IOW trip Wednesday

We were debating how best to get Lou to and from dialysis, when a Prout 45 owner who was leaving the pontoon behind us on the way to Newport needed a hand pushing off.  A quick chat with him allayed my fears about drying out at Newport, assuring me of a soft mud bottom.  So a quick look at the tides, a quick phone call to the Newport harbour master who also said no problem, and we were off.  The quay is only about a mile or so from the unit at St Mary's so taxi cost would be low. With a SW f5/6 blowing just the jib up was enough to do 7Kts + another 3 on the tide - we were at Cowes in an hour.  This made us a bit early for the tide so it was a gentle crawl up to Newport with the Depth gauge often reading under a metre. Lots of pontoon space so we aimed for the nearest spot and just got there as we kissed the bottom..

We had arrived with nearly an hour to spare.  Lou ordered a taxi and went to see the Harbour master. He was really surprised to see us, He didn't think we had enough water to get there. It does go a long way out though.

IOW Trip Tuesday

Tide and wind dictated where we were going today so back down the Solent to Alum Bay we went. Forecast was not great but it stayed dry most of the time.  It was surprising that although we were sat at anchor in an almost flat bit of sea that there were large breakers along the shoreline. After a spot of lunch we went ashore, not an easy task as we had to time our landing so as to get in between the breakers on the shore.

Once ashore we used the cable car to get to the top then the bus to get to the old and new Battery's (National Trust) for a bit of sight seeing. Good view of the needles from here.

Back to Yarmouth in evening for a meal ashore.

IOW Trip. Monday

An early start today as we have to get as close to St Mary's Hospital in Newport as we can in order for Lou to get to Dialysis.   We planned on getting to the Folly Inn and then by taxi to the Hospital.  Plan worked but cost of the cab was a bit high £12 each way.

Folly Inn on the Medina river.

While Lou was dialysing I went walkabout and found the Quay at Newport which had a surprising number of yachts in it.  So I made a few enquiries and found that it's perfectly feasable to get to Newport as long as the tide is right.

Isle of Wight Trip Sunday

The tides were about right for us to make the trip from Swanage after racing on the Sunday afternoon. A lovely day for it with a nice following wind. We left about 3pm and got to Newtown Creek around 7pm sailing all but the last few hundred yards.  Here we stopped for the night.

More means less ?

I have not updated the blog for a month now, mainly because I have been so busy. We have been to the Isle of Wight for a week, crossed the channel to Cherbourg for a couple of days, been to London for a day and spent a week enjoying the Swanage Carnival.  During that time I have been busy snapping away with the camera, unfortunately the tendancy with digital is to take lots of shots (MORE) instead of thinking about the composition.  This has led to over a thosand photo's, 95% of which I have since deleted. but it all the editing takes time which means (LESS) blog time. 

The next few entries will try to correct that.