Weekend adventure - a massive understatement !!!

Great write up.
It's good to see that you always had a "Plan B" for when things didn't turn out exactly as expected, which I think is v.important.
 
Thanks for an entertaining read. A good trip to look back on. Glad it turned out nice in the end.

Personally, I'd never set out on a trip like that in a new to me boat (even a brand new one), unless I'd done at least a bit of a shakedown cruise locally to find out whether everything works as it should and stays that way.

Taking bedding, waterproofs and a change of warm clothes can be critical, too, even if you think you are going out for a short spin (it could turn out much longer than you planned). You are either ready to be at sea, or you're not.

Have lots more fun on her!:encouragement:
 
In our first few months boating we kept to the Solent not avoided it! Personally I think you were a bit unwise with some of your planning and approach but all's well that ends well so well done from that perspective. A good write up too :).
 
Very interesting account -what I liked was the apparent fear/caution showed of enjoying the views of a typical day in the Solent and yet being prepared to face the somewhat daunting challenge of carrying on from a snug berth in Gosport enjoying the Boathouse fare given the SW breeze blowing against tide on Sunday morning. Clearly you didn't experience have the challenge of the self service fuel facilities at Premier otherwise you would never have left.
 
Thanks for all the responses and feedback, much appreciated !!

A few comments....

"As soon as you said you went South of the IoW to avoid traffic alarm bells started to ring...
To be honest you're lucky you made it without a major incident."

That's not logical - which is surprising given your user name Dr. Spock !!
I covered every detail of the southabout passage/route in advance, utilising every weather, tide, wind information source available to man.
I read every relevant part of this article also http://www.yachtingmonthly.com/specials/pilot-the-isle-of-wight-3158.
I discussed it with the boat broker (based in Poole with over 30 years of local knowledge) and he commented that the Solent would be very busy with bank holiday craft, and did not dissuade me from my planned route.
I suppose to an extent we're all lucky that we avoid major incidents when we go out in a boat, but we're also lucky in that respect when we tootle up a motorway in a car, but we still do it....

"Sounds like the boat did OK though you must be please with her."

Oh yes, very, very pleased. Like a dog with two reproductive appendages !!!

"You'll soon work out which conditions are go/no go. If I want to enjoy a trip it's generally less than 12mph winds (smaller boat though). Keeping swmbo happy is a good idea!"

Hope so - it's not an exact science though unfortunately. All the info I collected forecast 10-15 mph winds for the whole route, but combined with the other factors that had more of an effect on the boat than I thought it would. The good news is that swmbo is more than happy now - the last leg made up for the first !!

"must have been quite tough walking on dry land with balls so big though! ;-))"

I was well balanced after I filled my underwear outside Dover ;-)

"At least now you should have confidence in your boat and have a good idea as to when to, or rather when not to go out to sea in her. Hope you have ,many happy times ahead."

Was very confident of the boats capabilities as I did a lot of research beforehand, and she didn't let me down for sure ! No plans to do any long-haul trips in the near future, gonna enjoy her in more familiar surroundings for a while. Thanks for the sentiments !

“Do you have auto helm, or did you have to manually steer the whole way ? I did the reverse trip from Ramsgate to Portsmouth a few years ago and got very fed up halfway across from Ramsgate to Sovereign Harbour. My number one task (after I fixed the leaking stern tube / log) was to fit an auto helm.”

No auto helm – that would take half the fun away wouldn’t it ?!!! Mind you, I could probably win an arm wrestle with Arnie now.

“Sounds like you enjoyed it so much you won't be too long in this one before you look for your next and likely larger boat.”

Easy tiger….. Have nearly emptied my bank account on this one !

“Great post and great experience, you must have learned alot.”

Thanks ! And yes, I believe I have. My main concern beforehand was my lack of practical knowledge/experience of dealing with situations, but luckily all the hard work on the theoretical side worked – and now I’ve gained more first hand practical experiences than I hoped for !!!!!

“must be well pleased NOT to have any system failures, wasn't the case in my delivery trip 5yrs ago...”

