Solent Summer Cruise 2025 part 2
Second part of the delivery – Dover to Gosport – and Solent Cruising with Mike, Lorella, Tony E and Chris.
The continued delivery trip
After the horrible weather caused the first delivery attempt to be abandoned Tony E Mike and Chris arrived in Dover on the Saturday evening to continue onwards. The weather was quite bizarre when we arrived. It was stinking hot as you arrived by road above Dover but as you drove down it became foggy and the temperature dropped by 10 degrees!
The good news was that at least Chris was fit and healthy, many thanks to Tony and Chris for doing all the physical stuff for the trip as I couldn’t. Because of the dubious health of the crew this part of the trip was planned to be gentle sailing.
The forecast for Sunday was for almost no wind! But we decided to head on for Brighton.
Sunday 29
We set the alarms for a “leisurely” 4.00am and went to bed. Worryingly we could hear fog horns being used during the night and sure enough in the morning vis was poor but bearable. We were outside Dover by 5:30 (against tide). We were able to raise the sails in a small amount of wind and started towards Dungeness. We then prove that you should always check the water levels before departure as we ran out straight away! Luckily there was lots of bottled water aboard. After a while the wind completely failed us and we went under motor. An hour or two under motor and the overheat alarm went off! We opened-up the motor and took a look but couldn’t see any issues so we left it to cool down and tried again at lower revs, off went the alarm again. So we waited for it to cool again and then had another look at the levels, we thought the level looked right but decided that as the filler is part of the heat exchanger we would fill it almost all the way up. (the heat exchanger hasn’t been cleaned as part of the winter service so maybe it is less efficient than it should be?). So off we went again with the hope of reaching Brighton or even Shoreham. Joy of joys this time we didn’t overheat! Unfortunately with all the delays we were very tight on having enough water at Brighton and Shoreham being a bit further would also be tight for the lock. So, in sight of Beachy head, we decided to go into Royal Sovereign at Eastbourne. We arrived at about 5pm in time to go straight into the lock and onto a nice berth for the night. The day had been nice if even slightly cool with almost no sun but as soon we arrived at the lock the Sun came out and we started to fry. We filled up with water and after a pint and some fish and chips we went to bed early for another 4 am wake up (yuk).
Monday 30
We checked the coolant levels and they had gone down again. Obviously we were running hot and forcing coolant out of the overflow into the engine catch tray (yes it was green). So we filled right up and started for Gosport at 5am. We even got an hour or two of sailing before the wind vanished again and from there we had an uneventful trip to Gosport mainly under motor although with occasional sails. Amazingly we even got the tides right and got to the inner route through the Owers as it changed in our favour. We got into Haslars at about 4:30. We decided that we should service the heat exchanger and quickly ordered up some new O-rings so that we could do it. Then we manouvered the boat around so that the stern was pulled right into the finger and measured the cooling water flow at 1500 RPM into the bucket. It wasn’t as high as the book says (dirty heat exchanger?) but it was coming out stone cold so it was adequate. Tony, who was staying in the Haslar hotel with his wife then left us for the night.
Tuesday 1
Having topped up the coolant we went for a lovely and uneventful sail towards Cowes as a day trip. One reef in and flying along. Of course, as ever in the Solent, we sailed mainly against the tide but that is the joy of day trips in the area.
Wednesday 2
Having topped up the engine coolant we also put a plastic bottle on the end of the coolant pipe (to prove it was blowing coolant out). We went for a lovely and uneventful sail towards the Nab tower and round the outside of the island a little as a day trip. On our return we found that although we hadn’t really used the engine it had still drunk lots of coolant. The plastic bottle only had a minimal amount of fresh water in it from when we opened the cap! There followed an hour or so of bailing out the old coolant from the catch tray and then hunting for a drip with the engine hot, nothing. Then Chris thought he saw a drip and tried moving one of the tubes, as he squeezed it squirted hot water out! Obviously the hose had perished. Now all that was needed was some ½” coolant hose.
We spent ages looking on line for ½” coolant hose; there was a local Halfords but they wanted a ridiculous £18 for it and when we tried to check stock I got an Indian contact centre who didn’t even know they stocked it. Eventually the only place that was local(ish) and had it in stock was Eurocarparts in Fareham.
Thursday 3
So now at last we could repair the engine. We managed to remove the ½” coolant tube which had caused so much trouble. What we found was that the hose was in great condition but had rubbed on the fiberglass edge of the engine mounts and created a hole. Tony and Chris jumped in the car and went to Fareham to get the tube from Euro-car-parts. Unfortunately, despite the fact it was marked as in stock, it wasn’t so they started looking for other car spares or boat spares places. I walked to the local chandlery and found that they had a good stock of hoses including ½ “ coolant hose. So Chris and Tony came back and we wandered around to the chandlery to get the correct length of hose. It was only at this point that we decided to read what was written on the hose: 5/8”! Needless to say, the Chandlery had run out of 5/8 hose. The only option was to try Halfords. Unbelievably they had one length of hose left which was quickly purchased. Re-installation was remarkably quick and easy and the water system didn’t even need burping when we filled it.
