Lymington in Storm Lilian
The mid week rally to Lymington started well, with 8 boats booked in. Gîte arrived by midday in order to be in position to take lines, a service much appreciated with the wind building during the afternoon and everyone being strongly blown off the North pontoon at Dan Bran. The first job was to persuade two other motor yachts to graciously move to South pontoon or the rally would not fit. It immediately became apparent that the harbour master in the rib was working to a different plan to those in the office. Gîte was asked by one harbour master to organise the rafting, but he forgot to tell the person manning the VHF radio, resulting in a bit of last minute switching of fenders for Moonshadow.
Enterprise (which had taken three days to get here) had a final hop across from Newtown Creek. Even that passage took longer than anticipated in the wind. Ray willingly provided another extra pair of hands to catch and tie lines. By late afternoon, conditions were not very comfortable in the Solent, even for Riptide who had been able to hug the north of the Isle of Wight. Once Bright Future arrived after a very lumpy passage and was safely tied up behind Pompey Lass, it was time to relax with Highland Lady and Happy Place not due until Thursday.
By 6pm, the winds had really started to build and it was decided that a pontoon party on the pontoon itself would mean food flying into the river, so the venue became onboard Gîte. With drinks and nibbles flowing in the comfort of Gîte’s cockpit, it was 7:30 before people realised it and everyone’s stomachs started rumbling!
By Thursday morning the winds were raging and we were not surprised to hear that Highland Lady and Happy Place had changed their plans. An intrepid group of eight stalwarts braved the winds to “blow the cobwebs out of our tubes” by walking around the salt marshes to The Chequers. Battling the headwinds on the sea wall made all appreciate the relative lee of the lower path.
We arrived at the empty pub at about 11:20 but the landlord declared “Well, I am open now you’re here”. After a slightly cool reception, the landlord brightened and became welcoming once he realised we were after drinks and weren’t going to demand food immediately such that the group decided that the Chequers might make a good venue for a group lunch one rally.
On the return walk the walkers were faced with a couple of obstacles. A tree had fallen over Normandy Lane and the Hampshire Highways operatives were concerned that we should climb over it in case it collapsed further onto one of us. Steve showed us all how…which turned out to be fine for Steve at 6ft 4in but less viable for the normal mortals, so most risked going under.
The next obstacle was back at the pontoon. Here we were faced with climbing over the cofferdam which had been closed against a storm surge at high tide.
During the afternoon, there was much consulting of the weather forecasts, whilst hunkered down out of the wind and rain. With 2.2m waves predicted off Hurst Castle for the time when any yachts heading onto Poole on Friday would need to be there, the fleet decided they wished to avoid a repeat or worse of their experiences on Wednesday. Lymington Harbour Commissioners were consulted by Steve and Howard and said that there would be no problem if any or all of the fleet wished to stay another night.
A briefer pontoon party was held on Gîte again before all headed to The Haven restaurant for a group meal, relieved to know that they would not be forced to leave and tempted to head through the Needles and across Christchurch Bay in the aftermath of Storm Lilian. The Haven had set aside a suitable area for us and the service was excellent for our pre-ordered food as well as the “that looks nice, can I have one too?” desserts!
The final icing on the cake of a miserable day made good was a fireworks display visible across the water over Bright Future when we staggered back to our boats.
Rally leaders Gîte did a quick bit of extra research into activities for the additional day including bus rides instead of walks but, in the end, most people either walked around the marshes (far more pleasant in the sun) or into Lymington. Pompey Lass got the bicycles out and headed for Keyhaven whilst Janice took a train to Christchurch.
By mid-afternoon, the rally leadership (and associated bunting) was handed over to Riptide for the Poole rally, even though we had yet to leave Lymington. Whilst the sun shone and the winds subsided briefly for a while during Friday, they picked up again in the afternoon, so we wait to see if the sea state does indeed subside as predicted for Saturday.