That must have been a shocker for you ! Fortunately everything worked – I was pretty confident on that score as the purchase agreement was very stringent on what had to be done before I took her ;-)

“I admire your ambition, and perseverance.”
“Paul, is this the British way of calling someone a nutter?”

I really appreciate both of those comments ;-)

“It's good to see that you always had a "Plan B" for when things didn't turn out exactly as expected, which I think is v.important.”

No question about that. In my opinion it is probably one of the most important things to do. “Fail to prepare, prepare to fail”.
I have the utmost respect for the sea and I know how unpredictable and unforgiving it can be (because of my occupation).
I kept in frequent contact with both swmbo and the boat broker, keeping them posted with my location every hour or so.
I prepared a passage plan with the location of every point of refuge clearly marked and detailed and made sure I was always aware of where they were in relation to my position. She’s also equipped with a 9.8hp outboard to get me to one if the engine failed – oh, and extra fuel.
Plus, I had a bottle of whisky handy in case things really went tits up ;-)

“Taking bedding, waterproofs and a change of warm clothes can be critical, too, even if you think you are going out for a short spin (it could turn out much longer than you planned). You are either ready to be at sea, or you're not.”

That’s a good tip with hindsight ! Gonna leave stuff on board for the future, particularly now the summer’s almost over 

“Did you work out the fuel consumption?”

Unfortunately not. Given the weather and tide conditions, it might not have been very representative of the norm anyway.
And the chartplotter doesn’t seem to be linked to the fuel guage, so it would likely be inaccurate. But I am gonna sit down with a bit of paper and an abacus and give it a go, just to scare myself about how much I spent on the stuff….

“Personally I think you were a bit unwise with some of your planning and approach but all's well that ends well”

Can’t argue with that, but wisdom is not necessarily one of my most obvious attributes – unlike charm, good looks and modesty ;-)


“Very interesting account -what I liked was the apparent fear/caution showed of enjoying the views of a typical day in the Solent and yet being prepared to face the somewhat daunting challenge of carrying on from a snug berth in Gosport enjoying the Boathouse fare given the SW breeze blowing against tide on Sunday morning. Clearly you didn't experience have the challenge of the self service fuel facilities at Premier otherwise you would never have left.”

Hah ! Avoiding the Solent was a kind of psychological thing for me having never piloted a boat before – I wanted to avoid all the yachts, ribs, jetskis, ferries etc. hence I felt better about heading out to where they wouldn’t be until I got more used to handling her….
And yes it was difficult to leave Gosport – not weather-wise, but emotionally as it was idyllic !
I did check the weather again before departing and considered that the SW breeze (forecast to drop) wouldn’t be much of an issue – but it was a bit troublesome being against the tide as you rightly say. Still, luckily I like roller coaster rides 
The self-service fuel facility was indeed “interesting” but manageable - once you ignore what your brain is telling you to do, and dumb down to its level instead. Mind you, it owes me about sixty quid due its limited “pre-pay” system, so I wonder how long that’s gonna take to appear in my account…..

Sorry for waffling on and on but I’m still excited about it all !
Well done if you’re still reading this – and for those of you who aren’t, sod ya, I never liked you anyway !!!

Happy boating !!!
 
Well, as well as your now-proven passage planning and execution skills - you've got a great ability to bring your experiences to life with your writing. Again, thanks for posting, and I'm already looking forward to your next adventure. Chapeau! (as our friend mapism would say)
 
Thanks for the post I really enjoyed reading it. I've learned 10 times more from my mistakes than my lucky guesses, if it's any comfort we have a 12 tonne heavy displacement yacht with a sail to steady it but wind over tide is still something we dread, so much so that after this year's holiday we instituted a new rule that if it's going to be wind over tide then we don't go, same as the rule not to leave port if a F6 is forecast or if we've run out of bacon.
 
Colvic Watson said:
Thanks for the post I really enjoyed reading it. I've learned 10 times more from my mistakes than my lucky guesses, if it's any comfort we have a 12 tonne heavy displacement yacht with a sail to steady it but wind over tide is still something we dread, so much so that after this year's holiday we instituted a new rule that if it's going to be wind over tide then we don't go, same as the rule not to leave port if a F6 is forecast or if we've run out of bacon.
Click to expand...

