Sailing -Two Rivers

 

 We keep our little Sunstar18 sailing yacht on a swing mooring on the river Medina, Isle of Wight. This blog has lots of photos of our trips afloat; sailing, rowing, fishing, knitting and dreaming. It's a great place to be.
On Saturday we decided to explore another river across the Solent; the river Beaulieu, Hampshire. The conditions was set fair, light N Easterly wind, Neap tides and warm and sunny, so we cast off and set sail!
 Well, actually we had to motor out of the Medina as there was no wind and it is always very busy at the mouth of the river with ferries,other craft and racing yachts, but once clear of the navigation buoys we did raise the sails as there was enough breeze to make 2-3knots of speed. Even though the tide was pretty slack, it was still very lumpy out in the Solent and we didn't make much headway.  We had a couple of hours sailing before the wind got very light and we turned the motor back on and entered the Beaulieu river. Here all was calm, you can just see the sand and shingle bank separating the river from the Solent. 

 A photo of the lighthouse at the entrance, I love lighthouses, they are so special giving a sailor their bearings, comfort and light in all weathers.

 

 The cottages on the riverbank. We motored up the Beaulieu for a while but didn't have time to go all the way to Buckler's Hard as we needed to return to our Island river on the incoming tide. Here's a link if you want to find out more
http://www.beaulieuriver.co.uk/

Our way home pass the Beaulieu river light and Lepe Spit South Cardinal.

The wind remained northerly back in the Medina so we were able to sail back up the river under jib only right onto our swing mooring, where Peewit our Tender gently bobbed waiting to take us to shore. It's great to go exploring and always lovely to come home.