Day out at Seagrove Bay, IOW

28th July 2013

Out for a short trip today as it's quite windy and we are getting the windows wet with salt water which means a good clean up when we get back.

Wind is southerly about a F6 so the ideal place is somewhere around  the Seaview area on the north of the island.  We ended up in this lovely bay, you could have been on a tropical island in the Carribean.

 

A small sailing club at Seagrove Bay on the beach

 

 

After a couple of San Miguels brought out the quiche I'd made yesterday so muching on that.  Lots of little sailing yachts around capsizing at various intervals giving a source of entertainment whilst watching the world go by.

Water was so clear you could see the bottom - we were in about 2 -3 metres of water.  Quickly thought about snorkeling and quickly thought not.  The sea is COLD even in a wetsuit.

So that's it until perhaps next weekend (3rd August) as Bill is in Cornwall on a refit and I'm looking at Mazda MX-5's !!!

Friday 19th July - Weekend in Christchurch

Decided to venture somewhere we've not been before.  The entrance to Christchurch harbour is very tricky - there is a sand bar that moves continually and the bouyed entrance is navigated by local fishermen.  Suprisingly there is no Harbour Master at Christchurch.  There was a fishing boat that had obviously caught on the bar and was underwater.  Looked a sorry state.  I should have taken a photograph !

But first we have to wait for the tide, so spent the day in Totland Bay sunbathing and a spot of on board lunch, consisting of smoked salmon and cream cheese rolls, salad and a bottle of Sancerre.

So, at about 4pm set off for the entrance.

You can just make out the port (red) and starboard (green) bouys.  It is very shallow either side of these buoys and if you have a draft of more than 2 metres it's unlikely you can get in.  We draw about a metre.

Point H is the "Run" as it is known and there is a tidal race at I and J.  Dark colours means deeper water.  You can find out more on Wikipedia, or a website called www.christchurchharbour.info.  I pinched his aerial photo.

So we kept inside the marked channel to the buoys along F, E and then turned right at L.  There is about a 3 metre rise and fall of water but plenty deep enough once in the harbour.  We moored at Rossiter's Boatyard (01202 483250, open 9 till 1) directly north above letter K having previously booked - advisable as there are not many berths for visitors.

There is anchoring at certain points in the harbour (possibly between C and D) but of course you need a dinghy to get ashore as there are no water taxis.

Christchurch Quay

So, after mooring up decided to find a nice old fashioned pub and were rewarded with Ye Old George Inn or YOGI for short.  They do food all day and evening although we didn't sample any of it, it looked good.  They sell a cider at 7% which is very drinkable, not unlike the one in the Wheatsheaf at home.  Their wines are very good too, a nice selection.  We ate in a restaurant called Splinters (01202 483454 www.splinters.uk.com) which is the No2 (Trip Advisor) Restaurant in Christchurch.  It was very good, reasonably priced with great service and a warm welcome.  The No1 restaurant is in Mudeford near Mudeford Quay (some distance away) and although good, the portions are small and it's very expensive.  A pub I can't recall the name of near Splinters is awful, it's opposite down a side street.  Stick to YOGI.  Saturday we went for a long walk all around the rivers and did some shopping to re-stock the bar as we were nearly out of gin and tonic.

So, Saturday evening and as we are away 2 nights we usually have a chinese meal whilst away because there aren't any decent ones near where we live.  We had a coffee in a small cafe (there are loads of them) and asked the waitress where the nearest one was.  There's a takeaway at the top of the high street and a restaurant owned by the same people at 215 Barrack Road, north east off the main roundabout at the top of the high street.  It looked quite a long way to me, but we looked on Google Earth and Bill said it didn't look far.  He ate his words !! We booked for 8pm.  So at 10 past 7 we left, Bill saying we could have a drink in YOGI en route.  It was very busy there so decided to walk on.  I would say that from our boat to the restaurant had to be a good 2 miles and we were walking directly into the sun, it was hot, and we were thirsty. We made the 8 o'clock booking with minutes to spare. Called the Dragon Palace (01202 488833) we had a very good meal with some wine which made up for the long walk but it did us good.  But we got a taxi back.  YOGI was by now packed so called it a day.

Had to get up really early to catch the high tide (7am) so we were back in Portsmouth by 11.00.

This is point M on the aerial view.  Hundreds of Swans.

Fantastic weekend.

More to come I think - our friends Alan and Sue were making noises last night (24th) when I saw them so we may do Island Harbour again.

Tomorrow (26th) I'm going to the Mini showroom for a special VIP event, I want to change my car for a soft-top but the deal will have to be good.  Our friend Steve is a car trader and has already given me some good tips.  He will be looking closely at what they offer me over the weekend.

To Poole for a couple of days...

