Trip to Bosham and Beyond

I have been looking forward to this trip for some time now; Bob Marchant had asked Adam Woolfitt and I whether we would join him and go sailing – sadly, Adam was not available as he was going to be at Aldeburgh. Bob introduced me to another sailor who would be joining us – Brock. I came down to Bosham from Luton on Thursday and we went out to a local fish and chip shop to collect our supper, where we met another photographer, who seeing my camera started up a conversation with us both.

One of the amusing moments on the first night was setting up ‘PooCam’ – Bob had created a camouflaged video camera and was setting it up to catch the persistent dog owner who had been allowing their dog to mess on Bob’s verge. Sadly it was not a conspicuous success, as when it was on, it completely swamped the broadband preventing any connection to anything else, as well as having a very poor image quality.

The following morning we collected our gear and once Brock arrived we set off walking to the Sailing Club to catch the tender to take us to the boat’s mooring. It was not long before we were making our way along the channel under power,. Once we were well clear of the moorings Bob and Brock showed me how to help ready the sails, and it was not long before we were pulling past West Post and seeing Portsmouth and making for Priory Bay.

The sky which had started as edge to edge clear blue sky soon gathered clouds, but for most of the outbound trip we had sunshine and just occasional cloudy spells, we had a great lunch at anchor before setting sail for home, during which I was allowed to take the helm, with only one minor mishap. Both the sailors were happy to entrust me with control for probably a quarter of the trip back, which was gratifying. After an enjoyable supper, a good read, and a night’s rest, I set off for Beaulieu, and then home.

Thanks, Bob, for a great two days – I enjoyed every minute of it.