Tues-Thurs 16 -18 June
We are currently enjoying a visit of our Ukrainian family who lived with us for 2 years in 2022-24 due to Russia’s vicious war. Obviously we had to show them La Bamba and see how they get on as sailors.
First of all, as it was proper English summer weather, we all went to Lymington’s famous Sea Water Baths or Lido (where David learned to swim).
Makar, Mykyta and Viktoriia all tried out the inflatables while David and I swam in the pool. It was very refreshing!
On Tuesday, in a small pool of sunshine, we left Lymington in winds that were not forecast, so we abandoned our trip to Harry’s Rocks, rather disappointing for Vika, and headed against the tide, but with the wind, East towards Cowes.
Even so it was quite roly with up to 23knots of wind and wind over tide. Outside the Needles it would have been quite rough, and as Mykyta was somewhat surprised by the tipping over, we thought a first sail should be fun, not scary.
Everyone had a turn steering and they did very well in lumpy conditions, being very careful not to gybe unexpectedly. We put in a few gybes and got better with each one.
We surged past Cowes into the flatter Eastern Solent (it is my contention that there are actually 2 Solents, the West and the East, with Cowes being the boundary, as conditions and wind directions can be completely the opposite of each other!) and anchored near Osbourne Bay. Mykyta let the anchor down on our lovely electric windlass.
Mykyta, David and I swam off the boat – even more refreshing than the Lido!
We docked at Cowes in spitting rain and had dinner in a local restaurant -who cancelled summer!?
On Wednesday we awoke to more gloomy skies and even windier weather. We are glad we stayed in the Solent after hearing of the Russian warship shooting warning shots across the bow of a British yacht only 20nm South of the Isle of Wight! If had been us with Ukrainians on board it could have opened a whole new front to the war!
We walked down to Egypt point where I showed Mykyta how to play hopscotch and we all played with the pebbles.
And the waves.
It’s pretty windy out there but Captain said let’s go, so after making the sandwiches we did!
It was very bouncy as we were beating into 23 knots pretty constantly with wind over tide as we had 2-3 knots of tide with us. It made for a quick if exciting passage as we were making 6-7 knots and up to 10 over the ground with the help of the tide. Makar made a very good lookout under the sail but it was a bit too bumpy for novice helms and photos!
‘Scary but acceptable’ is Mykyta’s verdict.
We didn’t eat the sandwiches until we got into Yarmouth where we tied up close to the ferry dock.
