Some of the people on board are determined to celebrate the Queen’s 70 years on the throne and Heydays ends up being decorated for the occasion…

After a leisurely morning we plan to catch the ebb down Southampton Water and head where the wind best suits. Presumably in celebration, the marina staff appear with a trolley full of free drinks and we relieve them of a few glasses of prosecco and a beer…not too much as we are heading out on the water.

A couple of us want to pay some different respects and we turn briefly upstream under the Itchen bridge to what is surely the most glamourous of places of dreams…or nightmares!

Actually this part of the Itchen brings back some memories of our friends Graham and Madeline who completely rebuilt their boat My Foolish Heart in a small yard just opposite the Saints stadium. Some of the yards seem to have an odd way of coping with flying boats…

The wind is very different from the forecast and as we turn to head out it is a good F5 gusting 6 from the SE. With two reefs in the main and a couple of rolls in the genoa, experience has shown that Heydays will tack really well and take what the weather has to offer in her stride. The sailing is glorious…

Given the wind direction (which had originally been forecast as having some west in it), we opt to head back to the Folly for another night on the Medina instead of Chichester as planned. Tacking down Southampton Water and we dodge the various ferries, tankers and other assorted boats. We’re not racing…but we manage to outperform several others. Ha!

Although we are on a falling tide, with just 1.4m draught, we can pinch a little more out of each tack than some of our deeper cousins. With hot tea and coffee on the go, it is really joyous to be out even if the reverie is broken by unreasonable helms shouting “ready about”, followed by a general hauling and winching before we can settle in for another 10 minutes or so.

By the time we reach the the Medina, the ebb is now running across the entrance at over 2kts and we join a throng of others motoring steadily up stream. Lots of boats are already tied up and the various clubs etc have bunting and flags…

We head further up and out of the mayhem to the relative calm of the Folly reach. This never fails us and we spend the evening just chilling, eating and watching life come and go…