Thursday 16 May to Saturday 18 May 2013
Skipper: Vic Farhi
First Mate: Clare Harrison
Crew: Jon Boon
No.1

We made it out of Ipswich: at one point we thought we were destined to be in the marina for the rest of the summer. On Wednesday evening (15 May) our friend, Jon, came down from Loughton to try again for a possible journey. He had been down twice and we had decided against going due to the high winds and potential confused North Sea and Thames Estuary. The winds were again strong in the marina but by Thursday morning, as predicted on the various weather forecasts, we felt we had our three day weather window to go to the Solent. We thought the winds would be strong again on Sunday so it would be important to make it to Gosport by Saturday evening. As it happened the day on Sunday was very nice and warm in Portsmouth but overcast.

We set off on Thursday morning by waking at 04.00 and calling the lock keeper to let us out into the River Orwell. The Lock Keeper waved us on our way, thank you. Thank you also to everyone in Ipswich who had wished us well for our journey and waved us off in the early hours, especially Leslie and Shelly. On our trial exit the previous Sunday we were even accompanied by a porpoise down the river for a short while.

We motor sailed all the way to Ramsgate but averaged 6.7 knots using a good tide and about F4 over our stern. When we got to Ramsgate our friends who had been tracking us on Ship Finder knew that we had arrived. They also saw us on the inner harbour's webcam and were able to download a photograph of us moving into the marina. (See attached).

Vic has a new personal favourite phrase "TGFBT". This means "Thank God for Bow Thrusters". We were so glad that we had waited for the new solenoids to be fitted before leaving. The wind was quite strong in the marina and we were directed to any berth on one of the pontoons. We chose to put our fenders and lines out for a port to berth. However after a couple of attempts and being blown down the runway and missing all the spaces we changed our strategy for a starboard to berth and glided in smoothly. We were comforted however by a Dutch sailing school yacht coming in behind us as they had the same trouble. They had 6 people on board and 2 on the pontoon taking their lines to get in. So good day had by Njord and her crew included the berthing! As a warning to all going to Ramsgate the pontoons may be new but they are very short and bouncy and look as if they have been cut in two for the BOGOF approach to life.

We went to a very nice restaurant that Jules Wilton and Milo (her adorable spaniel whom we will miss from Ipswich, photo attached) recommended called La Magnolia which is just up above the arcades. It is a nice family Italian restaurant. Milo adopted us and came on board for unaccompanied visits without his Mum for a treat or two.

On Friday we got up again at 04.00 and set off at 05.00. This was two hours earlier than the perfect tide predictions but we wanted to get to Brighton at least 90 minutes before low water otherwise we would have to have waited or slowed down until 90 minutes after low water. When we called the Premier Marina up and they asked for my length I said "this is not important I draw 2 meters". They then offered the information that they are behind on their dredging programme and they told us about the 90 minutes safety margin. We were not going to repeat getting stuck in the entrance again. On the way to Ipswich last year they told us we could enter even though it was low water and midnight. We touched the bottom and ground to a rude halt on our first outing with Njord. So on that occasion we anchored off Brighton Pier for 4 hours and set off at dawn.

So we came out of Ramsgate to very disturbed seas. We had high waves and wind over tide. The waves were very short so we had a rolling motion to content with. But after we turned due south we had a lovely calm sail. It was mighty cold. There were lots of lobster pots to avoid.

Having then berthed successfully in Brighton Marina we were very pleased. To Jon Boon's delight we were moored next to the Nancy Blackett which is Arthur Ramsome's famous boat. His stories have inspired many sailors over the years. She is lovely and her owners were sailing her to a rally on the South Coast. They set off before us the next day for Southampton.

We got up more leisurely the next day at 08.00 having said good bye to Jon and set off for our journey to Portsmouth. Jon was off to the Normandy beaches with his mates. It was a slower journey, again by motor sailing, but we arrived at around 19.00 to be welcomed in. We were invited to the Haslar Berth Holders buffet party and disco dancing by Polar Bear II. She is a Nauticat and left Ipswich on the same journey to Portsmouth but managed to set off during the best weather of 2013 so far which was about 10 days before us. At the party we sneaked away before we had to dance and fell asleep for 8 good hours but we had a good time and were happy that Leg 1 of our journey was safely completed.

Haslar Marina is great. With our last yacht, Mandarin we were based in Premier Marina.

We will now be here for two weeks until we depart early June 2013 towards Lymington, Portland, Dartmouth, Plymouth and Falmouth for the wedding of Vic's son Nicholas to Tiffany.

Vic, Clare & Njord