I looked at 3 different web sites last night, and each one gave me a slightly different picture of what the wind would do today. All indicated the wind would come from a westerly direction, but they varied in the predictions on actual direction and strength. The Met Office said NW force 3 or 4 backing to the SW force 5 or 7 later. So it looked like I'd have a few hours of modest winds and I'd need to be in harbour for when the blow arrived.
First off, I cycled into Bembridge to retrieve my mobile phone from the very helpful cafe, where I left it yesterday. On the other side of the road, there is an estate agent with the sort of sounding name you might associate with this profession!If my name was King, I don't think I'd have gone into partnership with them though.
It was calm and peaceful at 7.30 as I crossed the causeway, and back on board I was soon under way.As I moved out into the Solent, there was a gentle north westerly and I set full sail for a close reach up towards the entrance to Southampton Water. Though my speed through the water was only about 3kn, the outgoing tide was sweeping the water westwards, so I was making good progress. As I started to tack back towards the isle of Wight to take a closer look at Cowes, the wind started to strengthen just as today's Cowes week races commenced.
Within half an hour, the wind was a high force 6, and blowing from the south west. One of the races seemed to involve a line stretched north out of Cowes, so I had no alternative but to cross the race course. By now, the wind over tide conditions had set up a big chop and there were boats every where crossing my path. As one 80-90ft monster, with about 20-30 blokes on board bore down on me with full spinnaker and all sails set,I turned a way to avoid a collision. It shot past me at about 25kn with a shout of thank you. The power of the thing was awesome.This picture isn't the boat.It was all too close to take photos, but it's typical of the sort of thing that was about, though not as long or heavy as the one I came close to..
As I moved as close to the shore as I could to avoid the mayhem, I heard someone on the radio reporting a partially dis masted yacht to the coastguard. Soon I could see it myself, and someone was up the mast trying to cut it away. They were not requiring assistance and were sorting themselves out.
Another, radio call was reporting a drifting craft. The coastguard was telling him that this a boat had been involved in an earlier capsize, when 4 people had been safely rescued. I had I really close view of various races and none of the boats had a reef in the sails. Do racing sails have such things? I had 2 reefs in the main and still felt pressed.I wondered how many incidents arose in a day like this in the Solent
I was relieved to reach Yarmouth and tuck into the harbour.I have been through the town before when catching the ferry to the Isle of Wight, but I have never looked around. The first place I went to was Yarmouth castle. This was built in the the year Henry VIII died. It was an advanced design for its time, with a sharply pointed bastion that sticks out of one corner that allows guns to be aimed back along the main walls. The fort was one of a a number of defences to guard the entrances to the Solent and so protect the fleet in Portsmouth. It also was supposed to help stop the French getting a toe hold on the Island.
It was never built as designed, as military funding was restricted even back then. Only really half a fort was built, with the ground raised to form a firing platform where the other half of the castle should have been.The ferry now has a good view of the fort.
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