Firstly a thank you to Fairview who allocated Vis a Vis (Oceanis 37): I think we were originally assigned to D’Artagnan; so no swash- buckling weekend for us…. but plenty of pontoon bashing (and more) was had by all! Peter Hurley, our skipper for the weekend, explained and made every manoeuvre look so easy.

It all started on Friday night when Peter demonstrated the application of springs when leaving a tight squeeze situation such as the finger pontoons at Hamble Marina with tide and wind never failing to make their presence felt. Night vision goggles were not on the boat’s inventory but we managed nevertheless. After a broad reach sail across the Solent to West Cowes we tucked into a delicious lasagna (American recipe) courtesy of Harry Jemmeson, washed down with a red wine. But West Cowes was far from still as a mill pond, much to Peter T’s disgust. Red Jet’s turbines seem to be heard all night long L too. Come morning, we soon got down to business after breakfast but only after Harry had found his socks and glasses!

After a masterly demonstration by Peter H we all had our turn at mooring under power, under sail, ferry gliding, mooring short-handed, once again using a spring technique and so on. After a warm soup and bread rolls we left the Medina. Dodging the obligatory car and container freight ships we were on a beat to Gosport. That’s when the NE’ly made its presence felt; the soup’s warmth was there no more although fairly lively discussions took place about the merits of staying in the EU or simply Brexit! Once in Portsmouth Harbour we got busy again with picking a buoy under sail. Whilst many of us needed two, (or three goes Peter T???), both Christian and Harry simply kissed the buoys: well done guys but just stick to the bouys eh ! Then off to Gosport marina but not before I had unwittingly upset a few anglers fishing off the Marina wall by pinching their lines perhaps in an attempt to catching some sea bass for dinner! My somewhat fast approach to the finger pontoon was put right by skilled crew on the warps; no damage done, so we were still left with cash to spare for dinner at the Lightship Restaurant. Christian and Krzysztof soon got into technical discussions about fluid dynamics and computer simulation. Whilst I had enjoyed a lovely Beef Wellington and good company I would have not minded being teleported to my sleeping bag for a goodnight sleep.

Come breakfast, prepared by the skipper, the scene was set for the morning drills. On the menu were, mooring stern-to (slime lines not included, much to my relief), manoeuvring a yacht by turning on a 5p coin (no bow thrusters), then out of the harbour to save some lives; or so it seemed. My insurance premiums must have rocketed having sailed over 2 mob’s and causing serious ‘bucket-head’ injuries to a third one. To my defence Krzysztof was more concerned about eating bananas and whose mobile phone was ringing or receiving messages whilst my frustrations built up. Never mind computer simulations Krzys; I think skipper should have chucked you overboard to have a run for real.

An attempt at anchoring under sail was aborted when somehow one of the sail cover straps managed to double up and snag the stern end block of the main sheet. We anchored under power whilst Peter T managed to free the main sheet from the snag. Peter then took the helm and sailed towards the anchor after some initial difficulties and we were soon underway on a close reach towards Southampton Water….or so we thought. About ½ mile East of Bramble Bank I recalled running into unexpected shallow waters last season. Skipper felt comfortable to proceed with caution even though the depth was registering at a big fat 0! Christian and I felt a subtle judder and shortly afterwards we found ourselves crest hopping over the uncharted shallows I recalled from last season. Keeping the boat healed we bobbed along at 0.8 knots finally off the shallows and now with Harry at the helm we made our way after having left an interrupted groove on the sea bed. I am sure most of us felt that we had blown off the cobwebs and looking forward to the next sailing weekend. Finally a thank you to Peter H for being gently inspiring and Peter T for getting the season going with a great weekend. For some of us, me included, it’s Brighton, here we come! Henri