Cowes wasn't at all what I expected. In order to avoid the high prices of the pontoons connected to the town (probably a mistake) we went a little further upriver to a pontoon not connected to land and instead had to row ashore to the 'public landing jetty' - something we do routinely, so really not a problem... but the jetty connected to the land in a pretty rough part of town, and there were no bins and no water and definitely no showers, making the pontoon, at £10.40 a night, seem a bit steep really.
The vast quantity of river traffic on the Medina made up for things though - there was always a lot to look at with boats of all sizes bobbing about. But after I finished the working week we didn't hesitate in making the decision to move on. Managed to get one free night which helped. The HM said he'd return in the morning to collect dues, but didn't show up, even though we didn't depart until 3pm to catch the east flowing tide.
Forecast for the trip to Chichester was fair, with slight seas, but not a lot of wind. There was even less wind than that, and we had to motor almost all the way. At about the halfway point, surrounded by very large vessels, I noticed smoke coming from the exhaust. Not good! Engine stopped, and drifting aimlessly, I checked the cooling water inlet strainer and found weed in it. I cleaned this out and we tried the engine again - still smoking. We reduced to 2000 rpm and puffed slowly the rest of the way.
That wasn't all that went wrong though. I noticed that the log (a device which tells you your speed through the water, using a small paddle wheel under the hull) was reading zero. I knew that the paddle wheel must be clogged, and that the way to unclog it is to actually remove the whole gizmo from the hull - which is precisely like pulling out the plug in a boat - clean it and then return it. I did this, expecting a gush and not the 2 foot high geyser we actually experienced. Anyway it worked fine and the log starting working again immediately. Some sponge/bucket work was required though.
Entering Chichester was complicated by the fact that our navigation guide put two beacons in one order, and Chichester harbour had decided to move them, so with some trepidation we crossed the shallow water of the Chichester Harbour entrance, and dropped anchor just inside. During the night the wind picked up in a direction not forecast so we swung and I think we may have touched the ground - I took a photo of another boat in the anchorage which was high and dry! No harm done though. In the morning I begun working through the cooling water system to see if I could find out what was making us smoke. I discovered the inlet pipe was blocked before the strainer and couldn't clear it with stiff wire or pipe cleaners. Then I had the idea of using the dinghy pump to pump air out of the inlet and hopefully clear it - it worked! I reckon there must have been a plug of weed in the inlet.
Then the madness of Chichester Harbour began...
Just before we left the anchorage to go up to Itchenor for supplies, another boat came an anchored right in front of us. They were about 3 meters forward of our bow. They decided they'd put out loads of fenders and their tender at the back. When I said I was leaving they said no problem, they'd be on hand to assist - but our chain was running directly under their boat! I had to ask them to move, they didn't want to; I had to be quite forceful in the end.
They did move though and we departed without hitch, but with stress levels a little elevated, which didn't help because what now faced us was a narrow channel we didn't know and hundreds of small sailing boats going in all directions, all with right of way. At one point we had to accelerate hard to get out of the way of an fast incoming armada of children in small sailing dinghies, and then a little later on we had a yacht sailing in from one side, and another overtaking us and coming in fast from the other. I panicked and held course when I guess I should have slowed right down and turned hard to starboard, but I was worried about keeping to the channel. Anyway it was OK but we came very very close to one of the boats and the occupants weren't at all pleased, shouting "don't you know your rules of the road". As we picked up a buoy off Itchenor we heard someone on the radio saying there'd been some complaints of "a 40 foot cruiser bulldozing through the mirror (small kids sailing dinghy) fleet"! We're not 40 feet (we're 30) and we didn't bulldoze though - but after reading the harbour guide about successful court cases against people who contravene regulations - it made me rather nervous. I think we'll make all future passages in Chichester Harbour during the week when there's as few other users on the water as possible. A mistake could be expensive!
Stats:
Motored: 20 hrs 30 mins
Sailed: 34 hrs 5 mins
Fees: £400.80
Anchored: 20 nights
Marina: 1 night
Other: 36 nights
Total: 57 nights
Logged: 240 nautical miles
Right well I'd best dash, sorry this was such a long one! Here's some photos...
Proud Lunar, after making a kill (no idea what, but note blood) and then swimming across a lake to get back (shorter than going round)
Rose feeding seabirds at Newtown River
Isabella in the Beaulieu River - Photo from inside pub at Buckler's Hard
Sailing down the Beaulieu River, then across to Cowes
Leaving Cowes 3 days later - motoring
Engine smoking while only at 2,000 rpm.
Motoring over Chichester Bar
Tranquil start to the night at anchor in Chichester Harbour
Less water than charted at Chichester Harbour anchorage - note the dried out yacht!
The solution to the engine smoking - pumping air out of the inlet pipe
Erm, I think you might be anchored a little close!
