The Isle of Wight beckoned

Escape from Gosport was simple enough. Unplug, untie and reverse out. Although it was sunny, the wind was still keen but luckily astern of us as we made the shortish trip to East Cowes. We braved the flybridge and the dog slept on the seat quite happily - although she is always unamused about wearing her lifejacket. This time it might have helped to keep her warm: 

We wanted to time our arrival in the "happy tidal window" having witnessed how hard the tide runs through the marina and sometimes across the berths when we were based in the area. Here is the official information from the marina:

"Please keep an eye out for the tidal current through the marina. We have a 2 to 3 hour stand, and then the whole of the ebb occurs in the last 3 hours before low water! The best time to arrive with us (and to leave for that matter) is between half an hour before high water and two and a half hours after high water. This is obviously more critical during spring tides."

We made a small trip past the river Medina entrance just to use up a few more minutes then headed up river. Sure enough, off Cowes Yacht Haven there was the usual melee of boats wanting to moor up / leave / decide what to do.  We were following a scruffy red hulled Jenneau yacht and we think that his throttle control has seized up. In our experience yotties either go painfully slowly or madly fast when motoring into places. This guy was slow. Very slow. We followed him up river and he berthed (again, painfully slowly) in the slot opposite the one allocated to us, so we had to wait mid-river until he was safely secured. The timing coincided with 30 to 35 knot gusts so that made the dogleg entry to the berth and slotting in next to him interesting. A chilled evening chatting to the various yacht folks around us followed.

The next day, Tina arrived to join us for a couple of nights. Well, not really to join us, more to see the doglet:

She had brought a wonderful present for the captain, which looks so much better when modelled by the crew:

We do wonder if  Tina expects to be invited ever again.....

A trip over to Cowes proper on the rather unreliable new chain ferry was fun. If you are an island resident like Tina you will know the tale of woe that the new ferry brought, frequent days out of service and loads of maintenance issues. It seems that the local council who commissioned it and the builder / designer really messed up. The council has a sense of humour bypass when they refused a petition request to name it "Floaty McFloatface". UK readers will get the links to an earlier poll asking for names for a research ship. Waiting for the ferry the captain spotted this van in the queue and was told just how sad and geeky he was for loving the numberplate:

If you don't get it, you probably will not appreciate having it explained to you anyway so we will not bother.

A wander around Cowes and onto the seafront area allowed Izzy to have a  paddle and chase stones, It also allowed us to see the long standing and rather pretentious notice on the Royal Yacht Squadron moorings once again:

An invitation only club allowing you to fly the white ensign on your boat. One that we are happy not to be a part of having seen how the motorboat section handled their boats in Yarmouth harbour a few years ago. After the doglet dried out in the sun, we had an excellent lunch in Coast. So-so service but great food. If you go, try the flatbread and hummus starter but order one between you as it is as big as it is tasty.

The evening was spent chatting, taking Izzy to the local park for some ring fun:

and trying to avoid falling into a food coma type of sleep. Rude when you have guests on board, even if they are struggling too.