Cheers !
I'll join you in the wind over tide decision making process in future, that's for sure. And F5 is my cut-off point for my little boat to be honest.
As for a bacon shortage, that indeed would be an insurmountable disaster - I feel the same about mars bars.
 
BobWad said:
Thanks for all the responses and feedback, much appreciated !!

A few comments....

"As soon as you said you went South of the IoW to avoid traffic alarm bells started to ring...
To be honest you're lucky you made it without a major incident."

That's not logical - which is surprising given your user name Dr. Spock !!
I covered every detail of the southabout passage/route in advance, utilising every weather, tide, wind information source available to man.
I read every relevant part of this article also http://www.yachtingmonthly.com/specials/pilot-the-isle-of-wight-3158.
I discussed it with the boat broker (based in Poole with over 30 years of local knowledge) and he commented that the Solent would be very busy with bank holiday craft, and did not dissuade me from my planned route.
I suppose to an extent we're all lucky that we avoid major incidents when we go out in a boat, but we're also lucky in that respect when we tootle up a motorway in a car, but we still do it....
Click to expand...

It's perfectly logical - you don't take unnecessary risks going south of the Island where there's no safe haven in close proximity in a small boat you're unfamiliar with. It's the reason your wife got ill and got off of it isn't it?
 
DrSpock said:
It's perfectly logical - you don't take unnecessary risks going south of the Island where there's no safe haven in close proximity in a small boat you're unfamiliar with. It's the reason your wife got ill and got off of it isn't it?
Click to expand...

Not here for an argument Doctor. I would never argue with a half Vulcan - or a paediatrician (Leonard Nimoy played Mister Spock, not Doctor Spock !) :-)

Just saying that having carefully studied every piece of information available to me about the capabilities of the boat, the conditions, the route - and local knowledge, I established to my satisfaction that there was little if any risk involved - well, no more risk than taking a boat out on the sea anywhere I guess, which will always have an element of risk don't you think ?
With hindsight, yes, I would have taken the northabout route for the comfort of swmbo, but I saw no need to do so based on all the information I obtained - and it certainly appeared less complicated than negotiating around the shingles bank and the needles channel (and yes, I did consider the North Channel, but every man and his dog seemed to be heading that way), after all there's more water and less traffic down there !!
Lessons learned for sure ! Live long and prosper !!
 
BobWad said:
Not here for an argument Doctor. I would never argue with a half Vulcan - or a paediatrician (Leonard Nimoy played Mister Spock, not Doctor Spock !) :-)

Just saying that having carefully studied every piece of information available to me about the capabilities of the boat, the conditions, the route - and local knowledge, I established to my satisfaction that there was little if any risk involved - well, no more risk than taking a boat out on the sea anywhere I guess, which will always have an element of risk don't you think ?
With hindsight, yes, I would have taken the northabout route for the comfort of swmbo, but I saw no need to do so based on all the information I obtained - and it certainly appeared less complicated than negotiating around the shingles bank and the needles channel (and yes, I did consider the North Channel, but every man and his dog seemed to be heading that way), after all there's more water and less traffic down there !!
Lessons learned for sure ! Live long and prosper !!
Click to expand...

Don't take the criticism to heart, there's a few on here far braver and wiser than they are in real life ;)
 
Bobwad- Pleased you mastered the test of the Prepay system of Premier refuelling at Gosport - on Monday one poor owner was very confused as he tried to fill his plastic cans and he was not helped by a shouting tannoy from the marina office -to be honest some clear written instructions might have helped him. By the way if you need help apparently if you remove the nozzle before trying to pledge your bank account it sets off an alarm which does then lead to attention from the office and you can then call on 80 to express your feelings if no one turns up ( completely unlike other self serve fuelling pontoons where nozzle removal first seems to have no impact on process ) - -its just a shame that Premier don't consider that a bank holiday might attract customers on such trips as yourself.
 
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