Club Rally to Marchwood Yacht Club – Saturday 19^th June 2004.

 

This year we could not repeat the weather from our last visit but the warm welcome we received quite made up for it.  The wind was from the North, and as we only had a short journey up Southampton Water, we decided not to tack across the main shipping lanes, and motored most of the way.

 

The trip up Southampton Water is always interesting with the larger ships coming and going with the derricks and cranes unloading container ships as we passed by.  QE II, Aurora and Oriana were also in port loading supplies and passengers.  We arrived at the Marchwood pontoon around lunchtime and were helped to land by Tony from the Marchwood club.  His boat was resplendently dressed overall with flags for the occasion.

 

After securing the boat we headed for the clubhouse for drinks. The club serves a good selection of snacks and light lunches but we resisted as the Marchwood club were also hosting boats from the Cruising Association this weekend and it was agreed that we would join them for the evening meal. 

 

We spent the afternoon talking with members of the Cruising Association who had arrived before us and members of our own club as other boats arrived. There were seven boats from our club and I think there were six from the C A.  Marchwood is very sociable as all the visiting boats tie up to the pontoons and this allows easy mixing.

 

We all gathered together in the club house for drinks around 1900 hours and about 30 sat down to eat at 1930.  There were 17 members from Guildford interspaced with the Cruising Association Members.  The C A has a nice idea where they have small card burgees with which they decorated the tables.  The food that we had pre-ordered was excellent.  We had a choice of two starters, two main courses and two sweets or cheese finished with coffee and chocolates.  The beer and wine was available at very reasonable club prices.

 

It was nice to mix with the C A members, some of whom were also members of Marchwood and the dinner arrangements worked well for both clubs..

 

It was around 2300 hours when we made our way back down the walkway to the pontoon, lit as usual by the lights of the container port opposite.  This time we did hear some noise around dawn when a tug turned a very large container very close to our moorings but generally it was a peaceful place.

 

Most of our boats left after breakfast to catch the tide flowing towards Portsmouth and I hope a good wind.

 

I would recommend a visit by any members of our club who would like a different destination.  The Marchwood club members made us very welcome and even though the mooring fees have gone up since last year it was only £8.00 for the night.

 

Boats Attending:            Brock               Classic Venture             Cracker             Faye of Aubin

                                    Island Sula        Senitoa                         Speedbird