Island Harbour Rally Report (13th and 14th August)
15 boats 38 crew (and dogs)
We had ten boats on Friday, and fifteen on Saturday for another terrific PSYC rally. This time to the delightful Island Harbour, a couple of miles to the South of Cowes on the Medina River.
Friday’s weather was lovely and sunny but mightily windy with gusts well over 20 knots. This led to nautical demonstrations of how a keel boat fares slightly better when berthing whilst the motorboats – for the large part – dance over the water in a freeform manner testing their owners wits and bow-thrusters. It was challenging conditions so many of us were there to take ropes and shout the usual unhelpful and contradictory advice.
Nothing could top Cooper Buoy’s arrival. In danger of colliding with moored boats, Nicky decided to abort the approach and gave it plenty of revs to move away. As the boat leapt forward poor Richard got dumped off the back and into the marina. Fortunately he was unharmed and his lifejacket duly inflated. Nicky then berthed the boat on her own with the help of a good many pontoon-based PSYC members. Richard’s dive off the boat isn’t going to trouble Tom Daley but he did get lots of kudos for entertainment value.
The entertainment continued on Saturday with Simon (a guest on Legato) ‘volunteering’ to climb the mast to fit a new bulb in the head light. A small crowd gathered to shout more helpful advise/encouragement and lay bets on his likely survival. He made it back down, but sadly, a new bulb did not fix the problem.
Island Harbour has a large, grassed, barbecue area which was ideal for us to gather for early evening drinks on both days. The obligatory rally photo has most of the attendees in it and some even looking in the right direction.
On Saturday the early evening drinks were followed by good food and convivial company in ‘The Breeze’. Commodore Mike finished the proceedings off by saying a few words but we didn’t let that spoil our evening. Joke – just a joke Mike! Honestly, just a joke.
Sunday brought even more wind forecast for the afternoon. Due to the tidal nature of Island Harbour there was a choice of a crack of sparrows start (0600) if you wanted to avoid this, or take your chances with the wind mid-afternoon. The fleet split with many gone before the rest of us had surfaced. A couple of boats took the sensible option of staying on for a few more days.
The sailboats mainly arrived back in Port Solent late afternoon when it was blowing a five, gusting six. Berthing was so much fun.
There were 38 of us on Saturday (and three lovely dogs). It was great to catch up with friends old and new.
Many thanks to Hilary & Mike, and the Rear Commodores Graham and Nick for planning and booking such a comprehensive programme of events. This one was a cracker.
Russ and Sharon (Legato)
Rally Leaders