We set off on Monday afternoon with an overladen car (two folding bikes on the roof rack) and nearly came straight home! I won't bore you with the whole saga of the outboard motor but suffice it to say that it deserves to be put in a skip! However Peter finally made it work and we set off with the wind BEHIND us!!
At 4 pm there was little choice of destination so it was nearly a night in Chi Harbour when we had a brainwave and went to Bembridge. The tides were perfect and of course it wasn't busy on a Monday night in March.
Having checked the tidal depths we decided it was safe to stay all day on Tuesday, so we had a day of cycling (there are a lot of hills on the I o W) and pottering around on the boat. Our calculations however, suggested that we would hit the bottom and possibly fall over (the boat, not us) if we stayed another night, so in spite of waking to howling winds and banging halyards we intrepidly motored out of Bembridge this morning and SAILED (yes, we used those big bits of white cloth) back to Chichester. It was windy and cold ( a northerly wind) so we didn't feel
like going too far and home seemed an attractive destination.
The outboard broke down yet again getting back from out mooring, so we had an "invigorating paddle". The landfill beckons.
