Sailing on the Solent

So Friday afternoon I was lucky to leave early and we jumped on a train to Worcestor Park were we met a fellow we would be sailing with over the weekend. We had never met but we found each other easy and  we drove to Hamble Marina. The drive to the marina was surprisingly good for London traffic and we were there in just over an hour. Mossy and Sailor Lee turned up with the food for the weekend and we jumped on board to get ready for a lovely weekend. We had dinner at the small marina's restaurant and the food was delicious. The boys watched intently England play in the Euros while drinking a few beers. We didn't have a really late night as we needed to be ready to head off on our early morning sail on the Solent.

We work up to blue sky which lasted a big 30 minutes before the strong wind blew the clouds over. We layered up, I had two jackets, a think jumper, jeans plus waterproof pants on. I was freezy. Mossy even wore a Benny. There was Lee, Benny, Mossy and three other men from Lee's work on the sailing trip and everyone was feeling the cold. The weather conditions on Saturday were less than ideal for sailing. There was hardly anyone out. We found out that night that a competition was cancelled. Lee mentioned on Monday that the conditions were definitely not ideal as we were in Force 7 gusts with swells at about two metres. We couldn't raise the sail at all and we couldn't get to our expected destination. We were sopping wet as the waves crashed up onto the boat. We decided to make the wise decision of pulling into the harbour of Cowes to get shelter. We were in the not so fun weather for about two hours with our stomachs churning and me nervous with the conditions. Everyone was relieved with the decision. We spent the afternoon watching the other sail boats come into safety. Some had even ripped sails.

In the afternoon Mossy and I hit the shops while the boys did something different  – watched sport. Mossy and I were lucky to get a booking at a lovely restaurant called Three. Mossy and Lee had been there previously. Most of us opted to have fish for dinner. Benny and I tried halibut for the first time and it was delicious. We all decided to have desert as well after such a treacherous day on the seas. Everyone had sticky toffee pudding except me. I had the most amazing ice-cream i think I have ever eaten. It was made at restaurant and it was salty caramel. I highly recommend trying this interesting combination.

On Sunday we work up to perfect weather. Mossy and I still had plenty of layers on and Benny opted for a British outfit of shorts and no shoes. I should mention quietly, that we are in the start of summer and today was the first time it hit 20 degrees in over two weeks. We had 10 knot breezes and a sunny sky, just not enough warmth. We put the sails up and sailed across to a World War 2 fort to anchor up and have some lunch. We were supposed to go here on Saturday. We sailed for about 5 hours on Sunday with all the other people that had missed out on Saturday. It was such a wonderful weekend and we met really nice people. Hopefully we can squeeze in another sailing trip before Mossy returns back to Aussieland in a few months.