While the work is slowly paying off and we are seeing amazing progress, another summer is slipping away. We are keeping our eye and focus on the future but with such lovely weather and autumn around the corner, we downed our tools, packed up a few provisions and took the weekend off. Our destination for the weekend - Newton Creek (River), Isle of Wight. Newtown Creek is a large natural inland harbour found on the Isle of Wight's north western coast, named after the nearby village of Newtown. It is so peaceful and is surrounded by nature - we love it there.
We left our mooring in Fareham (top of Portsmouth Harbour) on Friday evening on the high tide and picked up a buoy near to Portsmouth mouth and slept for a few hours waiting for high tide at Newton Creek. We woke with the sun, had a couple of obligatory Bailey’s coffee and set off.
The Solent was quiet and like glass and it felt so good to be out on the water again. We got there in no time, travelling on average 6.5 / 7 knots through the water and probably about 9 knots over the ground, with the tide.
There are limited buoys available once you are through the entrance to the creek, but plenty of space to anchor. We managed to get a buoy and this added to the relaxing mood as we settled down for the weekend.
I immediately made myself comfortable on the “new” back deck. With no wind and strong sun, the umbrella was a treat. The inverter immediately got to work on the ice machine and the lithium batteries we fitted kept the fridge going. Patrick even experimented with one of the solar panels, rigging it up temporarily so as to keep the fridge batteries topped up.
The cable from the solar panel still needs to be extended as the panels will be fitted to the top deck, so for the weekend the solar panel lay next to me on the back deck. I didn’t argue, as it was playing a very important role in keeping my wine chilled. It also kept Patrick busy while he checked on how much it was charging the batteries (this was the first time using solar power on the boat).
Friends sailed over and joined us for a BBQ and a few card games and fun was had by all as we watched the sun set in a tiny peace of paradise.
And Sunday we did it all again - why change something that worked so well !!
But sadly Monday morning came round and we had to return to “land life” and work. We know this is only for a little longer and this weekend kept our enthusiasm and excitement going and reminded us of why we are working so hard to get the boat finished.
