Work, Save, Travel, Repeat...

Sunday 6th August 2017 Blue skies today but the strong onshore wind was ever present, ideal conditions for the Fastnett yacht race.  (600 miles from Cowes to the Fastnett Rock of the south coast of Ireland and back to Portsmouth). This years race had attracted 400 entrants. We walked the 3 km on Hurst Spit for a grandstand view of the Solent where we sat on the sea wall in front of Hurst castle. The first boats, - the multi-hulls took about an hour to reach our vantage point but soon there was a plethora of masts on the horizon and boats tacking back and forth mixed in with a few gin palaces and a super yacht. Having visited the castle many years ago we decided to catch the ferry back to Keyhaven for lunch in The Gun - another from the Good Pub Guide. We walked back along the Sea Wall walk back to Milford. Strange to see someone else sitting on what was our balcony this morning. One more stroll along the promenade to The Eye of the Needle cafe and an ice cr...

A day spent exploring the local area, car stays in the carpark and we put on our walking boots. The wind is less intense today so with the sun shining and white fluffy clouds in the sky we decide to leave the jackets behind - it is August after all. The walk is along the sea wall actually a series of paths which form the Solent Way. Keyhaven has a small harbour with a flotilla of boats bobbing around all reached by way of a ladder against the harbour wall. The sunshine was warm, my jumper was tied around my waist and Colin was in shorts but there was trouble ahead, the skies turned black and we could no longer see the masts in Lymington marina, there was a rumble of thunder and around us we could see the rain hosing down, amazingly we only had a very brief shower where we found a very scarce tree to shelter under. We emerged pretty much dry and the sun soon came back to warm us up. The Solent Way runs straight through Lymington Marina, a sheltered haven for some very ex...

Route A long weekend break by the sea to tide us over until we go to California next month. We set off fairly early today and stopped in Fritham a hamlet in the New Forrest and spent a couple of hours walking through the trees. We had an excellent Ploughmans Lunch in the 17th century Royal Oak pub. We are staying at the Marine House situated right on the seafront with views across the Solent to the Needles lighthouse on the Isle of Wight. The sun is shining but there is a strong onshore wind so no need for the shorts and yet just a 10 minute walk to the village slightly inland and there is much less breeze. After we had checked into our room we walked into Milford and then along the nature reserve of Keyhaven Marshes and onto the Hurst Castle Spit. In the last month we have travelled the length of the UK from top to bottom, coast to coast.We have seen the Atlantic Ocean on the West coast of Scotland and the Pentland Firth where it joins the North Sea...