Folly to Gosport

Our plan for today was to take the tide in the Solent east, heading for the Royal Clarence Marina at Gosport. They give a discount for CA members and we need to leave Robinetta in the Solent for a week since Julian has to go back to work on Monday.
After our late return to the Folly pontoons yesterday we were on the outside of the raft, so it was easy to cast off and set off down river at nine. We left Cowes through the small boat exit to the east of the main channel and once on course the wind came from almost dead astern. We tried running on just the foresails at first, but this made us slower than ideal, so we raised the main with 2 reefs in, and had a lovely sail across the Solent.
On a rising tide, at neaps, the Inner Swatchway channel was perfectly safe although a bit bouncy, and well away from any other shipping until we joined the main channel into Portsmouth harbour. The entrance was quite busy with yachts and not a good place to get sails down, but once we were near the marina the water was much calmer, and it was easy to stow them away.
We were safely moored up by 11:40, after four weeks on board. In that time we have visited two traditional boat events, so have been at sea for less time than normal, but we had a few good sails, one rather too exciting one, and covered over 400 mn.