Position:  50:45.52N 01:32.12W

Well, we escaped from the Hamble after a rain-lashed couple of days there.  You know it is bad when the highlight of the day is a trip to Tescos!  The best word to describe the weather was offensive.

On Thurs 10^th July, we decided to just go for it, and set off for Lymington.  After having some fun at other boats’ expense when watching them come into berth in Swanwick with a F6 behind them, we provided some entertainment on our way out whilst trying to do a 3-point turn.  Reversing is a bit of a lottery in Nutmeg – you never know if or when she will turn, and even then she’ll normally turn the opposite way to that which you wanted.  However with only our pride dented and a 30-point turn completed successfully, we set off and beat into a solid SW F5-6.  It was a wet and grit-your-teeth sail, made slightly more exciting by the need to make it there before the shops shut.

I had decided that I had had enough of faffing round trying in vain to fix the old radar.  I hate the throwaway culture, but I recognized eventually that I was fighting a losing battle with the 15-yr-old radar and that even if I managed to work out what was wrong, the next time it had a hissy fit there were no marine electronics engineers who appeared willing to touch something quite so prehistoric.  Bunch of box-shifters.  So we decided to buy a new radar in Lymington and rang ahead to ensure it was there.

We steamed into the Yacht Haven and moored up to the fuel pontoon, causing a level of chaos amongst the raft of rib and motorboats all milling about trying to work out how to park.  I ran off and returned 15 minutes later with a large box containing said radar, and we motored out and rafted up at the Town Quay.  This is a great place to moor, as you always meet some interesting folk who are on their way somewhere exotic.  The girls love Lymington as there is (1) a park with a playground (2) an ice cream shop (3) a fish and chip shop all within 200 yards.

The following day, in typical Ollie style, my mission was to take out the old, and fit the new radar.  Having got a quote to install of 2 mandays from the place I bought the radar, I decided that doing it in a day on my own would be a nice challenge.  It was indeed a challenge..  I must have climbed the mizzen mast 30 times, including a free-climb to the very top to re-thread the halyard that I managed to lose – schoolboy.  Net result at the end of the day – 1 radar antenna installed but not connected; one control unit installed and ready to go; 1 screwdriver in the Town Quay mud; 100 bemused grockles all eating their fish and chips on the quayside and watching my strange antics.  So I didn’t quite meet my mission but an hours work the next day and all was done.  The new radar is great and tiny compared to the old one.  I had to saw off half the existing bracket (up the mast) to mitigate against an inferiority complex.

In the meantime, Sarah and the girls had spent the day at the park and the shops and at Jenny Vines’ house with Jenny and the lovely Ollie & Annabel.  At 1800, Ben Vines rang me and, it being Friday night and us both needing refreshment after a hard day, he picked me up for a quick pint at Chequers.  We then returned Chez Vines for a superb roast chicken dinner before returning to Nutmeg in a taxi.  What wonderful friends the Vines are – they fed us, they did our washing, they took us shopping in their car – such genuine hospitality and helpfulness.  They even lent Sarah a set of salopettes as hers have mysteriously gone missing - first the pushchair and now these! (we hope these got packed into storage by mistake - what a pain, but how kind of Jenny & Ben)

With the hint of hangovers on Saturday morning, we decided to finish off a few more jobs, but as the forecast was better (NW 3-4) made the decision to do a night passage that night, and head for St Peter Port, Guernsey. 

Jemima not going to bed

We untied at 1840 Saturday evening and headed out of the Western Solent towards the Needles.  It was a beautiful evening with sunshine and some black clouds over the land.  The wind was fresher than we’d hoped, with 18-20kts from the NW.  We left on the start of the ebb and the Needles Channel was quite lumpy – some green water and a lot of spray over the bow.  I reassured Sarah that the seas would improved once we’d turn South past Needles Fairway buoy (I think I have said this before to her) and lo and behold they didn’t.  There was a nasty cross-swell from the SW and the NW leading to horrible seas which tossed Nutmeg around like a cork.

Crashing out past the Needles – goodbye England!

I think if we had had an option to turn back, we would have, but with the tide ebbing and the wind in the NW the best option was to keep going.  Sarah didn’t feel great so tried to get some rest below while I got set up for the night.  This was the first night passage we had done on Nutmeg and as a crew together so it was a real learning curve for us.

Our last sight of Blighty!

Despite the motion, our speed was good and after my anxiety had eased, I really enjoyed it.  There is nothing better than being out at sea at night, with the roar of the water rushing past, and the amazing stars, satellites, comets and other extra-terrestrial paraphernalia glittering above you, and the amazing sight of phosphorescence in our wake.  I set my watch on a 10-minute repeat alarm and cat-napped in between checking our course, the radar (brilliant and I am so glad I sorted this out properly), AIS on the laptop, taking compass bearings on the various ships etc etc.  There is a lot to do on a Channel crossing and this one was no different, with the West-bound shipping lane particularly busy.  AIS and radar are fantastic tools but there is also no substitute for the old hand bearing compass and a pair of binocs.  Once or twice I also shone our searchlight onto the jib to ensure a particular ship had seen us. (Any Accenture colleagues reading - this AIS is emphatically NOT Accenture Insurance System - would you trust that to help you cross a shipping lane in the dark? It's an Automatic Identification System that tells you where large ships are)

It was only dark for about 6 hours and we picked up the loom of the powerful lighthouses of Cap de la Hague and Casquets before we had lost sight of Portland and St Catherines lighthouse, which was comforting.  At 0700 we passed through Alderney Race and I briefly considered stopping in Alderney – it looked so close – before we continued on towards Guernsey.  Sarah and the girls got up and we had breakfast in the sunshine.  The wind dropped and we motored into the Little Russel channel and into St Peter Port at 1100, having done 90 miles in 16 hours.  A successful trip but a little rough, and we will need to sort out a better watch pattern for our longer passages.

Hoisting the Guernsey flag (Sussex YC burgee below)