Solar Powered !

So we are now solar powered ! The regulator and junction box are installed. We laid out just one panel (they are supposed to be 32W) and straight away got a 2.2 Amp charge. The fridge draws only 1.7 Amps so we are already in positive territory. We have four panels overall and as they are all portable/stow able we will play around with the best places to site the on our upcoming holiday.

Tamsyn also took a quick jaunt up the mast to measure our luff length to get a new mainsail cut as the last one didn't fit !

Ian, Belinda, Eammon, and Antonia trip to Lymington

So quite a full ship set off on Saturday. Ian, Belinda, Eamonn and Antonia were all on board. The first *massive* disappointment came when we hoisted the mainsail. Or rather failed to. It doesn't fit ! We thought it was a bit big in the stackpack but I couldn't believe that when I got the sail all the way to the top that we still had 2/3 feet of sail left ! Not very good at all. Discussion with supplier ongoing...

With big head winds and a duff main we motored against some pretty fierce head winds up Southampton water - but once we turned the corner at Calshot we flew to Newtown Creek for lunch. Multiple slices of home baked cake kept the spirits up in lumpy conditions. Much tea was drunk. A short sail back across the Solent and an excellent (if I do say so myself) bit of parking and we were set for the night. So many crew really helps picking up fore and aft buoys.

The rain came down over night to wash of the salt of but dried up in the morning and with the winds switching back to the SW we sailed all the way home.

A new mainsail

So at great expense we have brought a new mainsail. The old one was 20 years old and the new one has 3/4 length battens - so we will see if we acutally get any performance difference. At least it will look smart ! The fitting went fairly smoothly until we found one of the slides was the wrong size and had to file it down. The new sail also exposed how bad the sail cover is. I will put new one of those on the long list of things to do/but/get mended !

Bembridge Beach...

So we took off early and came back late for an extended Bank Holiday weekend.

First stop was Priory Bay - a bit bumpier than we expected but it was a good chance to beach the boat and scrub off the anti-foul. One of the few disadvantages of a Catamaran is the amount of hull to scrub!

Then on to Bembridge beach where we didn't realise but a "Catamaran Cruising Association" meeting was taken place. We got talking and ended up going to Brading Haven Yacht Club with them for the evening. 

We were very nearly "parked" upon by not club cat driving up the beach, missing us by a few inches and then trying to break our Anchor chain with their prop. Perhaps unsurprisingly she was for sale...

Then on Monday back to the Folly to for a quite anchor up. We tried out our new Anchor Ball/Light arrangement.

When we finally got back to our pontoon we spied some ducks fast asleep on someone else's sugar scoop.

Weekend trip to East Head in Chichester with the Boys

Eamonn, Carl and Andrew crewed for the weekend. We sailed all the way up Southampton water on Saturday morning before the wind died a bit. But after many tangles we got the cruising chute up and held it all the way to Chichester entrance. We anchored at East Head and after quelling a mutiny due to us not going ashore to the pub we settled in for a few beers. An early start and light winds saw us motoring to start home on Sunday but the breeze soon filled in and we sailed to past the Hamble before the wind died again.

A cracking weekend by all. Fantastically peaceful at East Head on Saturday night.

Quick trip to Lymington last weekend

First time mooring the cat on fore and aft buoys. Not to difficult really with the solid foredeck but appreciated being on the outside. The 2009 "Pippin's lawn" was unveiled and tested and Pippin started digging on some dirty puddles...

Parked a bit close methinks

So we are out for our first trip of the Season - a quiet anchor opposite Island Harbour on the Isle of Wight.

Next minute an eighty foot barge arrives - a pretty boat I will grant you but parked a little close I thought. The plonker, sorry skipper thought this was fine. 

We were overjoyed when he told us he had a "Hen Do" onboard and had to go below to sort out his generator to power the hair dryers.

If you want to charter her for your next Hen do you can find out more at here http://www.4charter.co.uk/barges/alice.php but perhaps you can persuade him not to anchor quite so close next time ;-)