Saturday in the Solent

[paulbrown22]

The weather forecast had been fairly good leading up to this weekend, and as I was in Poole for the weekend, managed to drop the Ribtec in the water this morning for a little run around Poole and Studland, and then across to Yarmouth for lunch in the Wheatsheaf.

Conditions were wonderfully flat, although the early fog did hang around a bit in places. A superb run to Yarmouth at 30kn, but I thought Yarmouth and the rest of the Solent was relatively empty considering the weather. Two or three other RIB's were around while I was there, but none that I recognised from here.

If we have similar conditions tomorrow, hopefully we'll be out again, and maybe look the other way towards Weymouth.

I hope some others managed to enjoy the sunshine as well!

[georgeirl]

Looks great!

[sTTu]

I was walking the dog at Sandbanks just as the fog was lifting yesterday. The bay looked lovely and made we want a rib for this season even more than ever !!

[paulbrown22]

Saturday was indeed perfect as the fog lifted - a great introduction to ribbing for my partner, with a bit of sunshine as well! My brother phoned as we came past Boscombe to say they could see us from the headland while they were out walking.

Sunday wasn't anything like as nice - much cloudier, and with a bit more wind the sea state was also choppier. But we'd enjoyed it so much on Saturday, decided to try a trip to Weymouth for lunch and a bit of shopping. Took ~1 hour to get there, not too bad overall, with larger conditions around the headlands as expected, and a tiny bit of rain.

The run back home down wind was much better, trimmed up the Ribtec rode beautifully. Back in Poole at 16:00, pulled the RIB onto it's trailer, discovered the fuel filter on the Defender had a pin hole leak, so ended up rushing to pack the boat away, tow it home, and swap the vehicle fuel filter before heading up to London!

Very glad we managed to make the most of the weekend though, given the current weather!

[mikew4]

Nice. Where is the launch point in your pix?

[paulbrown22]

Parkstone Yacht Club in Poole

[Cliff B]

Looks lovely!

[horacebat]

That definately looks great, took the old Ribcraft out for an hour today, nothing beats blowing the cobwebs off!

[paulbrown22]

Definitely - always good to have the first decent run of the season, and check that everything works as it should!

Although even if that is the case, I still always invent some jobs to improve things further...