Sail 3: Beaulieu River to Newtown Creek

We decided to wait out some unfavourable wind and tides and spend 2 nights moored up the river in Beaulieu. Our rest day was spent rowing against the wind down what felt like the entire length of the Beaulieu River. We had a false start as about halfway there on the first attempt we snapped an oar on our dinghy, "Tender Terrance". We canoed one armed Terrance back to Fathom and did a speedy repair. Finally, we found ourselves down the river and quite hungry at Buckler's Hard. There was no food at the pub, nor at the hotel, and apart from a fancy overpriced lobster outlet on the quay our only option was to take the "short" walk to Beaulieu where there was an oasis of pubs, as advertised by the Harbour Master.

Turns out it was 3 miles back up the river we'd already rowed down twice that day. On the way, we found a landing spot that would've cut the journey in half, in the trees near our boat. This was not advertised by the harbour master. We took the walk with a jovial spirit but intense hunger was there all the way. We arrived in Beaulieu to find a ghost town, there was no food, no shops open but luckily the Women's Euro finals were on in the pub. The pub already had 4 people eating that night and couldn't cope with the demand of feeding us as well but offered us some nice nuts and crisps. We watched the women win, and listened to some men at the bar declare that it was fantastic that women were finally pulling their fingers out and playing sport before beginning the long walk back to Beaulieu. We made our way past our boat, to pick up the dinghy to row back the way we came against the tide. All in all a long and emotional day and night.

The next day fueled on only nuts, crisps and beer we prepared ourselves to sail to Newtown Creek on the Isle of Wight. This time we waited for the tide and wind to be more favourable than on our last trip.

Passage plan

- Leave mooring at top of the Beaulieu river at 12:00 to get to the river mouth by 13:00 to meet the slack tide.

- Beaulieu river mouth to Elephant Boatyard Buoy (yellow) course to steer 210° to account for 1.7 Knots of tide 2.3NM sailing close reached.

- Elephant Boatyard Buoy to between West Lepe Buoy (red) and Yacht Craft Insure Buoy (yellow) course to steer 320° sailing on a beam reach. 1NM

- West Lepe/Yacht Craft Insure Buoy to Newtown 2NM course to steer 195° sailing on a beam reach.

Approx 5 nautical miles (NM), 2.5 hours.

Passage log

Joined by Alex and Will on their rib as we left Beaulieu River. They looked like a couple of super villains as they approached with their camera lens pointed at us. They did a Daily Mail style paparazzi shoot as we left the river mouth. They threw us a couple of cold beers and a bottle of Physics Gin in an attempt to board whilst going 5 knots. Was really nice of them, with great driving skills from Will. As they sped off we noticed Alex's back was soaked from the spray and leaning off the boat taking photos. We hope the camera survived.

Wind is more westerly and stronger than expected, 20-25 knots near the mainland, 15-20 closer to the island. Sea state is choppy, white horses. Staying in the shelter of the island and tacking up wind. Tide turning beneath us, 13:48.

Tacked without using the motor to turn us for the first time, a great feat with 4 sails to manage with just 2 of us and going upwind in 1.5m seas in the 6 tonne beast. Headsail is down as too gusty, only running the stay, main and mizzen.

Mizzen stay broke again, different stay this time. All fixed but took mizzen down as it doesn't enjoy close reaching in 15 knots or more. We lost the beads that hold the mizzen gaff onto the mizzen mast. Andy wanted to man overboard the inch wide wooden beads. Ruby said no, not in 1.5m of chop, F**K that.

The face of a woman who doesn't want to pick up some tiny wooden beads in a choppy sea.

Seen the beads go by twice now as we tacked, they were mocking us. Andy upset. Mizzen is off till we find more beads.

We think we've just seen an important Cowes week race go by, we went through a small armada of sailing yachts just outside Newtown, lots of spectators on ribs. Oblivious to the significance of what we saw but it was like crossing a motorway on a mobility scooter with a low battery and a dodgy wheel.

Arrived in Newtown Creek on a mooring buoy, it's choppy but comfy compared to the previous ordeal. A superyacht rocks up and moors next to us and the owner announces he's off for 2 days. The wind is meant to increase so we hope his mooring buoy holds.

Passage reality

Because of the wind direction (more westerly) and strength (much stronger), we decided to change our initial plan, as we made our first tack across towards the island. The wind speed near the mainland was much stronger than our rig could handle so we decided to make smaller tacks instead closer to the island to get some protection from the land. This meant we did double the distance but actually, we only increased the time by an hour which means we must have been flying along! We saw a max speed of 6.7 Knots and we only had the engine on whilst going down the river at Beaulieu and for 30 mins when we arrived near Newtown to punch against the sea as we entered the creek.

We predicted we'd cover approximately 5 nautical miles (NM) in 2.5 hours. We actually did:

Distance: 12.1NM

Time: 3 Hours 33 mins

Average Speed: 3.4 Knots

Max Speed: 6.7 Knots

We're glad to be making progress West, albeit quite slow. Time to head off to the New Inn and wait out some more strong westerly winds.