Monthly Archives: Saturday August 6th, 2011

Thursday we finally can hoist the sails again and we’re enjoying a wonderful trip through the ‘birthplace of sailing’. Via radio we listen a dramatic Mayday situation involving chopper, we see the Alinghy (although we don’t recognize her) and plenty of other racing yachts. We also come quite close to one of the last hovercrafts and have plenty of opportunities to practice the rules of way. There are more sailboats here than in the Kieler and Flensburger Foerde together. Hehehe. In the evening we put into Yarmouth – the oldest township on the Isle of Wight. A really lovely spot with plenty of nice pubs. (One main focus point as you can see ;-)

The next day – because there’s no suitable wind to continue – we’re using the afternoon for a little trip with our dinghy. We go up the River Yar and see some nice houses and an old church. In the evening it’s ‘harbour-cinema’ again. Because of the tide going in and out there are always quite chaotic maneuvers to be seen (ours not excluded). Quite before leaving we were actually crashed into by a smaller boat. Luckily we choose a steel ship – no harm done.

Friday we’re leaving the Solent and pass by the famous Needles – where we cheer with a nice Guinness. ;-) We sail nicely along the increasingly interesting coastline and while passing Anvil Point – we actually get our private flight show by the famous Rad Arrows ! In darkness we enter Weymouth, where we spend the night in front of the flap bridge that will open saturday at eight in the morning. We have fish & chips for a midnight snack and fall into bed. Early in the morning (for us it’s actually 7 o’clock, as we’re on UTC) – we enter the marina and see Michael to the train station. It was a wonderful week together with him – we really hope we’ll see each other earlier than when we return to Berlin.

And now I sit here typing away in the pub. The text that I’ve written earlier while on the ship, I now translated and put the pictures in order. In the harbour the internet costs 3,50 Punds PER HOUR (!!!!!!!) and that’s quite a normal tariff here. It’s really a punch in the face – especially since the marinas here are also impressingly expensive. Well, we’re gonna focus more on the Guinness and less on the internet. :-)

Together with Michael we leave Brighton and soon disappear in thick fog. Of course the wind also dissipates and so we steer towards Shoreham, because we don’t wanna motor through the fog. There we arrive quite in time to find our friends Silke and Dieter mooring their boat in front of the lock.

So we spend the evening chatting and using some remote WLAN to surf the net – thanks again to the LunaWLANnet antenna – it’s really amazing to have internet access in the middle of nowhere. And thanks to our on board WLAN, our friends get to use our connection while we spend the evening together. Late in the evening, the water is high enough an the lock opens and we can sail into the Lady Bee marina where we spend the night.

The next day we don’t have any wind, so we’re again using our engine to sail together with the SY Tamora towards the Solent. The best opportunity to put into harbour is in the entrance towards Chichester, where after motoring against a really strong current, we drop the anchor for the very first time since the beginning of our journey, two months ago. There’s a really nice and also interesting beach only two minutes away with the dinghy (rowing). The night is completely without wind and without the sound of nearby streets or cities.  Sweet dreams.