left the boatyard and made for the open water. It was busy, there were so many ribs and boats full of people heading across to Cowes, strange, we were so worried about the weather yet these people were flying across the Solent in overinflated dinghies without life jackets! It was mad, small powerboats came out of nowhere, the wash sending us flying. The worst was yet to come. We had passed lots of 'floating hotels' on the way out of the channel i.e. huge motor cruisers packed with people already in the party mood preparing to head off to Cowes to watch the racing. Our initial concern was over the weather so that was forefront on our minds as we headed out. It looked OK, we battled with the speedboats and picked up the course for Portsmouth. Then it hit, rolling beam on, deja vue... Coffee pot under the bed, oregano still missing in action. I wedged myself between the fridge and the sink catching things as they slid from side to side. My heart was racing "Are we going back then?" No answer, "Martyn, are we going back?" "It's just wash from those boats over there" he answered. I looked across and saw the floating hotels, nose in the air flying towards Southampton. Just as things started to calm down a huge gym palace decided to pass us. Martyn turned to hit the wash head on, up and down, up and down.... still better than side to side though! He was right, it was just wash, the sea state was choppy but not uncomfortable. We had been so busy thinking about waves and wash we were right on the sailing boats before we knew it. They were everywhere, they were racing, they were part of Cowes week! Martyn did a great job negotiating his way through them, closer to Cowes we could see a big race in action, we think it was the Americas Cup - there were helicopters in the air and motor boats following. It really was quite an amazing sight and we felt quite privileged to be part of it - not sure they were too happy that we were in the middle of it though. Especially the catamaran who changed his course right in front of us and would have been a feature on the side of Elephant Daze if Martyn hadn't found some extra power to get out of his way! All this before we started to negotiate the entrance to Portsmouth! We thought we had the route sussed, until the Fast Cat started heading right for us, we changed course and moved out of his way. Then came the Wightlink ferry, no problem, he's in the shipping lane, we just keep to the outside, until he changes course and heads right for us! You think you're getting the hang of this ferry business and then it all goes wrong. The thing with Portsmouth is that there aren't just a couple of ferries, there's loads of them. This includes cruise liners and cross channel ferries, it's mad! You really do need eyes in the back pf your head. After all this excitement we reached Gosport Marina where the usual confusion followed. Some marinas are relatively straight forward and the berthing instructions easy to follow, not this one. There are two entrances to start with, we immediately tried to get in the wrong one. We did reach our destination however and are now fully charged and washed! While we were sat chilling earlier Martyn spotted the Hull and Humber Clipper just outside the marina. It's always nice to see something from back up North and this was no different. Tomorrow we head to Port Solent, weather permitting so we'll see what trouble we can get into on route!

The Elephant Boatyard

Martyn made a Sunday dinner yesterday and we watched Top Gear. It was lovely but it took me back to the days of Sunday nights when Monday morning used to loom like a big grey cloud - shivers!!! OK so I don't expect any sympathy from the workers out there, it was a serious reality check for us both though. Thoughts of finding work are now at the forefront of our minds as the money sifts through our fingers. Being at Newport was really nice and we felt a little bit like we belonged there but there is more travelling to be done and things to see before the Bank Manager catches up with us.

