Tuesday 16th June dawned gloriously sunny with a nice south-westerly F4-5 breeze, perfect for a brisk short sail to Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, where the fleet assembled. I had anchored in Newtown Creek on Monday night, having sailed from Eastbourne on Sunday. I was joined there by another of the cruise yachts, ‘Little Morten’, so invited Peter Martin and his crew Eric to join me for drinks that evening; one of the pleasures of cruising. 
Progress of participants sailing to Yarmouth was posted on the WhatsApp group which Past Commodore John Absalom, cruise organiser, had set up for the event. All yachts were assembled by late afternoon, including John’s ‘First Rule’, Past Commodore Colin Simpson’s ‘Snow Leopard’ and Ian Merriman’s ‘Toscana’, in addition to ‘Little Morten’ and my ‘Hightime’. The Club’s current Commodore Caroline Roddis and her partner Al were part of the crew on Snow Leopard.
We were joined for supper that evening at the Blue Crab fish and chip restaurant by Past Commodore Peter Bingham and his wife Rosemary. They had planned to join the cruise but sadly had to abort, though it was still good to catch up with them that evening.
We woke on Wednesday morning to thick fog. By the late morning when the first boats departed there was 10-14 knots of breeze and the last patches of fog soon cleared eastwards as the wind built to a F4 gusting F5. The 3 nm passage across the Solent to Lymington was not exactly challenging and the fleet soon reassembled on the Dan Bran pontoon. That evening we all enjoyed an excellent meal at The Haven restaurant.
Thursday’s passage to the Hamble river started as more of a drift with the tide, as 1-4kts from the south-west is not much use when going north-east! The wind did back and fill in eventually, giving us an ESE F4 for the final hour up to the river mouth. The fleet, minus Toscana who h
ad prior commitments elsewhere, were booked into the Royal Southern YC’s Haven where we were joined for dinner by local resident John Sparshatt-Worley. Another very enjoyable evening ensued, which then continued aboard Little Morten where Peter very generously opened a delicious ancient bottle of port and a fine bourbon.
By Friday morning the wind had reverted to WSW-SW 10-15 kts, giving us a fair breeze for the final passage to Itchenor in Chichester Harbour. Despite making 7.0-7.5kts against the foul tide I was gradually overhauled by First Rule flying their gennaker, who were accused by Commodore Caroline of racing without waiting for Snow Leopard! After crossing the Chichester bar I sailed to East Head and anchored there to await slack water to proceed to Itchenor, which meant that First Rule were helpfully able to confirm berthing arrangements in advance (always welcome when sailing single-handed).
That evening we were joined by Past Commodore William Avery and his brother on William’s ’Baldur’, hot from the Club’s visit to HMS Daring. The evening’s pontoon party was moved to Snow Leopard owing to the strength of the wind following which we all enjoyed another convivial meal at The Ship Inn.
All in all a very enjoyable cruise, ably organised by John Absalom, making new friends and getting to know other members of the Club much better. Definitely to be repeated!