Just sitting off Bembridge on the Isle of Wight, anchored between a range of tankers dotted towards the horizon waiting to get into port, and the shipping route into Portsmouth. Lots of ferries heading into England and out en route to France and Spain, and a plethora of small fishing boats hauling their catches in. The wind has started to pick up and the turquoise sea is going from calm to slight, and it’s beautiful.

I’ve never been to the Isle of Wight and don’t know what to expect. Clive has an old friend Lucy there who we’re meeting on Sunday night and I have some old pals too, Sarah & Rob, who we’re spending the night with tomorrow. We hadn’t realised it was Cowes Week and we’ll be joining them for the Saturday festivities. Luckily Sarah is coming to pick us up as, being Cowes Week, we haven’t been lucky in hiring a car. We both think it’s about fifteen years since we’ve seen either of our respective friends, whose children are almost grown up! Where does time go? Where does life go? It’ll go where it will, whether we do anything about it or not.

A couple of hover flies are hitching a ride so we’re close to land. The Bembridge Bar has about 1.7m of water over it and we can start moving in once it’s reached 3m, which allows enough water under us to ensure we don’t hit the bottom. Once over that, the channel should have plenty of depth, even though it’s narrow. More later!

The Nab Tower at the eastern mouth of The Solent, where the ‘naughty’ soldiers got sentry duty during Napoleonic times

Anchored tankers waiting to be called in to port

Southern tip of the Isle of Wight from the deck of Distant Drum