Bembridge Rally

Well I am sure you will all agree with me the weather for the last 4 or 5 weeks have been pretty poor. A wet and windy condition has made many think twice about going for a tack or even heading for a rally.

Bembridge has always been a place where we get between 20 and 25 Seals and Parkers on the beach and this year with the forecast I wasn’t sure if we would get many at all!

Jenny had already decided not to join as my youngest- Robert had footie and swimming he wanted to attend, so Alex and I hand a brisk sail to Bembridge on the Friday evening with 2 reefs and half the jib rolled out departing from the Hamble towards Osborne bay and into the lee of the Isle of Wight, where we unfurled the jib and cruised at a steady 6 to 7 knots pushing the last of the ebb.

We arrived about an hour after low water and gently made our way into Bembridge harbour with about 4 to 6 feet of water showing on the echo sounder.

We found Seal 22 “Shiraz” on the beach facing the wind (which is the other way round we normally face for this beach).

Once we were kedged and moored up Royce handed me a welcome glass of rum and we settled in for the evening.

Saturday morning brought something called the sun which gave me hope that a few hardy sealers would venture out.

As the day progressed and the tide came in we saw the Seal and Parker burgee on several masts appear over the sand dunes to seaward and by mid afternoon we had a respectable number of boats on the beach although th Chichester boats had an fairly lumpy sail with winds and short choppy sail made headway slow and many just motor sailed into it!

The evening approached and the had a bbq in the dunes out of the breeze

The main idea of this rally was to be a new members rally but with the weather being as it was we only ended up with only 2 new members and an existing member with a new boat – even still we opened the Champagne and welcomed them in true Seal style

Sunday again a more settled day with a lower wind force and blue skies we all had breakfast in Bembridge Sailing Club and waiting for the tide we all headed out and headed for home