July 20th Cherbourg

We have been thinking about a Cherbourg trip for a little while now and as we were "on holiday" and the winds were right we made a snap decision to go. I asked Greg if he would like to come, on monday he said ok. Then I told him we were leaving 4:30 the next day, he wasn't so pleased about that!

Apart from going all the way in thick fog it was a reasonably uneventful journey,  we didn't see any other boats but the radar was on all the way though.

Grabbed some wine inthe supermarket then dinner in "The Regency restuarant" in the evening.  Early to bed as another early start in the morning.

Nice sail back with the odd period of motorsail to keep the average speed up to 6.5 knots.  Again we had the target of getting Lou back for dialysis.  Came past peveril bouy doing 10.5 knots   whoohoo!

Spent the next week recovering from the 10 days of sailing.

IOW Trip The last day

By 10am the next morning all the PYRA boats had left for their return race to poole. Leaving us high and dry on the pontoon.  I had little stomach for beating into wind and tide so we waited until the afternoon for the tide to change and then began our journey back home.  It seemed a better option than having to fight the elements on Monday morning to ensure Lou was back in time for Dialysis that afternoon.

We managed to sail most of the way back but as the evening drew on the wind died and we had to motor from Ballard to the mooring.

IOW Trip Saturday

We had arranged to meet up with Graham and Wendy in Yarmouth. PYRA had a race to there on the Saturday morning.   The tides from Cowes to Yarmouth were foul in the morning but we had to go come what may. We tried sailing as there was a decent amount of wind but tidal flow kept putting us back in the same place.  Eventually we gave up and motored in order to get there on time. 

At Yarmouth I blagged my way into the middle of the PYRA fleet as they moored up and was soon recognised by a few of the boat owners.  I'll have to join next year before they realise I'm not a member.  Went to a barbeque in the evening at the local sailing club.  The PYRA crews drank the place dry, but they were happy with the revenue.

Isle of Wight Trip Friday.

With another bout of dialysis looming in the afternoon we spent the morning leisurely strolling round the town and had a coffee in the craft centre by the quay.   Whilst Lou was off at the hospital I toured the Boat museum and planned our exit from Newport on the falling tide.  I reckoned we had to be gone by 7:30pm at the latest.  As it was we had lots of time to spare (and water) for the short trip back to the Folly Inn where we stopped for the night. It was Quite windy even up there in the river making it a little difficult to come alongside the pontoon.

Isle of Wight Trip Thursday

With lots of strong wind forecast for today and Friday morning we decided to stay in Newport and do a tour of the island by bus. we settled for one of the eastern bus tours .  Arreton craft village being the first stop. This farmers market was obviously too much of a temptation for Lou and we did take away quite a lot of goodies.
Next was the Garllic farm, again with food products we were getting quite loaded up.   Learnt a new word, well 2 actually   - "Alliophile and alliophobe"  Lovers and haters of garlic.
Back on the bus and off to a vineyard.  for some free wine tasting. 
We even maaged to get to Bembridge which was a bit of nothing, and finally arrived back at the boat by 7:30 in the evening.

No Pictures today.