It was a 5am start for us this morning, although I have to say I didn't feel like I slept much at all and was wide awake before the alarm went off. It was all a little Monday morningish to be honest and we left Newport with some reluctance. I couldn't complain too much though, I wasn't heading for work just the mainland and the morning was peaceful and calm. We finally found the Boat museum as we passed out of Newport, maybe one day we'll come back and visit it! When you enter a Port or Harbour for the first time it's easy to miss some of the more interesting things around you. You have to concentrate on listening to Harbour / Marina instructions and finding your berth before attempting to moor up. At Newport it was more a case of looking for a gap to squeeze into and watching out in case it looked like anyone was leaving! This is my excuse for not noting the variety of unusual vessels in the area. It has been disappointing to say the least that we have not seen a large variety of boats since we left Hull. It's mainly white GRP, be it sail or motor. Nice enough but we like a bit of character....... Newport certainly has character! Passing Island Harbour marina we saw the ghostly, faded and derelict Ryde paddle steamer on the side of the river. It makes for a very sad sight. Opposite is another abanded boat, a barge and in between is a sunken digger and caravan. Unusual to say the least! We passed The Folly Inn with its visitor moorings, they were surprisingly not full! We had expected to boats rafted together all over the place with it being Cowes week. The thought of no electric for a few days must all be too much for the yachties he he!!
Approaching Cowes we watched the chain ferry pass along in front of us. Care is need when passing this point. The chain ferry moves between East and West Cowes transporting passengers across the water. You have to wait for it to reach it's destination to ensure the chains have sunk to the river floor before you pass over. This is before you try to avoid the Fast Cat and the Red Funnel ferry heading straight for you! We left at this time to avoid the racing and the general madness of Cowes week. It was the right thing to do, ferries and racing boats? No thanks! We passed through the outside of the channel keeping away from the ferries and an enormous container ship. The wash from all three made for interesting water!
There is more than enough water for all at the entrance to Southampton but we still stuck to the shallower water to the east of the Channel. We often watch in amazement as motor boats and yachts pass within what look like inches of these huge fast moving vessels. We just like to keep out of their way...

We were heading towards another special place, not special because of scooter memories or links with music or family. Special just by name - 'The Elephant Boatyard'. As soon as Martyn found out that it existed and was within the area we would be travelling in he decided he had to visit. The Elephant Boatyard is an important place in its own right as Nelsons flagship HMS Elephant used in 1801 during the battle of Copenhagen was built here. It is suggested that it was on this ship that he put his telescope to his blind eye and claimed not to be able to see a signal ordering him to withdraw. I wonder how many people asked him where the name came from......?
We were excited as we entered the Hamble, deemed to be one of the most pleasant cruising areas on the South Coast. I'm sure it is lovely, when you can see it! We love boats, don't get me wrong but this river is overloaded to the point where you can't see anything but. We had decided to stay with Premier Marinas again as they have a Marina right opposite the Boatyard and so far we have been getting discounts on arrival - all good. We found our berth and wandered up to the office to pay our dues. We were happy to be here and looking forward to exploring the area. We were met by a somewhat sombre gentleman who asked me to fill a form in. "We're already on your database" I replied with my best smile (think of the discount....). I knew we were in trouble when he looked up at me over his glasses. "You know I should charge you more, our berths are from 12pm to 12pm" I looked at the clock it was 8am. "So how much will that be?" I asked. He never actually answered me, just prepared the invoice for £39 (certainly no discount on this occasion!) and asked how I would be paying. I left the office feeling cross and humiliated - I didn't like The Hamble anymore! What I don't understand is the fact that we are in tidal waters yet still expected to check in and out of a marina like a hotel - Maybe they should remember 'Time and tide waits for no man'.
Putting all that aside for the time being we set about doing our laundry, certainly not £39 a night value facilities, we are still trying to dry our clothes! Eventually at 3pm we set off to explore. There is another special thing about this particular area 'The Jolly Sailor' pub. This is the place where 'Howards Way' was filmed and a very nice place it is too. It overlooks the Elephant Boatyard so we decided that a drink on the waterfront was in order. It made for a very plea sent end to the day. We had a surprise on returning to the Marina. Two familiar faces from Goole. We had seen the Beverley Transport wagon arrive as we set off for our walk but didn't think too much about it. The boat was Robocat arriving for a three week holiday on the South Coast! Of all the marinas in the south.... who'd a thunk?

