Virtusa Sailing Weekend
Friday 15th June :- We have chartered a yacht “Jasper” a Dufour 36’ from Hamble Point Yacht Charters. My Crew arrived, Lisa, Andrew, Shanaka, Priya, Fabian, Thetsue and Jamie.
Once everyone was ready we slip the mooring from Hamble Point and headed over to Cowes, “The Folly Inn”. Although there was wind, I decide that it is best to go over under engine as most of the crew had never been on a boat before. We planed to eat in the Folly but we were running out of time. Then just past the chain ferry in Cowes we spotted the dolphin, now we really weren’t going to make it for food. We turned around and everyone was very taken with him. Eventually we made it onto “The Follly” pontoon. Even if the ferryman thought we were not going to fit… Some of us headed into the pub, Lisa and Fabian decided to stay and Dolphin spot, he had followed us up the river. We had a drink in the Folly and ordered a Take Away, took it back to the boat, later everyone eventually crashed for the night.
Sunday: - We were all woken at 07:00 to the sound of really heavy rain, everyone thinking the same we all went back to sleep until the sun came out. Up again at 08:30 the boat on our inside wanted to head out at 09:30 so while breakfast was being cooked I took us off the mooring and hovered around the harbor. Jamie then took over and had a little fun playing with the boat handling. Once everyone had finished there breakfast and “Mummy” Lisa had cleared up we were ready to head out and see how everyone was going to get on today. The winds had died down and the point of sail over to Beaulieu River was much more comfortable for everyone. The sun was out and everyone was smiling. We arrived at Beaulieu River at high water and managed to sail into the mouth of the river. The skipper on the boat in front of us lost his hat over board and being nice we practiced a MOB for his hat, he seemed very pleased. We motored up the rest of the river to Buckler’s Hard, were dinner was prepared and we sat in the sun eating on deck with a glass of wine, very different from yesterday. Leaving Beaulieu River we were heading back into the Hamble for our final sail, with a little assistance with the engine against the tide. In Southampton water we managed our final sail of sorts down wind right into the mouth of the Hamble. Our weekend finishing with Jamie parking us perfectly in the berth. We had made it through the day and everyone was still smiling.
