Video Documentary of the daysail.
Saturday 12th April saw the execution of the first Cody calling notice of 2025. The weather all week had been gloriously warm and was set to continue just long enough to deliver another scorching (for April) day with a healthy SE 8 – 9 kts forecast all day, clear skies and very good visibility – the perfect forecast!
No wonder we had 5 boats (including two from as far as Kent & Norfolk) roll up to Bath Road car park in good time for a leisurely set up and briefing before we slipped down the concrete ramp at Lymington Town Quay and set sail (dodging the I.O.W. ferries) to our first rendezvous point: The Royal Lymington Yacht Club Starting Platform.
Steve & Mel in their Comet Trio along with Bill in his Pacer were the first two to exit Lymington, Simon C & Adam in the almost famous GP14 (Skismo) were next to hove to and the muster completed with the arrival of Simon M & David in the second Comet Trio and James & Sandy in the third Comet Trio. With all present and correct we set a course for the second muster point: Hamstead Ledge Starboard Channel Marker (No.26).
The sun was shining, the wind was as forecast, the water had a bit of a chop to it (wind over tide) and everybody was happy and excited to be heading for our lunchtime destination of the Leeward side of Hamstead Spit at the mouth of Newtown Creek – just gorgeous, we couldn’t be happier, everything was perfect, the boats, the company, the water state, the wind, the sunshine and the prospect of completing the first decent dinghy cruise of the year.
The cruise itself is also an authored RYA dinghy trail first compiled by Lymington Town Sailing Club and today we were verifying its content prior to its re-release in an all-new and exciting format (more about that at a later time ) The plan was to set off at 10:30, reach Hamstead Spit by 12:30 (ish) have a leisurely lunch and depart for the return journey at about 14:00 (the time of High Water) and take advantage of the outgoing Westerly tidal run back to Lymington.
As dinghy sailors we all know the ropes (literally) and that includes making constant assessments of the environment we are in, analysing the conditions, preparing for the unexpected and so on. Such as: a disastrous drop in wind strength halfway across the Solent coupled with a slightly earlier-than-expected turn of the tidal stream threatening a risk of being swept past our exit point if not acted upon. Steve was very quick to notice this potential risk and announced that we should abort the original plan and head back to the North shore of the Solent with some sense of urgency. That in itself had an element of complexity because Bill (who quite responsibly has attained his VHF radio licence) had not quite gotten around to actually purchasing one and therefore was not privy to Steve’s announcement. The situation compounded by Bill’s expert helming technique saw him sail further than the rest of us and ultimately ended up out of earshot. Simon M and David, with their outboard fired up, went to inform Bill of plan B and also to offer a tow if required, which it wasn’t. Bill managed to find a bit of breeze which was elusive to the rest of us (we think he had his own supply) and made good progress Once we had limped into the main channel there was enough breeze to sail North towards the slower waters of the shore, ferry-gliding past yellow buoys highlighting how fast the tidal flow was already.
Just East of Lymington entrance there is a drying out marsh area called East Lake and that’s where we ended up having lunch, at anchor, under clear blue skies, a warm sun and on top of perfectly calm waters.
From here back to the slipway was less than half an hour’s sail which gave us just enough time to all end up sitting around a large wooden table in a pub garden with a nice cool beverage in our hands.
We didn’t manage the day’s objective, but maybe we did, if the objective was to have a wonderful day’s sailing in beautiful sunshine and in good company. Thank you, Steve & Mel, for organising yet another classic Cody outing. Simon Conway