As predicted we had a dreamy day for our cross-channel passage with barely a breath of wind and a warm, sunny day. Only a slight haze reduced visibility to around a mile and a half but it was not difficult to spot the occasional ships which crossed our path. it would have been a totally uneventful trip if we had not been intercepted and boarded by Customs ten miles south of the Needles. They weren't in the least bit interested in our 120 bottles of wine except to comment on some of our vintages. Illegal immigrants, terrorists and drugs were more their concern and strangely enough we had been approached by a likely looking character on the pontoons at Cherbourg.

There are 1001 places where you could hide drugs on Lady Martina and the customs officers searched about all of them. Of course they found nothing except a water leak on the port engine which did cause a minor panic. It was hot work searching the boat on a warm day with the windows closed whilst wearing foul weather gear and when they found the drinks fridge they looked longingly at the cool beers they saw inside. But we didn't want to encourage them and thought they might never go if we offered them refreshments! Eventually they were satisfied and we could continue our passage past the Needles and into Yarmouth. It was the usual game to secure ourselves between the piles even though the weather was still calm and we had a boat already in situ to tie to.

Boating in the Solent always seems to us like driving in London - congested, expensive, and with nowhere to park - and with every likelihood of someone crashing into you. And ashore restaurants tend to be crowded out, or poor, and tonight was no exception. After two false starts we found a table in the homely but popular Salty's bar and celebrated our last night in the company of TimChris with a communal bowl of Moules Mariniere.

In the night the forecast bad weather arrived along with a 54 foot yacht caught in storm force winds just leaving Lymington. As we watched the thunder and lightening we saw the lifeboat leave the harbour - not surprisingly as anyone out in that weather would be likely to need help.

Cruising Statistics

Distance: 68 nm

Total to date: 2057nm

Avg Speed: 8 knots

Duration: 8:15 hours

Diesel: 233 litres

Wind: N/NE 2

Mooring: £18

Electricity: N/A

Water: N/A

Charts

SC 2669

AC2656

5600.2

5600.4

5600.5