It has been a few months since I’ve sailed anywhere. Deacons Marina to Haslar Marina was my last trip, which took just over an hour and was fairly benign.
Since arriving in Haslar in October, poor old Pamela C hasn’t moved. She’s been sat, wintering near Portsmouth while I get into the swing of things with my new “Systems Architect” role at loadbalancer.org .. managing partner integration with some large medical imaging and storage companies.
I have 10 days of holiday coming in April, and I plan on getting back in the saddle. Short trips to start with – the new autohelm needs to be commissioned, and the boat checked out after sitting idle for what will have been nearly 6 months.
One of the beauties of the Solent and being berthed where we are is that the Isle of Wight is a short hop away. Whilst at Deacons Marina it could literally take 3 hours to get to the Isle of Wight, which was infuriating. Now we’re based in Gosport, you can almost see the Isle of Wight from the harbour entrance and in 45-minutes, you can be anchored off one of the Island’s many beaches. This seems an ideal proving ground, a night or two at anchor, sailing around the Island, popping ashore in the dinghy and pretending we’re in the Mediterranean or even the Bahamas! (ignoring the wooly jumpers and waterproofs of course!)
I have fond memories of flying to the Isle of Wight many years ago as a PPL (Private Pilot License holder). We would leave Denham aerodrome, fly down the coast, land at Bembridge airfield, and head to the Crab and Lobster pub for lunch. Those were the days; when AvGas was 80p/litre (now over £2/litre), and I had a regular income!
Maybe I’ll be able to visit the same pub for lunch, only this time by sea! Even better, maybe I’ll be able to catch my own supper and cook it on board!
The plan then is to sail around the Isle of Wight, spend up to a week exploring, perhaps heading over to Swanage Bay, and who knows, maybe even down to Portland for lunch with the boys before heading back to Gosport, if the weather holds out that long!
