Saturday 3^rd June Ti Gitu left Emsworth marina and after a couple of days at anchor went to Cowes to pick up fuel. This is for our winter heating which we like to ensure having from the beginning of summer.

On the way we said a last farewell to our great friend Phillip Rose and with both of us in tears committed his ashes to the sea, before finishing a really nice gentle sail.

After collecting fuel we went onto a harbour authority pontoon for which we were charged £21, up from the £18 of last time.

The next day it was up to Newport for a couple of days and a good long cycle ride before leaving on Thursday to wait on one of the Folly pontoons having been told that Ti Gitu couldn’t use the other one.

For this ‘pleasure’ we were charged £24 and when I queried it I was smirkingly told that was the new price and that it was published on the internet. It is not!! Actually the only price published is from 2 years ago and is £18. I wonder what Trading Standards would make of that.

It is obvious why many cruisers report on the chat sites that they are unhappy with visiting the area and just feel ‘ripped off’ all the time. It seems that the only people happy to visit are the ‘Hooray Henries’ who keep their boats in the Southampton area and zip across at weekends to visit local restaurants.

We will be joining the growing numbers avoiding the place.

The Friday saw slightly stronger Easterlies and we sailed close hauled back to Chichester, anchoring to wait for the tide to get back into the marina for a few days. Then hopefully we will head off East and visit The Netherlands for a while.