On Friday evening, after a couple of hours at our work social which was a BBQ out the back, I jumped on the train from London Bridge down to Caterham and met up with Si, Will and Duncs who were waiting for me at the station. I quickly threw my bag into the car and we headed off south in the general Southampton direction. Most of the journey involved convincing Will he needed his passport, which he had obviously forgotten, since after all it was "international waters" we'd be going into, so that helped kill time and provide a full journey of entertainment for the rest of us watching him stress and worry how to courier it down overnight. Good times for the rest of us. Eventually we cracked and broke the good news to him - much to his relief.

After a couple of hours of driving, we got to Hythe and into the marina around half 10 at a guess, opened up the boat, unpacked the car and settled down on-board with a beer to unwind. Duncs had also kindly made us food - lasagne - so that went down like a treat. Since there wasn't much around, the marina was fairly quiet for a Friday night and the rest of the weekend was going to be quite full on, we called it a night fairly early - especially for the four of us.

Then yesterday morning we started off with bacon rolls each before Duncs' folks arrived down and we all put in a bit of effort to help get the boat sea ready for the weekend. After navigating through the marina and the lock, we were out on the open water, headed in the general direction of the Isle of Wight. Unfortunately there wasn't much wind, so we did more distance with the motor than the sails, every now and then getting a small gust to push us along, but nothing too impressive. Duncs' dad then went through the basics of sailing, terminology, what to do and obviously what not to do. Easy enough really.

Since we weren't able to reserve a berth ahead of time at the East Cowes marina, it was first come first served, so the plan was to head straight there, book ourselves a berth for the night, then we'd have the option to head out again and give the boat a bit of a spin if the wind looked to be picking up.

By the time we got into East Cowes, the wind just didn't exist and the blanket of cloud of the mainland had vanished and it turned into the perfect sunny afternoon. We decided against taking the boat out again, and instead spent the afternoon on the upper deck in the sun, cider in hand and ocean view in the distance. We even all fell asleep on-board for a few hours in the warmth of the day. I can definitely think of worse ways to spend a Saturday afternoon!

Alongside the marina is a smallish pub which overlooks all the boats and the setting sun in the distance, silhouetting the hundreds of masts rising up from the water, which is where we decided to spend the last bit of the afternoon, and soak up the last few hours of daylight. So at least up to that point in the afternoon it was a nice relaxing and fairly civilized weekend.

After some time at the pub, we decided to head out into Cowes itself and test out the nightlife, even though we expected fairly small town syndrome. Since we were close to the mouth of the river, the best way into central or west Cowes was with the river taxi, a couple of minutes from one side to the other. Except it was a completely different story getting home later on. Our original plan of a couple of beers on that side and then catch the last river taxi home completely fell apart - between our early celebration of Will's birthday and a combination of mine and Simons refusal to ever call it a night, the night went on somewhat longer than initially thought. As was the taxi ride home with a lack of any form of bridge between east and west Cowes. Good times!

This morning was a fairly slow start, with all four of us unusually quiet. After a bacon roll and an ice cold coke, Duncs' folks arrived at the marina and prepped the boat ready for the sail back.

The weather today wasn't quite as good as yesterday except we did have more wind, which was a bonus. After getting out the marina, we set sail northwards towards Hythe, making full use of the head wind. While Duncs and Will were more than happy to chill out, Si and I wasted no time in volunteering to sail us all back. After getting the hang of tacking and working with the wind, we steadily made our way back, arriving into Hyves late afternoon.

A quick clean up and sort out of the boat and then it was in the car headed back up north, and then home. After ages of been wanting to go sailing, so glad I've done it and definitely looking forward to it again!