Made a careful passage plan for Lymington to Bembridge on the Isle of Wight. This meant leaving Lymington at 12:00 BST, the latest time you can stay on your berth on the day of departure. Someone from the marina was on the pontoon just before but he could see were preparing to leave and he was very happy and polite and said we could have a few minutes leeway. As it was we left a few minutes after noon and once in the Solent found the north easterly wind still blowing strongly so with one reef in the mainsail (first time it had been hoisted this season) and three rolls in the genoa we were soon tacking up towards Cowes with the tide under us. Harvard was sailing beautifully with 20 to 22 knots apparent wind. Anne helmed and Richard did the hard work of sheeting in the genoa when we tacked even in his weakened state!!!
The only problem was we were going far too fast and would arrive at Bembridge before there was enough depth of water over the bar to enter the harbour. So once past Cowes we decided to make a short stop in Osborne Bay. In retrospect this was a mistake as we should have carried on and anchored outside Bembridge but we were concerned it might be too exposed. At least the provided us with an opportunity to test out the anchor windlass. We had bought new anchor chain over the winter as the old chain was quite rusty. We debated having it re-galvanised but again on advice from a fellow member at Marchwood decided this was not economically sensible given the transport costs involved. In fact this turned out to be a good decision since the new chain fits the anchor windlass gypsy so much better than the old chain and it was very smooth dropping and retrieveing the anchor. Again had it been like this since the boat was delivered and the chain was the wrong dimensions/type (ISO, DIN, Imperial)? Who knows or had the old chain just worn too much. Anyway replacing the chain (with DIN standard chain) seems to have been the right thing to do.
Once the anchor was up we continued on towards Bembridge but as forecast once we were off Ryde the wind died and was all over the place so we motor sailed the rest of the way to Bembridge arriving when we had planned. On the Bembridge harbour website there is a live tidal height over the bar feed and this confirmed our planning and we went straight into the harbour. We had booked ahead but were told to take any berth and we were soon moored up, there being only a few visitors mid-week.