Lymington to Beaulieu

Terrible day - F7 on the nose - sheeting rain - sail torn - wearing thermals ... ha, ha only kidding!  Flaming June continues with fair winds.  Spent the morning moseying around Lymington Quay & High Street, all very pretty and extremely well-to-do.  Got a couple of good sailing books in charity shops, plus shorts for Lesle

Ben Ainslie's (other) boat at Lymington Marina

y (that'll turn the weather).  Lesley woman-fully volunteered to walk on to Waitrose for 'the food shop' while Nic rested his sore feet in Costa.  On the way back we nipped into a chandlery and bought 28 metres of halyard (rope for hauling things up the mast, usually sails, sometimes the dinghy, and very very occasionally a person) to replace an old one ... as you do.

Wound our way out of the Lymington river at low tide, in order to use the tide up the West Solent for 7nm to the Beaulieu river - managed to do this without meeting any ferries.  Foresail up and ran downwind - yes, the wind is south-westerly, almost unheard of the last 5 weeks despite being the prevailing direction on the south coast.  Wound our way up the Beaulieu river, which is narrower, twistier and longer than Lymington (Lesley came up here in the dark with no GPS on her last course - brave stuff).  Got stuck behind a French yacht that was uncertain where to go, until the harbourmaster launch rescued him.  This was after seeing a small yacht desperately trying to reverse off the mud on one corner, and timing our dash past a large yacht that was (very) short tacking up the channel.

The famous boathouse marking Beaulieu entrance

idyllic scene

We had rung this morning and booked ourselves a walk-ashore pontoon at Buckler's Hard, which turned out to be a smart move because even on a weekday it's busy here and they are full.  A berth on a pontoon or buoy on the river means the faff of using our dinghy or waiting on the possibility of a water taxi.  We are in an idyllic spot, and we'll write more about the Buckler's Hard history tomorrow because we are staying here 2 nights and spending tomorrow doing a few minor boat jobs (replacing that halyard) and being tourists.

our neighbour, Mr Oystercatcher

Buckler's Hard, trad. pic