this is going to be an adventure
right so six o'clock in the morning the adventure begins today we're going to kite boat around the
isle of wight it's never been done before um i've been eyeing it up for years now but just never lined up
the right conditions and there's always a reason not to do it but this morning today we're gonna
go for it um forecast is upgraded a little bit it's now saying possibly 25 even 30 35 knots but
i don't think it'll be quite that windy um and a little bit of rain but the tides are actually
perfect so it all goes well we'll get round before then we're just about to leave hayling island
and we're going to tow the kite boat in swansong my sailing boat all the way to the isle of wight
we're going to start from bembridge and so it should take us about an hour and a half to
get to bembridge and then probably six to eight hours going around we came out last night
and loaded up all the supplies well actually firstly we brought the hobie cat up about five
miles with the outboard on it was cruising at like eight knots so it goes pretty well
i'm quite nervous but having to be confident to instill in the boys right so seven o'clock
in the morning we're making pretty good time towards bembridge on the isle of wight
um it's about six miles across so it's gonna take us about an hour to get there we're
going into the wind it's already about um 15 20 knots so we're just debating
whether we go on the 15 meter ghost v2 or the 10 meter machine um
i guess if it gets up to like 30 knots might get a little bit hairy on the 15 meter
and we haven't done a whole lot of testing slash none in that kind of wind so i don't really want
a line to break because i'd prefer not to have to do a kite change so we might take a 10.
there's tommy right so we just moored up in and it's about quarter past eight so quick bacon sarnie
get suited up and go it's already a good 20 knots it's gonna get quite windy later so
it's not a race we're just going for the completion you know it's never been done before
it's a bit a bit scary but we're going for it okay we're officially ready to go we've got two
kites bars food watch safety equipment toys are all loaded up it's nine o'clock let's go
let's go yeah
butterflies and anxiety is real once we get going it'll be fine
it's just that first bit when you set off i love it but also gets the ticket going
all good off we go it's 10 o'clock
a little bit later than planned but there's always a lot of faffing
all right ready lads
okay here we go
right lets gybe
give it some
keep going around
(laughs)
this is going to be an adventure i already know
what's the helming experience like
im finding new muscles in my hip flexors
it's actually quite comfy my hands are getting a bit cold
i should have worn gloves
it's only about 15 degrees Celsius its still early in the season
the goggles aren't a bad call either
so we are 1 hour in we've done 12 km
12 kilometers an hour which is probably like 8 mph 6 knots
we're on schedule
it's quite hard work its fair to say the boat
could do with a lot of refining
(laughs)
just a few upgrades
right so we're two hours in we've done 25 km
we're past cowes thats gunnard behind us and its getting pretty rough
it's wind over tide so we're taking some big waves
we're a little bit behind
schedule we might not make it time to the needles before the tide changes we'll just have to see
(chuckles)
all right so we're three and a half hours in we've done 45 kilometers
averaging 12 kilometers an hour just coming up to yarmouth
and uh we've got the needles to come it's bloody hard work and very wet and cold
almost halfway
hey we're four and a half hours in we're coming up to hurst narrows
the wind's picked up a lot probably 25 knots now
the tide has changed though we're currently going into the tide
and our speed has slowed down a lot
we're only doing like 5 knots right now
we're still making ground but it could take a couple of hours to get up to the needles
so we're considering calling it
all right well i think we've decided to call it got really windy and wet
we're at hurst castle we just can't beat the tide anymore
and we're uh coming up five hours in now at 60 kilometers so we gave it a good bash
gybe oh i guess
lets see how fast we can go downwind
woohooo
all right we're already back at cowes we're averaging like 20
kilometers an hour right now we're flying downwind
with the tide as well with any luck we'll be having a cup of tea in about two hours
so we've officially been on the boat for seven hours
made it back on dry land we made it back to where we started and the sun finally comes out
after seven hours wait seven and a half hours we had seven hours of rain
and squally conditions and we get back and the sun comes out
we did almost 100 kilometers
look at that spread
good morning just woken up it's seven o'clock in the morning and a glorious day ended up
just passing out last night we were absolutely shattered we spent eight hours on the kite boat we did
100 kilometers or like 97 kilometers but my watch froze so i had to stop and restart the activity
um we hit a top speed of 17 knots and average around 10 or 12 knots for most of the day
in short it was brutal it was really hard work we definitely learned a lot from it there's
a few modifications we need to make the steering is tricky because there's so much leverage
i think we just need one tiller but looking on the map we got so close we basically did the distance
to get around we just needed like another hour or two of tide window to get around the needles
when we got to hearst castle we were just going into the tide and we've had four hours of brutal
upwind slogging i'm just getting smashed in the face by waves um holding on for dear life
so by the time we got to hurst castle and hit the tide coming against us we just
couldn't take any more and in hindsight it was the right decision because
it would have been at least two hours fighting the tide to get round the needles and then we would
have been in bigger waves you know bigger surf more consequence um when we were super tired so
annoyingly we were so close but also quite far away um from getting around
so definitely yeah learn a lot from it um and it means we'll have to come and do it again
but maybe make a few modifications first but now it's time for a quick breakfast
and sail home let's go thanks a lot for watching see you in the next video peace out