So leaving Portmsouth about 11:30 today (Tuesday 9th) to get the tide down to Poole Harbour, destination Brownsea Island on the north west side to anchor for the night.  Flat calm seas, not a breeze of wind and very warm on the stern of the boat sunbathing.  At anchor now at Brownsea gin tastes fabulous and we are thinking of going ashore for a short walk before our pizza dinner that I made yesterday.

Lovely walks around the north of the island away from the tourists

Here's some pictures of where we are now :

 

 

The next day we went up to Wareham which is quite some distance from Poole Harbour - at least an hour's trip away (we do about 8 knots cruising speed) and there are some lovely bullrush reed sedgelands that form around the River Frome which has it's mouth in the Poole Estuary.  We were unsure of the tides here (should have checked) and although I booked us for lunch at the Old Granary (tel 01929 552010) on Wareham Quay we had to cancel as we calculated we wouldn't be able to get back out into Poole Harbour as the tide was going out.  As it happened we could have stayed after speaking to the Harbour Office in Poole later that day so it's a destination we will have to go back to.

Here's a picture of the River with those reeds :

After we returned to Poole Harbour decided to stay in the Marina for the night as there is a very good Chinese Restaurant (in the middle of an industrial estate !) (tel 01202 675833 www.citybayviews.co.uk) where we had salt chilli squid to start and then I had fillet steak chinese style and Bill had duck with fresh pineapple.  The plain noodles are to die for, the best I've had in years.  Your view is the new bridge they've built there and I recall from our last visit last year that at night when it opens up the views are stunning as the bridge looks like a yacht sail.  Very clever design.  Here's a picture I took last year when we discovered it :

The restaurant was very busy, so booking is essential.  I think I'll write a review on trip advisor it's worth mentioning something that's really outstanding as well as somewhere that's awful.

The next day I had a phone call from our Skipper on our trawler which changed our plans so we had to be home by Friday 12th July to fill in some paperwork, so all is not lost, I was prepared to miss band practice on thursday night so we at least had another day in this lovely hot weather.  So, decided as it was an easterly breeze to go to Totland Bay for the day.

Here's a picture of yours truly :

Bill rowed ashore for a walk whilst I updated this, sunbathed and he booked a table at the Waterfront Restaurant - somewhere we've been before that's really good.  So after a gin and tonic rowed ashore in our inflatable dinghy - I had seafood linguini and Bill had a steak.  All good again.

So set off for Portsmouth, got back about 10pm.  Sea flat glass and calm.

Went out again on Saturday to do a bit of fishing, Bill caught a bream which he's having on the BBQ tonight.  I'm a bit boated out and of course there are things to address at home - chickens, cats, bacon........
 

Island harbour

I guess I should put up a picture of our boat "Morena" ,  a 31ft motor cruiser :

That's Dave and Val (we went with them on the Iceland trip) on the stern with our other friend Min at the door.

So today is Friday 5th July. We left Portsmouth harbour at around 10:30am to go to Island Harbour, a lovely marina half way up the Medina river on the Isle of Wight.  Sadly the old Ryde Queen which in a former life was a ferry from Portsmouth to Ryde, is disintegrating at speed which is a great shame, but looking at the marina guide it would take 7 million to restore it.  I have some very happy memories of this boat when it was a nightclub  in the 1970's but I think I'd baulk at spending that amount of money if I had it.

We'd arranged to meet our friends Alan and Sue in their boat "Sylvia II"' a 45ft motor cruiser.

Have to add that this picture was taken in Weymouth a few days afterwards.  I'll have to get Alan to send me a better picture sometime in the future, or simply take one myself.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
Alan and Sue berthed in the marina about half an hour after us with their friend Sue from Portugal and we all went to the local bistro "Breeze" and had a lovely lunch of toasties and garlic mushrooms. The service in this bistro is impeccable and the food just right.

So after an hour's sunbathing on the stern of the boat we met at Alan's boat for gin and tonics before
our booked taxi at 17:30.  I'd booked Burrs restaurant, the no.1 in Newport on trip advisor.  We went 
to the real ale pub in Newport but the beer was no good so ended up at the Wheatsheaf in Newport 
square, then to the restaurant.  The menu was a little confusing but the food good.  Wine flowed.....A 
good night was had by all with the banter.

Woke up to another sunny warm day and now just going down the river towards Cowes, then 
onwards to Osborne Bay for lunch on board and more sunbathing.  Just announced on the radio there 
is a body in the water - not sure where.

We decided as it was a northeast wind blowing right into Osborne bay to go to Stoke bay near the South of Gosport.  Lovely afternoon.  Here's a picture of a boat I would love to own:

And this is where I used to live when I was about 8.    They pulled down the old flats a few years ago and built these modern ones.  I  remember the first hovercraft trip back in the '60's and the booking office was on the ground floor of the flats.

Found out on the VHF later that the body in the water was a dummy that is used for the RNLI training !!!! Honestly the people who found it and the coast guard's response was hilarious.