Falmouth to Gosport (yes, we went to Gosport. Read and see why)

After catching up on a little sleep, we happily launched the RIB and headed ashore at Trelissick to get the legs working. 30 hours or so underway and they do tend to seize up a bit. The woodland walk hills seemed steeper and longer than we remember. Is that the result of seizing up or age (a couple of years since we were here)? Please don't answer that....

On Sunday, Norman and Julie drove down to Trelissick and after a restorative coffee and brownie sitting outside the National Trust tea rooms (excellent by the way) we walked the other path and then enjoyed lunch outside a pub that we have visited with them many times before. It felt quite safe and "normal" - the outside area is a steep terrace and there are individual tables on individual areas cut into the rock. All very civilised. Roxy and Indie, the two labradors seemed happy as well: 

even if our food was torturing their noses:

We returned to the boat by RIB and then headed a short distance further to say hello to the crew of Coracle (a Nordhavn 40) who had arrived whilst we were out and anchored just above the Turnaware bar. Tea was enjoyed in the cockpit and a catch up after many months thanks to Covid and lockdowns. They even took a pic for us as we departed - you can just about spot our boat too:

As you can see, it was sunny but chilly....

The forecast had increasing strength easterly winds during the week and as we needed to be in the Solent area by the 26th, we decided to have one long trip rather than coast hop via all the delightful stopping off points that this area offers. Shame but we will be back later in the year to enjoy them. Optimum timing looked to be around 10am off Falmouth harbour so a nice civilised departure time too. We acted as camera boat and got some pictures of Coracle at anchor:

and you can see Michael on the flybridge doing exactly the same thing. We looked like:

The start of the trip was a bit bumpy with smallish waves (only around a metre and a half) but with a very short wavelength meaning the boat would rise on one then fall onto the next. These had built up with the overnight SE'ly wind and the "wind over tide" at the time. Things were due to calm down as the wind strength reduced and it backed to NE'ly according to the forecast. The bumpy bit did not stop the captain from having a snooze in the pilothouse though:

 

Heading past Plymouth and the iconic Eddystone lighthouse things worked as per the forecast, the waves subsided and the sun peeped out. We were far enough away from Eddystone to only be able to capture this picture, nothing more detailed, sorry:

Start Point was also nice and benign, here is how it looks from the helm seat:

and here is how it looks on the plotter:

The usual night of watching fishing boats with no AIS wander around in front of us ensued, together with some pot marker dodging thanks to seeing them on the FLIR. We are still deeply in love with that piece of kit. 

Sunrise as we approached the Isle of Wight was pretty stunning:

with the island having a little mist hanging around the surface of the sea. That means you cannot see the Needles in this picture:

but you get an idea of how it all looked:

As we entered the Solent we had to push against the tide initially as we had made better time than expected. Anchored off Yarmouth was this:

She is called Elandess and for anyone who has used (or should that be "been ripped off") by using Travelex, you helped to buy her. She won plenty of awards including one for her styling that frankly, leaves us cold. Have a look at the gushing praise for her styling in this internet report. 

It felt strange to be back in the Solent area again, but we soon realised why we don't miss it that much during the summer. Have a look at the number of AIS targets shown here on a weekday early in the boating season:

add in the number of non AIS users and you get the idea of how much busier this is compared to the places we like to visit. Heading into Portsmouth harbour we had the usual wait for the ferries even though the fast cat is still not running to the Island. Welcome back to the busiest boating area we guess.

Heading through the Solent we were photographed by David Potter who contributes images to Marinetraffic, hence we got this one:

and yes, it was millpond calm. Chilly though, you can see that only half the pilothouse door was open.

We happily berthed on a hammerhead berth in Haslar marina, where we had spent a winter a few years ago. Gosport is not the centre of the universe but Haslar is fine. It is also for free berthing for us as it is part of the same marina group as Penarth. We just pay for the electricity used. Cost is one good reason to be here. The other is that we need to swap out our dishwasher which has been misbehaving for quite a while now. More on that in a future post....

The route to the Solent is another simple enough one:

and if you look closely you can see one spot in the track where we seem to be heading in a strange direction. That was avoiding pot markers as we started crossing Lyme Bay.

As for maintenance - nothing to report, sorry. The big Lugger was happy, the little one (wing engine) had a run to get up to temperature just before we arrived outside Portsmouth when we had the required wide open throttle run to clean up the main engine. Checking oils and coolants afterwards confirmed they were happy too. Might nip up the stern gland on the main engine a bit as it is dripping a little more than needed but to be honest, that helps cooling and isn't a big issue.

All in all happy to have completed the two longer runs in nice weather so that we are in the right place for jab no 2, #dishwashergate and to sort out some sickly cameras in the CCTV system.