We had planned to spend a night or two mooring at Newton Creek, however we would have needed to use the dingy and outboard and John had been advised to avoid weights so we thought best not.
The revised plan was to go to Southampton. Town Quay is an ABP Marina therefore a sister marina to Ipswich, which means 7 nights free mooring. The tides might we could go early in the morning or later in the afternoon. We elected to go earlier but as it was only a short hop we didn't have to set the alarm too early - 05.30. For some reason we both woke up before five and as we were wide awake thought we might as well get up and going.
The first job was to refuel - at this excellent marina this can be done at anytime. We had to give the night watchman a call ten minutes before we wanted fuel. We were fully fuelled up and on our way by 05.53. The morning was incredibly still and I couldn't resist taking these photos of the reflections of the boats in the marina.
The channel out of Lymington is very well marked and I love the name of some of the markers.
There was no wind but the tide was with us and we were shooting down the Solent at 7 1/2 knots. It was a cold morning and our jackets soon went on.
Before long we turned up for Southampton, it was a bit like going up the Thames as it is industrial in parts.
The Red Funnel Ferries and Fast Cats are definitely a feature and we were passed by three of each. Apart from that there was not a great deal of traffic until we nearly reached our destination when a large ship was backing out of it's berth. I had to mill about a bit till it had passed in front of us and I could safey pass behind. As we approached Town Quay I passed the wheel to John as it was a bit awkward going in. Things was made worse as we were about to go up our pontoon and another boat was leaving, so john had to do some quick reversing as there wasn't a lot of manovering space. At to the mix, because wed arrived early the boat in the berth we were allocated hadn't left. We were given another temporary berth but someone was in that so we grabbed the empty berth next to it. So were tied up by 09.20.
The marina was quite busy as boats were gathering for the fastnet race. It was not that long before we got into the berth where we would be for the next week. John was still in a lot of pain so we toddled of to Southampton Hospital. Here they feel it is definitely his rotary cuff, but there is little that can be done until we get home as he will need to be referred. They gave him some very strong painkillers. Rather than set off straight away we are going to take this week to give it a good rest.
It will give us time to explore Southampton as we normally see bits of it in a rush at the boat show. We also spent a night here before we went to New York on the Queen Mary and John remembered a pub where we had lovely fish and chips. We found it again, the fish and chips were as good as we remembered. However John was on diet coke as he wasn't allowed alcohol. I managed a pint!
Speaking of the Queen Mary, we saw she was coming in, once again we were awake early so we got up and went to see her docking. We were amazed how many people were there before 6 am to watch her and three other cruise ships arrive. She had come over from New York.
She is moored very close to us and absolutely dwarfs the boats in our marina. If you look closely you can see both Rascal and John.
We also went to watch her go that evening, again there are lots of people. I have discovered that there are cruise ship watchers similar to train spotters. she had to reverse out and covered near the whole width of the river. she was on her way to the Fjords.
Although this is a nice marina it is incredibly bouncy at times. We have decided it is the fast cats, but some pilots make us bounce more than others and when I say bounce I mean bounce.
We are taking it easy exploring Southampton. I hadn't realised that Jane Austen lived here for a while. The walls are quite something they must have been very extensive when build. The information boards and plaques are good and are walks end up being quite slow as we are reading as we go.
As a couple of our knives have failed and had to be replaced we had a trip to IKEA. John feels that is a hour of his life he'll never get back. But we have some new cutlery at a reasonable price. In the same area is a cinema so we were back the following day (Meerkat day) and went to see the new Spiderman film. I enjoyed it far more than I thought, quite humorous. It is a super cinema - very luxurious seats that lean back and has leg rests that come out.
We've generally taken it easy whilst we have been here, a train trip to Portsmouth so I could see the D Day museum had been on the cards but I felt that would wait for another year.
Sailing Information
Lymington to Southampton 18.3 nm approx. 3 1/2 hours
Not sure of price as we had 7 free nights
Friendly staff
Clean facilities - basic compared with other marinas.
Laundry room - cant remember the price as I didn't use it
Free gas bbq to use with bench and seats
Quite bouncy as there is a lot of wash
Coop, Lidil and Tesco Express in good walking distance
In the centre of town very quickly
Love the photos
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