Earlier this month, I got to go on a sailing trip from Hamble in Hampshire (England) to the Isle of Wight. The bloke's brother placed second in raising the most money for charity at his workplace, so he and the winner got the chance to go on a one-day sailing trip and invite along a few friends/family. We met in Hamble in Hampshire at the harbour in the morning yo get the sailboat, and we had perfect weather throughout the day. We were shown how to operate the sail boat, including lowering the sails, tying the boat to the dock, and how to navigate. This area is perfect for sailing because of well-marked waters and other boats using the area, including the ferries to the Isle of Wight and cargo ships.
The ship we sailed on is "Solent Hero", which is a boat that is used to help teach people how to sail.
There is a wheel on both sides of the end of the boat to control the boat's direction. A compass, depth of the water, and navigation system is provided. The water is not too deep around the land with an average depth of about 5-6 meters. The middle of the solent gets deeper with 20 or 30 meters in depth.
Actually, the most comfortable seat (before we put up the sails) was the front of the ship.
We could sit below deck, but none of us did. There is a kitchen, seating, and three rooms with double bunks.
After the sails went down, we sped up.
I caught glimpses of the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth.
Finally, we arrived at the northern shores of the Isle of Wight. We caught glimpses of Osborn House, which is where Queen Victoria often visited.
A little way further, we came to Old Castle Point.
Then, we came to the opening of the river into the harbour of Cowes on the Isle of Wight.
We saw the car ferry, which I've used in the past when I've visited the Isle of Wight by car (or used the pedestrian service).
Then we sailed down the River Medina. We attempted to get close to the Isle of Wight Festival, but we actually could not go all the way down as the water was getting more shallow, but we did make our way down quite a bit.
We then stopped and had food (sandwiches, fruit, snacks, and biscuits) and wine/beer on the deck, which was the perfect weather with full sunshine. After we finished, we headed back. The weather clouded up in a couple of places on the way back, but it was still lovely.
We then "parked" the sailboat back in Hamble docks.
We had a lovely trip, and it was a lovely day to sail around Port Solent and the Isle of Wight.
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