We had planned to take the tender up the river to Newport (capital of the Isle of Wight), but as this is really a shakedown cruise, this was not one of the bits of kit that we had previously tested. In the end we discovered a leak around one of the valves and that brought an end to the plan as the special glue for the rubber boats takes around 48 hours to cure properly.

It turns out to be an ill wind as they say, as we take the water taxi to the shore and walk the 2.5 miles or so along the river bank into town. Newport by the river turns out to be OK and once again is a funny mixture of both new and slightly derelict or perhaps just faded…

A ‘lite bite’ turns into fish finger baguettes for 3 of us and smoked bacon and stilton baguette for the remainder…not exactly ‘lite’. But the pub by the river was lovely and served glasses of Jubillee Fizz (English sparkling) and pints of ‘Cheers Ma’am’. All very patriotic…

We heave our pints and lite bites back down the river bank, past the preparatioins for the Isle of Wight Festival, and past the old paddle steamer “Ryde” which someone unkindly suggested was a little project for James…”just needs a bit of welding and the odd lick of paint”…

So… a quiet day stretching legs rather than sailing, but pleasant all the same.