Thursday 21 May
Having done a quick foal check on Lymington sea wall (6 – doubled from last time!) and having got very excited about seeing a cuckoo – normally I only ever hear them – we set off on Thursday with light winds and sunny weather. My favourite!
We wanted to practice furling Lily the Pink and gybing too – we have had some issues with this and the light winds were a good opportunity to hone our skills.
She furled out easily but we failed to gybe at first. The sail collapsed and wouldn’t fly round the front like she should. We think the winds were too light or we were doing things in the wrong order.
Normally when you gybe without Lily you concentrate on the main as it’s a big boom and dangerous if it goes across out of control. However with Lily it’s best to set her on the other side early as you go through the gybe.
Having failed to gybe we furled her in and then out again on the other side – so that was at least good furling practice.
The wind was a bit kinder off Cowes and picked up from about 8 knots to 10 and we gybed successfully 4 times – excellent!
Feeling more confident we turned back with the tide and beat up towards Newtown Creek. This is pretty much our favourite hang out in the Solent.
We got Zigzags out to see if David’s repair job was successful. We pootled up and down with our quiet electric engine and she stayed completely dry.
It’s like another world here, a peaceful, small lagoon behind a beach where seals and their pups play and rest, where nesting sandwich turns soar and dive for fish and where all you can hear is lapping water and oyster catcher cries.
Well that is before the morons on the jet skis turned up – grrr- and we do have a pretty good view of the Fawley oil refinery….
Fortunately the jet skis disappeared back to where they had come from (Southampton?) and we enjoyed our meal watching the sunset.
We were here at this time of year last year when we even went for a swim! It looks far too cold – I must be getting older!
In the morning, we left a bit too close to low tide and went aground in the channel! The depth gauge said 1.8m and we draw 2.3! So that’s a first for La Bamba – I thought it was quite funny, but David was not very impressed.
Going aground is obviously not really on the bucket list, but all boats do it at some point, and this is a very safe place to go aground as we are out of the Solent, sitting on soft mud, and all we have to do is be patient and wait for the tide to fill in.