Eight boats gathered at Baiter slip under light cloud. Masts were raised from their crutches at regular intervals and full sail was chosen by all. Bob in 875 motored round from Hamworthy to join us. Outboard or no outboard? – that was the question for some. Would the extra weight be a nuisance in strong wind? Predicting the wind strength was tricky. The local forecast was for force 4 to 5, possibly 6 south to south-westerly, or a 2 to 3 southerly. Which one should we believe? There was hardly a breath from anywhere! Showers had been expected and sure enough a large dark area appeared from the west and dampened us whilst waiting for the briefing. This was the only rain we saw all day. The latter of the two forecasts proved to the correct one.

The briefing was delayed a little by a late arrival. Why are local people always the last to arrive!? We launched just after the first high and made way at a very slow drift towards the arranged rendezvous area just to the south of the slip. Out came the odd paddle and there was the occasional sound of an outboard at work as we tried to cross the deep channel without being struck by the ferry or landing craft. Almost midday! What to do? Progress was painfully slow and there was no hope of reaching Shipstal for lunch at this rate. Some were becoming impatient and considering the use of power. Then a few ripples could be seen approaching and the sails of 727 filled and she started moving. The rest of us soon had the same delight as the wind filled in to a steady force 2 southerly. A long port tack carried most of us past the fleet of racing Mirrors and Optimists and on towards the beach at Shipstal. Some required a few tacks to beat to the south of the race. 1470 had to make running repairs when the pin came out of the mainsheet shackle and 727 took the scenic route and arrived some time after the others but having enjoyed views of the south west of Brownsea Island.

We lunched in the warm sun on the sand – it could have been Robinson Crusoe Island apart from the other people, the view of the quay cranes and the large white hull of the cross-channel ferry. The wind was holding up so a group decision was made to navigate the shallows to the south of Long Island and then eastwards in the channel to the south of Brownsea. As the leading boat I decided to add a little extra and used the shallows to the south of Round Island too. Here we could have no centreboard and the rudder would need to be raised. We could see the bottom inches below the surface. One lone sailor was unlucky enough to run aground and had to step out of his boat and push off again but that was not difficult and not witnessed by most of us. The beam reach took us all the way form Long Island to the beach at the south end of the Sandbanks ferry, where we made landfall for a short stop which allowed the remainder of the flotilla to regroup.

After a short sojourn we ran up the east end of Brownsea and headed back northwest to Baiter before the tide dropped away too much and made harder work of recovery up the slip. After the gentle start we all enjoyed an invigorating but trouble-free sail.