Coordinators: Mike and Carol Neave

The event was planned for the early May bank Holiday weekend and before the event we had 13 Boats and 29 attendees confirmed. Due to unforeseen circumstances Galatea of Gosport was unable to make it however her owners Maggie May & Geoff Eteson made extraordinary efforts via Ferry and Taxi to be with us for the dinner on Saturday night.

Three boats arrived on Friday (Mistral Dancer, Solar Eclipse and SeaScape) on the evening tide and the remaining participants all arrived Saturday.  The weather, to say the least, was variable ranging from bright sunshine and no wind to hail and 30Kts gusts.  However, by 6pm everyone successfully negotiated the lock and tied up safely.

Dinner was booked for Saturday Evening at the “Breeze” Restaurant and a good time was had by all.   A special award ceremony was made to Sue Fellowes-Freeman for contribution to Solent Branch Events in the form of the Jubilee Ladies Trophy which had been awarded at the MOA National AGM.
Sunday we split in to two groups,  one  group proceeded on a walk to Newport along the river and had an enjoyable drink in the Bargeman’s Rest; the second group walked to Wootton Bridge to enjoy a trips on the IOW Steam Railway and take in a Beer Festival being held in Havenstreet Station.

The plan was to all meet up at 5:30 pm for drinks then to BBQ.  The weather had been lovely all day but just in time for the BBQ changed to grey, damp and windy but the MOA members are made of hardy stuff so a bit of weather was not going to stop proceedings.

Early departure on Monday to catch the morning high tide, the lock keeper came in early to open the lock for us so we could all get off on time.

The weather was grey and overcast but a nice SW wind meant that there was a reasonable sail back to almost everyone’s home ports.  “All in all”, a great weekend despite having some variable weather.

Mike & Carol Neave