Sadly, the next day delivery gaskets still hadn’t arrived and so we couldn’t clean the heat exchanger while the coolant was drained.
Amazingly we still had enough time to go out for a nice sail.
When we got back to Portsmouth we went into Gosport marina and fueled up. I had the brilliant idea that we could dip it as we fueled and work out how much had been used from Dover to Portsmouth and how much was owed by the three of us. DON’T DO IT. We filled up 10 litres at a time and thus deciphered the dipstick markings were gallons; suddenly there was a scream from Chris (the dipper) as the fuel started to come out of the top! I guess the best way to fill her is to just listen and stop when you hear it coming up the pipe.
Friday 4
Tony left for home. Chris and I decided to remain in Gosport for two more nights because we’d then be in Gosport for Saturday when the weather looked truly awful. So we just went out for a simple sail out to the Nab Tower. It would have been a perfect sail except we met one of the car transporter ships. Close up those floating bricks are quite ugly enough to put you off your food.
Saturday 5
Lorella (my wife) joined us in the morning and we went across the water to Portsmouth to visit the museums. After a PHD in how to buy the tickets we eventually got them, even though we still didn’t manage best prices. We only managed Warrior and Mary Rose in one day and so we will have to return to do the rest and Victory. Surprisingly it didn’t rain much but it was definitely extremely blowy and a good decision not to sail. The Portsmouth museums are fantastic and thoroughly recommended.
Sunday 6
It was still pretty breezy and so we decided it was time to put the working jib on. Whilst sounding like a good idea the resulting huge sail bag filled with Genoa was a right pain to store.
We sailed one reef and working jib from Gosport to Lymington and had a great trip. We moored up on the outside of the town quay moorings and then before supper went for a lovely stroll to see the “needle” which you can just see sticking out of the trees.
Monday 7
We had a super, but uneventful, sail to Poole from Lymington, going round Hurst castle with a great tide behind us and then racing across to Poole where unfortunately the channel was head to wind and so we motored most of the way in. We were devastated to find that the seafront ‘spoons has been sold off! However the one in town was very pleasant and Lorella and I even went back the next morning for brecky.
Tuesday 8
The forecast was for no wind until about 2pm so we decided on a relaxed timeline. We removed the working jib and went back to the main genoa (getting rid of the oversized sail bag!) which took a long while because the working jib was caught on something at the top but eventually we had it done and departed at about 12:30. We short-cutted across Poole bar as there was lots of water and found there was lots of wind after all which meant we’d arrive at Hurst with full tide against. We cheated and went super lazily under Genoa only, but still doing 5plus Knots. We arrived at Hurst as the tide changed and raced up to Yarmouth where we rafted up for the night. We wandered around and visited the whole of Yarmouth (not a very big wander!)
Wednesday 9
We decided to go to Hythe Marina Village as none of us had been. This started off very slowly with us drifting back towards Hurst castle because the main sail wouldn’t go up. It was our fault as the main halyard got twisted around a Spinnaker halyard (we had silenced the halyards too nicely in Yarmouth!). Eventually raised the sail we had a very long drift against the tide to Southampton water. Turning to go up river meant the wind was now a reach and we had a lovely sail up to Hythe marina not even having to tack all the way there.
Hythe Marina is lovely, BUT: The entrance is locked and if you arrive at low water you have to hang on to very long ropes hanging down from the top of the lock (because of the length they don’t hold you against fore and aft movement too well unless you pick ones further apart than boat length . You also have to fend off from the nasty barnacle coated side of the lock which has big corrugations that the fenders nearly disappear into! When we went in we couldn’t get far enough forward (because of another boat) to catch a rope at the bow and ended up with one 10 ft from the bow and one at the stern Chris and Lorella fending with feet and me with the stern line and playing the engine to keep us in place. We survived but I would say lock in and out within 3 hrs of tide if you want to remain sane and near the top of the tide to drive straight in.
Once in the marina it was lovely, incredibly quiet and well placed for Hythe.
We did some shopping and then had some friends from Southampton come round for drinks.
Thursday 10
We set off under motor in the morning as the tiny amount of wind was head-to. Upon leaving Southampton water we put sails up and slowly trickled towards Gosport. It was very pleasant but painfully slow and we were all getting overheated in the sunlight so eventually we put the motor on and went back to Gosport Marina for a final refuel. We dipped the tank and worked out how much to put in. I started to put it in and once more got a scream from Chris. This time I managed to stop just before any spilt. So we then just chugged back into Haslars and put the sail covers on so that she was ready to leave. Perfect judgement this was night number 7 and free! The good news is that Saor is very frugal on fuel running around £4 per hour (2.5 litres) at 2200rpm.
Friday 11
We tidied up and left Saor in her berth ready for Len and Tony J. We went to the Submarine museum. It was a good decision because there really wasn’t much breeze anyhow and, like the rest of the Portsmouth museums, it is an excellent museum.
How did Saor do?
We did a couple of running repairs during the fortnight in particular the hose! We did try to make the hoses so they wont rub but we will need to watch out for this and definitely need to carry spares! But overall Saor behaved very well, particularly considering that she was almost totally new to all of us and hadn’t been sailed in anger for a few years.