Island Harbour Isle of Wight

September is turning out to be a fantastic month so far, we have been out sailing every weekend, Chichester the first weekend which was fantastic. We anchored just down river of Itchenor and work up in the morning to a very calm day and had breakfast on the cockpit and to our delight the Sunbeams were out racing in ver little wind. It was amazing,,they were all racing each other and chatting to each other at the same time, it was in a word extraordinary.

The following weekend we went to Poole and back with our friends Nick and Maz and again the weather was surperb we had northerly winds on both days and so had the wind on the beam both there and back, that never happens!

This week end Linda and I decided we had three possible venues, high tide is around 2pm so we could either go to Bembridge, which is a bit of a squeeze and something we have not done in this boat. Alternatively we could go to Island Harbour which is a marina up the river Medina in the Isle of Wight or Chichester. It was a difficult choice Chichester if free and lovely and would be on anchor. Bembridge is charming but it was unlikely that much would be open because of CV19 and Island Harbour was on our Bucket list but you have to go when there is enough water to get you through the lock and it is not much of a sail, as soon as you get the sails up you are there.

Linda arrived on the Friday evening, I had been down since Thursday getting some work done on the boat. We were having a drink in the saloon and I knew that Keith and Di had their boat in Spain but had been trapped in England unable to return so we sent the a text which read something like "I know it's short notice but we are off to Island Harbour for the weekend would you like to join us? "Yes please" can the instant reply.

In the morning they arrived and we let go as soon as they jumped on as we had a tidal gate to be able to get in to the harbour. When we arrived it was a revelation, the harbour master called us on the radio and told us where to go and when to enter, and the marina is simply immaculate. After some lunch we walked into Newport and went to an arts gallery for afternoon tea. that evening we went for a mean in he harbour restaurant and it was fantastic, the food was simply brilliant, not gourmet but just perfectly cooked and served. I could have eaten there for a week without eating the same thing twice. We will definitely return to Island Harbour.

Sadly there was little wind on either day so Keith and Di will have to come back on board at some point to put Sea Crusader through its paces.