SNAFU
New Member
On this and other forums I've read often of how awful the Solent is, and how it really is a place best avoided. In 30 years of sailing, I'd never sailed there until this year - either because I was in different parts of the world or have always sailed on the West coast, or up in Scotland (my favouraite cruising grounds without any doubt).
So, with six months in the Solent, I still can't see the basis for the criticisms. The ONLY two things I find as negatives are the cost of slips (but the rest of the country seems to be catching up) and the 100 radio checks per hour.
The water's not as crowded as I had been led to believe as the vast majority of the boats never seem to leave their slips. I've been through the Solent twice this year when not another boat was seen moving. Honest.
The ferries don't make a wash worth mentioning - have yet to see a wash which would concern anyone in a sailing boat bigger than a dinghy - and I'm including the fast cats, the Wight Link guys and the hovercrafts.
The navigation is painfully easy (does anyone get lost in the Solent?). Actually, this is a negative but will surely be spiced up when I get to sail in some fog. Plenty of opportunity to work the tide tables though. Hey, that's part of the sport!
Broad, protected patches of water, myraid of anchorages, rivers, bays, beaches, wildlife ... it seems to have all of the basics needed for a good trip.
Even in a blow, there seems to be no swell / no waves which is a nice change from, say, the Bristol Channel where a 2 metre swell is perfectly common. Continuing that comparison for a moment, the Solent water is infinitely cleaner, the tides less fierce ....
In getting to know the place, I went out for a solo day sail a few weeks back and sailed round the Isle of Wight. Found an anchorage where I was the only boat (just outside of Yarmouth) ... hey, this place has it all.
To insulate myself from the radio checks, I keep the VHF on but with the volume somewhat muted. I do miss the old fashioned chandlery with marine engineering facilities into which I could ask for the loan of some obscure tool, but I really enjoy the variety of places to go and things to do. As I prefer anchoring to marinas, even the costs of overnighters is not an issue. As to the charter boats, they've been no trouble either.
So I've come to the opinion that this area is faulted not for any real problem other than people are BORED with it. They've been sailing there all of their lives and it's lost the challenge which new cruising grounds represent.
The only question now is whether to stay another year or to move her round to the East Coast or to base Sergeant Pepper up to Scotland for 2004 and see what that's like - sort of like making a circumnavigation in stages?
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So, with six months in the Solent, I still can't see the basis for the criticisms. The ONLY two things I find as negatives are the cost of slips (but the rest of the country seems to be catching up) and the 100 radio checks per hour.
The water's not as crowded as I had been led to believe as the vast majority of the boats never seem to leave their slips. I've been through the Solent twice this year when not another boat was seen moving. Honest.
The ferries don't make a wash worth mentioning - have yet to see a wash which would concern anyone in a sailing boat bigger than a dinghy - and I'm including the fast cats, the Wight Link guys and the hovercrafts.
The navigation is painfully easy (does anyone get lost in the Solent?). Actually, this is a negative but will surely be spiced up when I get to sail in some fog. Plenty of opportunity to work the tide tables though. Hey, that's part of the sport!
Broad, protected patches of water, myraid of anchorages, rivers, bays, beaches, wildlife ... it seems to have all of the basics needed for a good trip.
Even in a blow, there seems to be no swell / no waves which is a nice change from, say, the Bristol Channel where a 2 metre swell is perfectly common. Continuing that comparison for a moment, the Solent water is infinitely cleaner, the tides less fierce ....
In getting to know the place, I went out for a solo day sail a few weeks back and sailed round the Isle of Wight. Found an anchorage where I was the only boat (just outside of Yarmouth) ... hey, this place has it all.
To insulate myself from the radio checks, I keep the VHF on but with the volume somewhat muted. I do miss the old fashioned chandlery with marine engineering facilities into which I could ask for the loan of some obscure tool, but I really enjoy the variety of places to go and things to do. As I prefer anchoring to marinas, even the costs of overnighters is not an issue. As to the charter boats, they've been no trouble either.
So I've come to the opinion that this area is faulted not for any real problem other than people are BORED with it. They've been sailing there all of their lives and it's lost the challenge which new cruising grounds represent.
The only question now is whether to stay another year or to move her round to the East Coast or to base Sergeant Pepper up to Scotland for 2004 and see what that's like - sort of like making a circumnavigation in stages?
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