Short weekend rally – At Anchor 15/17 August 2025
The Rally seemed to start early for us, we had a rib to pick up and several jobs to do, so we all meet early on Friday morning. With the jobs completed, Babino on the pontoon at Marchwood and a super container ship just arriving, we headed off for Bucklers Hard and the Beaulieu River. Wind was very light, so not a lot of sailing was done, mostly had the motor running. We had a little more wind as we entered the river, but that soon disappeared as we headed inland. Passed Beaulieu Marina, we found a vacant visitors buoy which we picked up. The paddle board was pumped and we had a very quiet evening, with a trip to the pub in the dingy.
Following morning, we were off around 08:30 to catch the tide to Chichester Harbour and an anchorage at East Head. Well, what a sail, with the wind directly in front of us, we beat our way down the Solent with 20-25 knots of wind and hitting 6/7 knots of boat speed. It was forecast to be sunny all day, but I can’t say we saw any. We entered Chichester harbour around 15:30 and then the fun began. Most of the other boats were already anchored, so we had to pick a spot between them.
I have actually forgotten how many times I let the anchor down and brought it back up, it was that many !! It just would not bite in. Eventually we managed to get the anchor to bit and we were off for a short trip in the dingy for our BBQ. The wind was still fairly strong and lighting it was rather difficult, but once lit, the sausages were cooked, with the wind picking up the sand, it was a case of sausages with sand, salad with sand, burgers with sand and it even managed to get into the beer !!
Sunday Morning the wind was still there, but not so strong. East head was now quite with a lot of boats gone and only our group left. We brought the anchor in, said a cheery goodbye to everyone and set off back to Marchwood. Well, another great sail back, with the wind at 15/20 knots behind us, we setup to goosewing our way back. I don’t know how we did it, but from the buoy outside Chichester harbour, we went straight through Dolphin point, passed the forts, as we rounded Gilkicker head the wind seemed to shift and we proceeded most of the way up Southampton water still on the same tack. We didn’t have to touch the sails all the way back. Safety back at Marchwood we put Babino back on her buoy and all headed home.
Another great rally with SMSC.
