James finally had enough of this and decided to spend the night sleeping on the boat at Mercury on the Hamble overnight with a view to getting a quick trip out on the Sunday morning when a short calm period was forecast for the Southampton area.
After a rushed start we managed to tow down to Mercury to catch the ebbing tide to launch just before it became impossible.
However on the way down the sky cleared and the sun came out. When we launched at Mercury we looked at the weather and thought it might be worth poking our noses out of the river to see what it was like, it was glorious! Against the forecast it was sunny and the sea was slight. We took a blast up to see what big ships were in and to exercise the engine after its winter laid up and Thames trips.
James stayed overnight and I returned the next morning and we went over to Cowes to get our first visit to the Isle of Wight for this year.
