Ok, so it’s not exactly Tinkerbell’s maiden voyage, and it’s not the first trip we’ve had in her. However, it was the first trip we had in her after her winter refit where we made her ours. This is the start of the adventures!
Alas, the weather wasn’t particularly kind to us! Although it was the Easter bank holiday, we only had Sunday and Monday to do the trip from Thornham to Universal as Tree was away on Friday and Saturday. Sunday wasn’t too bad, with nice and calm waters during our trip from Chichester harbour to Portsmouth. Unfortunately, the wind was also pretty calm. We did a little bit of sailing when we had left Chichester harbour, but we were going nowhere fast and the wind ended up dying on us altogether.
Motorsailing to Portsmouth
So we ended up motorsailing for a little while before giving up entirely and we put all the sails away and just steamed towards Portsmouth.
Sunday was a reasonably pleasant day and we spent most of the trip sat out on deck enjoying the fresh air and the views.
Our new ensign flying in the wind
It wasn’t warm by any stretch, but it was still a nice way to travel!
Here you can see Tree sat on the aft deck with the new ensign we very kindly received for Christmas flapping away behind her.
We ended up staying the night at Haslar marina. We’ve been there quite a few times and keep returning as the facilities are fantastic and it’s only a short walk to the ferry to Gunwharf Quays. Gunwharf Quays, for anyone that doesn’t know it, is a shopping/dining centre by the docks that has a very good selection of restaurants, including a Yo! Sushi that we have been to on many an occasion!
Tinkerbell surrounded by friendly boats
Here’s Tinkerbell with some friends at Haslar. We were one of the first boats to arrive as we were pretty early. Throughout the evening, a few more boats turned up. Quite a few training boats arrived, and one 40 foot charter boat that we subsequently found out was crewed by a husband and wife team. We discovered this fact the following morning when we witnessed a failed departure attempt that could have ended up in disaster. We were just about to leave when I checked to make sure the path was clear. That’s when I saw the 40 footer that was closer to the exit had been untied from the pontoon and had started drifting away towards the boats moored on the other side. Husband was on the pontoon yelling at the wife on the boat. She was clearly panicking and tried to throw a line to the husband, however he clearly didn’t know what to do and simply stood there shouting. Fortunately, an instructor from one of the training boats jumped down and helped out with one of the lines to stop the boat from drifting further. By now, wife had also managed to put the boat into gear and this was motoring back towards the pontoon, fortunately at a slow pace, as it went straight into the pontoon at near right angles! The husband and instructor then managed to get a couple of lines tied up and the boat was secure. This is when we took our chance and got out of there before any more trouble occurred! I’m glad to say our departure was rather less eventful and we got underway without a hitch.
Unfortunately, true to the forecast, the weather was horrible! Winds were blowing 30 knots gusting to over 40 onto our beam and unfortunately for the first half of our trip we were motoring against the tide. This meant we were only doing just over 3 knots for the first part of the trip and even though the sails were stowed we were heeling over quite a lot from the wind and even more so when the gusts kicked up! To add to this, the water was pretty choppy, which meant the boat was bouncing quite a lot AND it was raining! Fortunately, Tinkerbell has an interior helm so I was able to sit in the dry keeping an eye out through her big windows. The autopilot also behaved admirably and followed the course I had laid out just fine, which meant I could sit and keep a look out for other boats and whatever other items happen to be out on the water.
We ended up making surprisingly good time to the Hamble. Although we initially made poor speeds, once the tide had turned we were being pushed along at up to 7 knots. We arrived at Universal and scouted out our mooring. It took a while to find it and I initially thought there was a boat already there! It turned out to be moored on the pontoon next to us, it was just hard to see from out in the middle of the channel. After faffing around a lot and quickly mooring up to an outside pontoon to check where we would end up, we safely arrived at our home berth and tied up Tinkerbell. Believe me, this was hard going as the tide was making life tricky and we had a strong wind on the nose that kept blowing the bow away. What a relief that Tinkerbell has a pretty hefty bow thruster! Unfortunately, all the mooring had to be done from out on deck and on the pontoon and we got rained on quite a bit!
Tree the drowned rat!
We both ended up looking like drowned rats!
Luckily, the restaurant at Universal was open so we popped in for some rather nice lunch. Compared to the other customers who were rather well turned out, we must’ve looked like a right pair of scallies!
After lunch, we tidied up Tinkerbell as best we could and then went home! Here’s a picture of Tinkerbell sat in her new spot.
Tinkerbell's new home!
Take a look at the water, it’s very choppy considering this is a very protected bit of water!
Alas, our trip did have one unexpected result. We discovered just how leaky the windows really are! It’s a job I already had on my list, but I hadn’t realised just how bad the problem was! Ah well, I guess I’ll have to move that item further up the list.
