Report on Newtown Creek Cruise

We set off in the rain and motor-sailed against the tide to Newtown Creek. In order to bring some sense of excitement to the journey Chris decided to take the inner passage around Hayling Island and watch Misty Blue head towards West Pole.

Chris had seen Dolphin on his trip back from Falmouth at the end of June – I have never seen a dolphin when on Lowenna so I was amazed and privileged to see one near Cowes (I think it must have been lost). The rain had stopped by the time we got to Newtown Creek and we rafted up to Dawn Chorus who had kindly said that we could hold the pontoon/shingle party on Dawn Chorus due to the anticipated weather and to avoiding dinghying ashore that evening. The evening turned out to be beautiful sunshine.

There were four boats containing hardy shipmates that braved the weather forecast, Dawn Chorus and Ursa Minor had moved round from Cowes/The Folly and Lowenna and Misty Blue had set out from Chichester passing the returnees from Simon Fraser’s cruise. We had a very pleasant gathering aboard DC with alcohol and happy chatter then back to our respective boats for our own culinary delights. We arranged to meet at the boathouse landing at 1100 on Saturday morning having found out that Nick and Jane had never been to Newtown Creek and that Simon had anchored at Newtown Creek in the past for several days but never left Misty Blue.

We walked to Newtown, originally called Francheville meaning ‘Free Town’, noting the Coastguard’s cottages, the Church and the old village pump before arriving at The Town Hall to discover that the National Trust were still monitoring the subsidence and hadn’t yet decided on a maintenance strategy, hence it has been closed to the public for several years. We then gathered at the NT Visitor Centre for a cup of coffee and to learn more about the ongoing conservation works. We completed our Newtown visit before the rain started; we then headed for the quay and the walk to The New Inn at Shalfleet which had recently come under new ownership and management. The food and service were excellent and we hope that the new owners can make their venture a success. It had rained while we were having lunch so although we had managed to remain relatively dry with the use of umbrellas and waterproof jackets, the water in the dinghies meant that another pair of trousers was going to be wet through for everyone!

The forecast for the journey home meant that we were expecting another soaking (I still had one dry pair of trousers left) and little wind so motoring and full wet weather gear was anticipated. Instead, the morning was sunny and warm. The wild swimmer amongst us, Helen, took a morning swim around Dawn Chorus. The rain held off and we had a great sail after Cowes. Misty Blue and Lowenna didn’t experience rain in the whole trip but Ursa Minor, who had set off 45 minutes earlier, was caught in a downpour in Chichester Harbour. The weekend that was expected to be wet and miserable turned out to be warm and very pleasant.

Thank you to the hardy souls who joined us on the cruise and for contributing to it being such a pleasurable experience – Dawn Chorus, Ursa Minor and Misty Blue.
Photos courtesy of Jerry Quinton, hence missing from the photo,and no that’s not Graham, it’s his friend Neil!

Mel and Chris on Lowenna

For further information about Newtown Creek see the links below.
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/isle-of-wight/newtown-national-nature-reserve-and-old-town-hall
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/isle-of-wight/newtown-national-nature-reserve-and-old-town-hall/history-at-newtown-old-town-hall
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newtown,_Isle_of_Wight