Thursday 10th August
Our plan was to leave at midday so we would pass over the Chichester Bar just before high water and pick up the tide towards Haslar. We radioed in to the lock for our place in the queue and were asked to delay coming off our berth for about 10 minutes. Once we slipped our lines we proceeded to the lock. There was another large yacht in front of us in the lock with just a few feet spare for us to get in. There were not any lock staff on our side to help us this time so we had to grab any rope we could to hold us on which was difficult as the ropes are fastened high up on the wall in the lock and you can’t see which one is best to use to tie up to. Anyway, after a fair bit of faffing around (mainly on Carole’s part) eventually we were safe and after a few minutes, we were on our way.
We kept the engine on until we were clear of the bar. Once clear, the wind was coming from the NW and we began beating towards Horse Sands Fort. We continued a few miles further on to get a better angle on the wind into Portsmouth. This worked as planned and were following the ferries in. Carole radioed into Haslar for berthing instructions and after the fenders were out we went straight into a nice large pontoon. We have been to Haslar before and remembered that it can be a bit rocky and rolly in the marina so we decided to put one of our rubber snubbers on the stern line and the large spring type snubber on the bow line to dampen down any snatching. The first night was tolerable (just) but on the second night, Carole could not sleep as the front spring snubber was really going for it and after a very brief, but to the point conversation, Chris went out on deck in the rain to take it off, for which Carole was very grateful as as soon as it was done there was peace and very little snatching.
While in Gosport, we topped up our provisions and Carole again visited an excellent massage therapist in the High Street.