Sticky Valley

We made the decision to stay in Newport until the next weather window which is tomorrow. I feel we need to move on now as Newport could well be another 'sticky valley'. We give this name to places where travellers arrive and seldom leave. I guess most of you know the term. Sowerby Bridge was the first place we called 'home' on a boat and is a very sticky valley. We have many good friends who still live there on boats, their dreams of a nomadic life given up for the convenience of the town and it's opulence of good drinking establishments! The local term for such people in Yorkshire or certainly the Calder Valley is 'offcumdems' i.e. those not from the local area. I have no idea how it's spelt as I am sure it can't possibly be in the Oxford English Dictionary! I guess that is what we have been ever since we left West Yorkshire 'offcumdens'. Goole became our next 'sticky valley'. Although we were determined not to get stuck as such. When Martyn was offered a job at Goole Boathouse it meant a lot to him. It was an opportunity not to be passed up, a chance to learn more about boats and get paid to do so. Goole might not be a bustling cosmopolitan town but it gave us the opportunity to learn about tidal rivers and cruising in waters with commercial traffic. It also allowed us (or Martyn) to build a narrow boat that would eventually provide us with the initial funds to buy and rebuild Elephant Daze. I can't mention Goole and learning without recognising the invaluable advise and help given by many of the good friends we made there also. Without our time in Goole I'm not sure we would be here now doing this trip!
We feel very comfortable here in Newport but is is very clearly a 'sticky valley'. After day two Martyn remarked that there appeared to be a lot of 'Robinson Crusoe' lookalikes. I hadn't picked up on this initially but started to understand what he meant almost immediately. It would appear that in order to own a boat in Newport you must look like you have been marooned on an island for 20 years or more! I would guess that the place is full of boaters who have set off around the world (or maybe just the coast!), hit the Isle of Wight and found Newport. It's not a bad place to end up either. You have all the shops you need, access to the sea, peaceful surrounding and.... mud?! The Isle of wight for me has been a big surprise. It was cool to be in Ryde and have all the scootering memories but we have also found some lovely places that we will certainly re-visit should the opportunity arise. Bembridge with it's houseboats and beautiful beaches, The Folly Inn - for spectator sport and certainly Newport, for a reason I can't quite put my finger on. This Island has a very nice feel to it. The people are friendly, the harbours are lovely and the prices for mooring are fair! I will be sad to leave, but leave we must. Southampton and the Elephant Boatyard is calling, as is the launderette! We will leave here at silly o'clock tomorrow to get high water back out to Cowes and across to the mainland. The other advantage to leaving early is that there shouldn't be any crazy racing going on (it is Cowes week!)! The last thing we want is to have to negotiate the racing boats as well as the ferries! Hopefully we will exit while all is calm and make our way towards yet more mud up the Hamble.

More mud!

When we set off on our coastal adventure I never expected to see so much mud! I guess that's what you get for exploring tidal rivers. It's getting a lot more busy around Cowes now in preparation for Cowes week which starts on Saturday. It was good fun watching the boats moving about outside The Folly Inn yesterday. A lot of people head up river for lunch or an evening meal and then sail back to their mooring for the evening. Watching them trying to set off after a couple of drinks can be quite entertaining! Around 8pm a very impressive speed boat around 40 foot long moored alongside us and it's passengers disembarked already somewhat wobbly! I think the owners had been taking them for an evenings cruise - at very high speed! They headed straight for the pub where I imagine a stiff drink was quickly ordered! They piled back on the boat a couple of hours later and headed straight back out to sea.... rather them than me!!!
We tried to have a long lie in yesterday as we knew we couldn't get up to Newport much before 12pm. As is usually the case we were wide awake and got up to wait for the tide. We set of with intrepidation watching the water level. It was pretty low so we had to follow the channel carefully. In addition there were three sailing schools out in force for us to avoid. The trip went without incident and we reached Newport Harbour about 12pm. We expected the harbour to be quiet. We didn't think there would be much for the sailing yachts in a place so dependant on tides. We were wrong. We passed boat after boat after boat, all with ridiculous gaps between them! It's amazing how invisible you can become when assistance may be needed. Trying to catch the attention of someone on a boat so you can ask them if they could move up a little proved impossible. We eventually reached the end of the harbour and realised there was virtually no room to turn around! We weren't sure what to do for the best so Martyn just gave it a go and turned her round on a pin, thank goodness! Still, we had a problem. We travelled back on ourselves still trying to see if anyone was willing to help without success. We found one space where someone had just left, would we fit? Martyn didn't think so and one of the boats had it's tender tied up behind it. We thought it was worth a try..... Martyn moved in nose first, the tender gently moved out of the way, would the back fit? At one point it looked impossible, then, we were in! 42ft of boat in a 44ft mooring (or something like!) It really was an impressive bit of boat handling! The owners of the boat with the tender never even looked our way even thought they were aboard! We spent the next half hour waiting to be told off by someone. We were OK though, the guy from the Harbour Masters office came to see us and said there was no problem. He then started asking people to their boats where possible to allow more people in. It really is unfair that people use so little thought and follow that by being ignorant when it is clear that people need assistance. They clearly forget how awful it can be to arrive at your destination with no room at the Inn! Anyway enough of the moaning, this is supposed to be fun! Newport is a pretty good place and the Harbour guys are really cool and helpful. We have electric, water and a full range of shops including a really good Morrisons! All for the princely sum of £14 a night, now that's what I'm talking about - almost like a BOGOF compared to what we've been paying! So a minimum of two nights is a must. There is a small issue with children fishing from the pontoon but there seems to be quite a few people around. Did I mention the mud? This harbour dries out completely at low tide so once again we spend a lot of time sat in the mud. Good job she's an elephant, I think she enjoys it really!
A lot of boats have left this morning, I imagine they will be heading for Cowes in preparation for the excitement of Cowes week. We're not sure what to do tomorrow. The weather is good enough to get across to the mainland, however we feel like staying put for a couple of days. Our next weather window is Monday so we may stay and catch a bus into Cowes at some point to join in the fun!

