Smash and Grab.

We thought that the trip with Mark and Helen was probably the last of the season, but when Saturday dawns bright and sunny, what can you do?

Up at 8am, out by 10:00, on the boat by 11:15, out at the beginning of freeflow, a lovely sail down to Bembridge with the sun shining and an East wind giving us a very kind broad reach. We were the last fin keel boat into Bembridge at around 3:30pm. We had plenty of water under the keel, but the water was really streaming out at 2 hours after high water.

We rafted up against two very nice boats with very understanding couples who didn't mind a dappy boxer trampling all over the place and Clemmie was gambolling on the dunes in the sunshine by 4pm.

We had a couple of glasses of pink wine (Last of the summer wine?) and headed up the hill to St Helens for dinner and the rugby. Watching the rugby more in hope than expection, it was a very happy pair of us who headed back down the hill in the dark a few hours later. (Ha - the head torch wasn't so silly now, was it?).

Sunday was just as wonderfully warm and sunny, so we had a really lovely morning, fetching the papers, coffee and rolls in the sunshine, a walk on the beach and away by 11:30.

The wind wasn't quite as kind to us on the way back and we had to motor from a couple of miles West of East Head, but the sun was still shining, the sea was blue and it really felt like August. We scraped in at the very end of freeflow and were home for tea by 6pm.

One of the nicest weekends we've had. I guess the feeling that we were somehow cheating by being out there so unexpectedly made it all the sweeter.