Alpha Crucis: August 2007

The Solent – August 2007

The Solent is the waterway between Isle of Wight and the mainland – Southern England. We are currently in the Hamble Point Marina up the Hamble River – not far from Southampton. The entrance to the river is opposite Cowes on the Isle of Wight, some five miles across the Solent. It is Cowes Sailing Regatta this week and although we hadn’t planned to be here we have been very fortunate to experience the most famous sailing regatta in the world. We were able to see the fireworks display in Cowes from our boat on Friday! What an amazing spectacle – all half a million pounds worth!

Anyway we have had a busy time since leaving London and arriving down in Wallasea, Essex to have the boat lifted out. We were on the ‘hard’ for two weeks – a little longer than expected however we managed to get everything done – sanding & anti fouling, a new propeller fitted which was flown in from Sydney, the rudder attended to which needed bleeding and even a cut and polish of the topsides – AC was looking a picture when she went back in the water! Unfortunately the maintenance mode didn’t end there. We refuelled as soon as we were out of the travel lift and then thought we would spend the remainder of the day, anchored in the river, getting everything in order to set off the following day to the Isle of Wight! However not to be - firstly the bow thrusters failed and then Terry, having established we had a little problem with the genset, determined it was a bigger problem in that the salt water pump had failed. So the next day we went back to Wallasea but this time to the Marina at Burnham on Crouch on the opposite side of the river. Friends Maurice and Gill Atcheson from Auckland, joined us a day or so before we went back in the water with the intention of coming to the Isle of Wight with us so unfortunately given we had to go back to Burnham they left a couple of days later to go back to London! However it was great to have Maurice help Terry out with a few jobs – not much fun for him and Gill though.

Terry had a very frustrating time ordering and waiting for parts to be delivered - the first pump wasn’t the right one and then he had to order repair kit but these had to be subsequently modified to fix the problem! However with the help of a very nice man called, Tom, who worked at an engineering shop close by, Terry managed to get firstly the bow thrusters and then the pump for the genset working! We were very grateful to get Tom’s cooperation and with such a helpful demeanour. This whole exercise cost us a further week in time but we couldn’t knowingly go to sea without the genset working.
Although we were working constantly during our 3 weeks we were in ‘maintenance mode’, we did get to enjoy the area. Wallasea itself is quite isolated unless you have a vehicle – closest shops are at least 15/20 minutes by car, however Burnham on Crouch is just across the other side of river. It is a fabulous little village and we had been over a couple of times during our time living on the ‘hard’. We went to two of the Yacht Clubs – Royal Burnham on Crouch Yacht Club and the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club – on both occasions we were welcomed with open arms and offered some great hospitality!

The town has some great little pubs and restaurants and we tried a few with different people. Our English friends Matt (Cosmic Girl) and Ester (who crewed for Matt on Cosmic Girl from San Diego to England) and along with Ester’s new friend came down to Burnham to farewell us from England (as it turned out, a little prematurely!) And we had a fun night out in Burnham – also joined by Peter and Mary Reeve who live in Foulness Island, where we have stayed a few times since meeting them both in St Katharine’s Dock in January.

Mary and Peter have a lovely home on Foulness with beautiful gardens and we enjoyed a few meals with them whilst we were Wallasea. They have also kept us supplied in fresh eggs from their own chickens and fresh herbs from their garden over the past months and sent us off from Burnham fully provisioned with these goodies!

We also met another NBF (new best friend) Graham Waring whilst we were in Wallasea – he has a 65 foot motor launch which he is currently spending time finishing off major renovations before he ships it to Italy. We have spent quite a bit of time with him whilst we were there and he was most helpful in giving us the use of his driver to take me to the supermarket to provision the day before AC went back into the water. He then took us on a little excursion of pubs and a bar before we ended up at a fabulous pub, the Bell, for dinner in a little village called – Horndon on the Hill - the food was superb as was the ambience!

