12TH AUGUST
We awoke fairly early to a warm, pleasant day. After our first cuppa and biscuit, Carole decided to clear the dirty washing pile and headed off with the trolley to the newer laundry room nearer the marina reception. However, all the machines were in use with more waiting to go on, so she headed back to the small older laundry room in the Lightship which luckily was empty. While this was on the go, she trotted in to the high street to get a couple of essentials before returning to the laundry room to transfer the now clean clothes to the drier. Then it was back to the boat for a late breakfast before bringing back the dry clothes to put away. While this was going on, Chris was rinsing the boat down and filling up the water tanks ready for our departure at midday.
Dead on the dot of noon, we slipped our lines, put our fenders away and motored out into the Solent. Once clear of ferries, hovercraft and other sailing boats, we put up both sails with reefs in as the wind was beginning to build. The wind direction was not ideal, but we decided to continue sailing which meant having to make a series of tacks, which slowed us down. We passed Ryde and Gurnard Bay and soon we could see Cowes on the Medina River. We made our approach into the river and Carole began to get our lines and fenders ready to enter the marina. We were amused to see a small motorboat with a big ice cream cone on top, which we took to be the local ice cream “van”. Later we also spotted it tied up in the marina. Sadly, it was now off duty and we were unable to sample his wares. Carole then radioed into East Cowes marina and obtained our berthing instructions. By 2:45 pm we were safely tied up and ready to receive our visitors. (Sally, Tony, Daniel and Bobby were joining us for a fish and chip supper, which Chris was looking forward to.)
Once they all arrived, we took a stroll into East Cowes and ate our supper on a bench in the late afternoon sunshine. A little later, Sally and Tony left us to return to their campsite, with Daniel and Bobby staying with us to make the short trip the next day into the Newton River.