Monday, August 07, 2006

In which Missy finally enjoys a day on the water.

There has been a conspicuous lack of on-the-water pics and stuff over the past few weeks, because we haven't been anywhere. We're being very cautious when there's just the two of us and the wind's been slightly too strong to venture out.

This weekend, however, we had reinforcements in the shape of publican-to-be Mark. The plan was to head off to Cowes on Saturday for our first proper sail. Unfortunately nose to tail traffic on the M3 meant that Mark didn't arrive until 2pm, so we missed our slot in the lock (even after the massive two hour wait for 30 boats to get through!) Fortunately, Mark arrived just in time for them to call us to let us know that we'd made our way back to the top of the queue

We didn't fancy risking getting into Cowes as darkness was falling, so it was a motor up the harbour and then a sail sorting run for an hour or so before sailing back.

With a bit of tweaking, Moonshine actually sails rather nicely. It looks rather splendid all goosewinged out. If there are any proper sailors reading, Mark did manage to get the kinks out of the main eventually.

Even the sea-dawg seemed to enjoy it.



Saturday evening was very pleasant. The queues to get back into Chichester Marina were as long as those trying to get out, so it was getting late when we finally got tied up. Fortunately, we were the last-but-one group to order food before the exhausted kitchen staff at the Crown & Anchor at Dell Quay put up the shutters for the night. They'll be praying for rainy, miserable weather over there before the summer's out.

We'd walked to the pub but, after a few pints, the return journey wasn't looking like much fun. Unbelievably, the landlord offered us a lift home when we asked him if he knew if any local taxis would take us and the sea-dawg. What a nice man!

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