Comical weather!

We had a lovely evening in Bembridge at The Baywatch Inn. We bought a bottle of wine and sat next to the beach as the sun went down. We had expected it to be quiet being a Sunday night but the place was packed, so the food must be good!
We have been doing the usual weather checks and seem to find that a good dose of rain, sun, wind, calm, good visibility, poor visibility fore 2, 3, 4 possibly 5 is pretty much forecast for the next few days! This being the case we decided to head for Ryde, approx 5 miles from Bembridge. We chose our time in accordance with the tide (Ryde Marina dries out) and the windfinder website. After the usual game of dodgems with the local sailing schools we made our way back to open water. One thing that was a big surprise on this trip was the depth of water. We were a long way out with still only 6 or 7 feet below us. Not wanting to get too close to the shipping lane we followed the shallow until we reached the channel for the marina. Just as we turned into the channel we saw the hovercraft setting off. The hovercraft is based right next to Ryde marina and takes 10 minutes from Ryde to Southsea - that's an hour for us! We were fine where we were but there were two sailing boats just crossing to the channel from the West side. It looked pretty close from where we were but they all missed each other. We entered the marina and were shown exactly where to berth by the Harbour Master. We expected it to be quiet here for some reason but it was crazily busy! An enormous catamaran followed behind us. I've never seen anything like it before or apparently so difficult to manoeuvre! We found out the boat was only four weeks old so extreme caution was required around it! Once again we had neighbours alongside but of a similar variety to ourselves. A classic wooden motor cruiser which had just been re-launched after about ten years. It was all good fun and very exciting!
Being in Ryde on our boat was very strange. We know the place itself very well after attending one of the biggest scooter rallies in Europe there on a yearly basis. Just walking through the streets without them being full of scooters and scooterists and without the ever present smell of two stroke oil was unusual to us to say the least! We missed our friends at that point quite badly.
We had a good time in Ryde, the Harbour Master was an absolute star. That being said we were quite keen to move on and get round to Cowes so we could explore the River Medina. The weather forecast was similar to the day before so once we were floating we should be OK as long as we were back in port before 1pm (ish).