We finally departed Burnham on Crouch and Essex on Thursday 2nd of August – just over a week ago! Graham joined us on our journey from Burnham and got off three days later at Eastbourne. We spend a night in Ramsgate and Dover en route. Graham was a very helpful crew member taking in a little tuition from Terry on navigation. We really enjoyed having him on board. On Saturday when we reached Eastbourne, Graham had his driver pick us up at the marina and took us on a little journey to Brighton. Having never been there before I was very interested to see there is much more to Brighton than a pier and pebble beaches. The old ‘Lanes’ of Brighton are quaint and interesting and Graham took us to a favourite little place of his called English’s – a very renowned 19th century Oyster Bar and restaurant – we sat at the original marble bar sipping on Rose’ Laurent Perrier champagne Graham bought us to celebrate our 2 year anniversary of leaving NZ, accompanied by some very nice Irish oysters. Then we progressed to having a wonderful seafood dinner in the Edwardian dining room. What could be better than this!!!!

From Eastbourne we set off towards Isle of Wight however the wind pick up and as we were heading straight into it we decided to take shelter in a place called Shoreham-on-Sea for the night. It was still blowing 30 knots inside the canal. Unfortunately on this coast there is very little or no shelter except by going into a man made marina – most of which are not deep enough for us so there is not a lot of choice. Our stay here wasn’t memorable as with the facilities for yachts are virtually zero so going through the ship lock to get in was tense with not have a floating pontoon and then tying up to a concrete dock. Unfortunately with the combination of the wind factor and everything else against us we left there with a few scrapes on our lovely vessel which I was to say the least – not happy about but fortunately nothing which can’t be fixed.

Next day we took off early and ended up anchored in Langstone Harbour for the night which was pleasant enough. The next morning – Wednesday - we headed for Cowes. As I said we hadn’t planned to be in the region for Cowes weeks, but there we go, we were! You wouldn’t believe all the yachts, motor boats and everything else around. What an amazing melee of vessels – certainly a sight worth seeing – if only once!

We phoned a couple of the marinas on the off chance and one of them said they could accommodate us for the night as luck would have it, so we headed up the Medina River at Cowes– very nerve racking stuff avoiding all the boats and large ferries. It was certainly a wonderful party atmosphere!

Once we had docked I decide to give AC a wash down so went over to yacht alongside that was using the hose to establish when they would be finished with it. A lovely lady, Jessica Schroder– owner and skipper of a very nice 57 foot sloop (who we had interacted with during our docking process) asked where we were from and she was intrigued about the name of our vessel. She is from a village in the Cotswold called Ampney Crucis and in fact her farm is named Crucis Park Farm - how coincidental! She had her four children and their friends on board – quite a crew!! Anyway she invited us on board for a drink and after much discussion we learn she has quite an association with New Zealand having lived initially there as a child and later studied at Victorian University. She is Dutch and her grandparents lived in Keri Keri many years ago and her father was a diplomat in the Dutch Legation in Wellington. We were invited to her drinks party at the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club that evening for her son’s 21st birthday and her birthday on Saturday. What a treat to take in such a special event given that firstly we hadn’t intended to go to Cowes and of course not knowing a sole! An amazing 24 hours!

We headed off from Cowes on Thursday to Lymington to provision. Another fabulous village and had two good supermarkets within walking distance and everything else we needed. We picked up our salt water pump for the genset which Terry had sent from Brisbane.

So we are ready to go apart from a few little jobs to complete now! The weather looks like it will be right to leave after a front goes through on Monday so maybe Tuesday or Wednesday.

We are headed to the Channel Islands and then onto Portugal, unfortunately missing out France altogether, so we can get some miles under our belt! We are due to be in Italy on the Amalfi coast in mid September to meet family and friends!

Communication – we are retaining our UK mobile number which is +447787793398 plus of course you can email us on our normal email alphacrucis@110pct.com address which we will pick up when we are near land!

After 9 plus months in England it’s time to leave and move on to new territory – also time to turn our home back into a ship as well! We have had a ball exploring and enjoying our old friends and of course making new ones. It has been a unique experience – one we will treasure forever.

Lots of love to you all.

The Jolly Rogers