Portsmouth to Yarmouth Isle of Wight 4th June 2017

We needed to fill with fuel before leaving Gosport, even though it was self service it was fairly painless. I took a few views as we were leaving Portsmouth. The problem with two handed sailing is when you would like to take photos, you are usually to busy to do it.

View of Spinnaker Tower - I still haven't been up.

It's always busy round Portsmouth. The hovercraft whizzes back and forth from the

Isle of Wight. There are also loads of ferries, the Wight Link and Britany Ferries

The journey to the Isle of Wight was going to be a short one but it was very windy and the wind was on the nose. Unusually for me I felt quite queasy so was not a lot of use. John offered to do the ropes and fenders as we got to Yarmouth but he'd steered all the way so I didn't think that was fair. Although we motor sailed we still had to do a fair bit of tacking.

Osborne House from a distance.

A closer view - I will be visiting via the land.

We knew it would be busy at Yarmouth as it was the Old Gaffers weekend, the harbour was fully booked over the weekend. The harbour staff were very efficient, we had pre-booked a finger pontoon online, they sent a boat out to great us and direct us to our berth. The harbour was jam packed but as we arrived just after 12 it soon emptied as you need to leave your berth by 12 noon on departure day. It was really colourful to motor into as all the Old Gaffers were there all dressed overall.

True to form we did record this on camera straight away as be were busy mooring up but managed to get some photos later. It was also the Yarmouth Festival so it was jammed packed. As soon as we were moored we went for an explore, it was super with loads of different bands, food stalls, craft stalls, Morris and Clog Dancers etc etc.  The food stalls were excellent and so many different nationalities - Spanish, French, German, English, Greek, Turkish and a great noodles bar. (My mal de mere had disappeared as soon as I stepped on terra firma) The noodles were brilliant and the portion so huge we didn't have tea that night.

We were well entertained by a marching concert band that had a wicked sense of humour.

View from the back of Rascal, the harbour had emptied considerably by the time we took this.

Rascal, the youngster, amongst some of the Old Gaffers.

The concert band getting ready, when they performed they even had the masks on. I don't think this will catch on as a new uniform for the Corpus Band!

Ditto for band uniform. I think I look better in our black and white.

We know we will be at Yarmouth for a while as the weather is about to become awful. There are a couple lows coming in and also the tides won't be right for us so the combination of the two means we will stay put for a week. However it's not a bad place to be stuck in or have an extended stay. We intend to make the most of the week and have bought a weeks bus ticket which cost £24 each, having asked the cost of separate journeys I know it is worth it. In three days I know we have used at least £18 worth of journeys - it's actually more but I didn't know the coast of todays trip.  There are also loads of walks round about. So my next blog will be our week on the Isle of Wight.

Sailing Information

From Portsmouth 19.1 miles, 3hours 50 minute - fully moored up. I forgot to look at my watch earlier.

Prices vary depending on what you book - we went for a finger berth. This was £35, if you stay on a Friday or Saturday night add £10.  Electricity is extra (£4) though showers are included, apparently they didn't used to be.

The Harbour office is new, so loads of toilets and showers with lashing of hotwater.

There is a lounge area where there is a news channel on TV, you can recharge phones, ipads, computers etc. I have spied the laundry but haven't found the cost yet as it takes tokens. (£6.40 for a wash and dry but you  will need extra drier tokens to dry you wash -these are £2.40)

There is a supermarket in the village but it is expensive, we went to Morrisons in Newport.