A Week of Family Cruising: Solent to Poole

[Jim H]

Hi, All

We're just back from a week of family cruising (from the Solent to Poole). Our original plan for the week was to cross the channel to Cherbourg, but I was too tired from work to plan that trip, so we spent the week "playing it by ear."

This is how it turned out:

Sunday: Gosport to Folly Inn on the Isle of Wight.
Monday: Folly Inn to the Needles, Alum Bay for lunch, then Yarmouth.
Tuesday: Yarmouth to Poole Harbor (Brownsea Island anchorage)
Wednesday: Second night in Poole Harbor (Brownsea Island)
Thursday: Poole Harbor to Lymington.
Friday: Lymington to Newtown River.
Saturday: Newtown River to Gosport.

Total nautical miles, only 113, but it was still a lot of fun.

Here's a chart of where we sailed:



It was an amazing week. I'll add a few more posts to this thread to show some of the locations.

A full photo gallery of the trip is available here:

A Week of Family Cruising, June 2009

Later on, I will post a link to a collection of our videos from the trip.

[Jim H]

As promised, here are a few more pictures.

Here's the Needles, as we saw them on Monday:



The circular structure on top of the light house is a helipad.

Here's another view, of the western-most edge of the Isle of Wight:



We happily hit 9.8 knots on the return trip through the Needles Channel with the help of the current.

At the end of the day, we sailed back into the Solent and took a mooring buoy outside of Yarmouth:

[Jim H]

More pics:

My daughter in her first class, private V berth cabin:



The big chain ferry that runs back and forth across the narrow entrance of Poole Harbor:



We had a great time exploring Brownsea Island in Poole Harbor:



On Brownsea, we visited several bird blinds:



Southern Rival, our Rival 34, at anchor behind Brownsea Island. Note that we now fly the US ensign, and the UK ensign as a courtesy flag:

[Jim H]

More pics:

The kids fish at Lymington:



Hiking around Newtown:



My son didn't have his land legs yet:



We didn't quite think far enough ahead about the effect of the tides on our ability to dinghy back to our boat from the Newtown Quay...

[Jim H]

Last pics.

Daughter ready to go:



Some final notes about the trip:

1) At anchor behind Brownsea Island, it was gusting 18-20 knots in the evening, and a HR 34 had anchored quite close to us during the day. If we had dragged just one boat length, we would have clipped her. It wasn't fun sleeping that night.

2) The most memorable evening was at Newport, when we returned after four hours of walking (and no service to buy any food or drink in the area) to find our dinghy high and dry. We had to wait about 3 more hours (until the 10:45 p.m.) to have enough water to dinghy back out to the boat in the dark.

3) The passage to and from Poole Harbor was about 25 miles, which was a good step up for the kids. Our boat did great, especially through the channel chop and wind on the return trip.

All in all, a very good week. Our next adventure will be the first week of August, when we have a charter of a Pearson 38 in the San Juan Islands for a week.

As noted, a full photo gallery of this week's trip is at

A Week of Family Cruising, June 2009

Thanks, all.

[WanderingStar]

Nice thread, nice family. Thanks.

[fendertweed]

I'd like to hear more about where one can find out about that Pearson 28 charter in the San Juans --- that's something I may want to do some day.

thanks,
Jon

[Faster]

Nicely done, Jim.... nothing like a successful cruise with the whole family!

[Jim H]

Originally Posted by fendertweed

I'd like to hear more about where one can find out about that Pearson 28 charter in the San Juans --- that's something I may want to do some day.

thanks,
Jon

Hi, Jon

We used to charter an Islander 28 from San Juan Sailing. It was a great boat-- sailed well and was holding up well. Unfortunately, the owner sold it about a year ago and it's no longer in charter (unless it's with a different company now).

You might want to check out this site:

48° North - The Sailing Magazine

They have San Juan area charter company information, and there are some companies in the area with older and more unique boats available, such as a Dana 24 or a Westsail 27.

[saltydawg]

Looks like you all had a lovely time! Thanks for sharing the photos! Next time, just keep going.... and going... and going...