It seems that the whole of the UK had decided to use the same bit of the M25 as we had, so after a 7 hour journey, we arrived at Lymington to find the two early arriving crew members, Full Circle and Windrush John a little on the enebriated side.... they claimed that 3 hours should never be wasted!
However, despite our (very) late arrival, the broker was still there, and everything was concluded satisfactorily..... so the boat was ours to take away....
Not wanting to waste a good opportunity, we retired to an Indian restaurant, and had a fabulous meal.... top quality, and not too expensive either....
Tides suggested an 07h30 departure, so we arose at 06h30, put together a quick sausage sandwich breakfast, and let the lines go... Lymington has good wide aisles, so no concerns for my first handling session with Morgana, and besides, she seemed to turn on a sixpence.... and off we went.... followed a few very slow boats out of the channel, played dodge with the IoW ferry, and very quickly rounded the Jack in a Basket marker, and headed off north towards Cowes....
Playing around with the engine, I was like a wide eyed child.... "look 9 knots through the water under engine!!!" very new territory for me after the previous boat...
There wasn't enough wind to make sailing worth while, so we just unfurled the main, and motor sailed....
With a fair tide, we rounded Cowes very early, and as we motored into Osbourne bay, decided to drop the hook for a while..... no need to be in Portsmouth too early.... and checking out the ground tackle on a windless day with an engine that we didn't yet know whether we could trust or not seemed sensible.....
The anchor bit very quickly, and we relaxed for an hour or so....
Then, with the admirable assistance of the electric windlass, we upped the anchor and set off towards Portsmouth.... passed Mother bank, and headed up towards the harbour entrance.....
all quite painless to this stage.... boat seemed to be working just as intended, an engine that still allowed a conversation to take place at a normal volume, and no other obvious problems.....
Fuel seemed sensible given the long legs ahead, and lack of wind, so we queued for fuel at Gosport premier (yes, for those outside of the solent - we had to QUEUE!!!!!!), narrowly avoided the sunsail boat jumping the queue through clever use of glares and "excuse me's".... and filled her up.... a mere £38 worth to get her full again (she was 3/4 full to start with) and then headed for our berth...
Easy enough... loads of space... big wide aisles again, so I thought we'd reverse onto the finger..... whoops..... not something i'd practiced a lot with Maggie (she didn't go in a straight line backwards) and the rust showed..... we got in, but it wasn't what you'd call elegant!
A wonder into Gosport.... and a slightly quicker wander back.... and we sat and enjoyed a lovely meal onboard in the cockpit, with the extremely warm evening....
Spotted a fellow ybw'er a couple of aisles away, wanderd over, and he forced us to drink beer.
So..... an entirely uneventful first leg.... me with a grin the size of a cheshire cat.... all's well...
Miles logged 19nm
Miles this trip 19nm
Miles this season 19nm
Miles since this blog started 1,813nm
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