Yarmouth Cruise, 17th to 19th April 2018

What a cruise! The first thing is it April? Forecast temperatures of 200C, wall to wall sunshine and generally favourable winds.

Because of these conditions half of the cruise left the day before to make the most of the weather and we ended up with two cruises. Monday to Wednesday with four boats visiting Gosport and Yarmouth. The second with eight boats visiting Yarmouth only from Wednesday to Thursday/Friday.

The reason for this was the forecast for 6/7 winds on the Tuesday when only one boat (Arcadia) ventured out from Gosport to Cowes. The others remaining in Gosport or Chichester.

The cruise really started on Wednesday with eight boats arriving safely in Yarmouth. The usual drinks party was held on the pontoon adjacent to Coco at 1800hrs and when sufficiently refreshed we all adjourned to the Wheatsheaf where they provided their usual excellent fare and service.

Thursday was to be a lay day but it was unanimously felt that with such good weather we couldn’t not walk or take the bus to the Red Lion (yes another pub) at Freshwater. Did I mention that the Gosport cruise went to the Castle for refreshments?

One energetic couple took the bus to Alum Bay and walked over Tennyson down to Freshwater and the pub. Three couples walked the shorter route along the Yar to the pub and two couples took the bus to the pub. Lunch was excellent and various routes back to Yarmouth finished the day’s activities. Well not quite we went to the Royal Solent Yacht Club (not a pub) for more refreshments before all returning to the harbour to enjoy evening repast on our boats.

Friday morning and Oh no sunshine again!!! Generally a motor back to Chichester in the warm and dry although at about the Winner Bank Coco managed a sail for about an hour whilst Quintette decided to visit the Nab tower and sailed for considerably longer. Two boats unfortunately had to motor all the way as for some reason they didn’t have sails!

My thanks to all the participants. It would have been lonely without you all. Quintette, Fire Dragon, Arcadia, Flapjack, Gilli Anne (welcome to CYC cruising), Seabird, Giverny and yours truly Coco.

– by Steve Martin