Down On The River

A lovely sunny weekend was spent "Down on the River" just messing about on the boats.

“Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” 
 - Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows.

We motored our little yacht down the river for about a nautical mile and then turned up river so as we could sail under jib on the Light Northerly breeze back passed our mooring  to "Windy Corner." It was such a leisurely sail. We sipped our morning coffee as we glided along,  gently sailing in with the High Tide. A pair of  Little Egrets flew over us.





















Sometimes the jib sail was on port, sometimes on starboard as the river meanders up to Newport.





































As the tide slackened, so the wind died for a while so we motored to our mooring to enjoy our picnic lunch and a bit of sun bathing.
 When the wind blew in again this time from the South and West we raised the sails on our little Mirror dinghy tied up alongside and had a happy sail around Windy corner.
Just simply; A lovely way to spend the day.

Down By The Solent

I'm happy to report that our little yacht is now on her swing mooring on the river Medina. The weather was lovely over the holiday weekend but the tides were rather strong in the Solent for our little craft to venture out so we decided to enjoy the beach instead.
 The Solent is a very tidal water and is particularly tricky to sail in as there are many strong currents often running West and East, there is also a sandbank to watch out for and of course all the different sailing vessels from canoes and jet skiers to huge cruise ships and tankers!

  As a sailor I'm always watching the weather of course, but also I take particular interest in the moon phases effecting the Neaps and Spring tides thus choosing the best time and course to sail by.
As a gardener I'm also interested in the moon phases to plant by. It just feels right that for centuries people have worked with the natural rhythms of nature to live by; sail, grow crops, fish and so on. For the past few years I have been "planting by the moon" and have discovered that not only do my organic veggies grow better but it's so much easier and  more simple to plan and do the work in the garden with this system.

So after pottering in the garden a while Skipper and I headed for Cowes beach to enjoy the day.

These are racing yachts on a spinnaker run home from Gurnard after fighting the tide.
 It's great to see them so close to shore.

We were entertained with a "fly by" An old Lancaster Bomber was splendid sight in the beautiful blue sky.

A very relaxing afternoon in the Sun.

Back in my work room I have been knitting some new pieces, some cotton hand warmers with lace stitch detailing for those summer evenings/ special garden parties and weddings and some seaside inspired tea cosies with fish tab detailing.

Also do you remember this "warp waiting" on my loom? (March post) well I have started weaving the cloth.
 Enjoying watching the water lap with small wavelets on to the shore at Cowes help me choose the coloured yarn to weave by and I came home, went straight to my loom and began to work the threads.