Our neighbours left around 11am, apologising for the smoke.... ha ha... if only they knew how smokey we were!! Just as we set off it began to rain, and blow. At least we were inside so the rain didn't matter much. We had an exciting 5 mile trip around to Cowes. We had to pass the hovercraft, the fast cat, the Wightlink ferries in and out of Fishbourne as well as the ferries in and out of Cowes. Firstly to dodge was the hovercraft, I was on lookout, it wasn't moving so no problem. I sat down and out of the corner of my right eye I saw it, the fast cat - it's fast! We had no option but to increase speed at this point and hope it was heading for where we thought it was heading. A few tense moments later we were out of the way and sweating a little. Eyes in the back of your head are needed around here!! Next job, Fishbourne and the Wightlink ferries. One ferry was in port, one waiting to go in. The one in port started moving, umm, not so sure what will happen here. Sure enough the ferry in port was heading back out for the mainland as the one waiting headed in. Trying to gauge its possible path I said to Martyn "What's your plan?" "I'm just going to keep my course across" he replied. I looked at him, looked at the ferry, looked at our speed, looked at the ferry. "Do you think we'll make it?" "Dunno". Gulp! Martyn looked at me and said "Do you want me to turn around and pass behind it?" "Sounds like a good idea" I replied. I was wrong! It turned out that the course the ferry was taking meant we would have been well out of the way before it got anywhere near. Now we had to deal with wash from both ferries. It was lumpy, bumpy and choppy. Water was thrown all over the place. Yet again I must make my apology to Martyn and promise not to interfere on matters of navigation! It was flipping big and fast though!
We turned the corner and were met with the amazing view of Cowes, and another really fast ferry! It was so fast though that it was in port, turned around it's passengers and was just starting on its return journey as we passed it in Cowes!
You can go out in the calmest of weather and the wash of one boat can cause you the biggest problem. We battled with the wash of a variety of different boats, speed boats, pilot boats, big cruisers even the yachts motoring cause a wash. It's all good fun though and you get a bit of a buzz with all the excitement. Cowes is a very expensive place to moor so we thought we would head up river to the Folly Inn. We are again without shore access, apart from the dinghy! We also have no electric or facility for water so we will just spend the day chilling and make our way into Newport tomorrow where hopefully we can re-charge our batteries and stock up the fridge. At last we don't have to worry about the comical weather for a day or two!

Isle of Wight - not via Wightlink!!!

We walked for miles yesterday and awoke achy (yes I am rather unfit!)and to the sound of rain on the roof again. The plan was to get up and away for around 10am. After pressing the snooze button on the alarm twice I reluctantly got up and went for my shower. As I got off the boat the lady who owned the boat next to us advised me that the berth holders of the mooring we were on were due back around 10.30am - better get a move on then! The weather looked a bit dodgy to say the least! Black clouds dominated the skies and the rain started to fall again. What would we do? I got back to the boat and told Martyn that the berth holders were on their way back and we would have to move one way or another. We checked the forecasts, we now use four different websites! All looked OK except for one which was forecasting moderate seas and force 4 to 5! This was enough to put serious doubt in our mind. Ever since the Dungeness trip we have been more than wary of relying on just the Met office forecast. We ummed and aarghed for ages, the skies got blacker. Martyn went to the office to see if they would have another berth if we decided to stay. We were told there was room and initially decided that if neither of us was sure we shouldn't go. OK - let's move on to the other berth and stop for another 2 nights....... or poke our nose out and see what happens, we can always come back in! We decided to give it a go we didn't really fancy another night at Southsea. There was something strange and a little claustrophobic about the marina. The people were lovely but we just didn't feel comfortable there. We headed back out, through the wibbly wobbly channel and towards the imposing looking Isle of Wight. The sea state was very strange, sometimes calm, other time rolling, then choppy. The sky looked as though at anytime we would be in for a storm. We crossed the shipping channel with caution, both on lookout. We saw a pilot boat heading back into land and immediately starting looking for the moving ship! All the ships remained at anchor and we passed through without problem. As we approached Bembridge it got busy again, everyone appeared to be coming out as we were coming in! I never cease to be amazed at the age of some of the kids out there sailing without a care in the world, I wish I could remember what it was like not to be so scared sometimes!!

We followed the channel in looking for the visitor pontoons which weren't hard to find. We fit perfectly on the end which is where we always like to be - out of the way! Bembridge is very pretty but dries out so we have been back on the mud again! There are some amazing houseboats here. We have done the usual trek for provisions (why am I not a size 10 yet?)and had a quick look around Bembridge. It's picture postcard stuff here. We have a neighbour, it's really common to raft up down here i.e. moor side by side. So far that has not happened to us - until now. Not a problem for us but I do feel sorry for the people on the small fibre glass sail boat tied alongside! They seem like very nice people so I hope they don't mind too much! Tonight we are going for a walk along the beach - weather permitting and tomorrow we might head for Ryde, the town that hosts the annual scooter rally and home of The Cod Father - the fish and chip shop Martyn always insists on going to when we're are there! It was quite apt that we should see a group of scooters riding through Bembridge this afternoon - they are a little early for the Bank Holiday though!