The River Itchen

 I tend to bang on rather about how lovely it is round here on the south coast of England, with Chichester Harbour, the River Hamble and the Isle of Wight and everything, so yesterday was a total change.
Langstone Cutters took Gladys to meet a bunch of people from Hamble River Rowing to row up the River Itchen.
Now, for most of its length the Itchen is indeed very lovely. It is a noted trout stream burbling gently through chalk downland. But when it reaches Southampton it gets very urban and gritty.
Someone said something about how horrible it all is, and Steve riposted: "How can you say that, with this wonderful view of the allotments?" Then he looked over his shoulder and spotted the vast piles of rusting garbage at a scrap metal quay. "Just when I thought it couldn't get better....," he muttered.
The main picture, supplied by Hamble River Rowing stalwart Andy Cunningham, captures the ambience. That's Gladys at the extreme right.
And here she is again, moving away from the slipway after lunch. Lunch was a surprise. We went to the Junction Inn on the recommendation of Port na Storm blogger Graham Neil, expecting not much from a pub stuck between the railway and the river. But it was great - a superb selection of real ales and a home cooked menu at very reasonable prices.
The prize for most attractive boat on the river goes to Myfanwy, a Swallowboats Osprey owned by Glyn Ffoulkes.

Training

Hamble River Rowing have produced a very nice training video, starting off with a bravura display of terrible timing in a Bursledon gig. You have to be good to row as badly as that.
Then, about a minute and a half in, along comes the Solent galley Bembridge, rowed by a crew from Langstone Cutters with me at stroke. Fame at last!
The video was created by Philip Meakins who also sings that classic folk melody Messing about on the River.

Bembridge rows up the Hamble

Setting out from Langstone

Langstone Cutters' Solent Galley Bembridge rowed up the River Hamble from mouth to source on Saturday. Well, as far as the Horse and Jockey at Curbridge where we got somehow detained.
Actually, the river is not navigable much further than Curbridge. We were worried that Bembridge, which is 30ft long and has 10ft oars sticking out on either side, might get embarrassingly stuck and be forced to back down.

Mistress at Warsash

We put in at Warsash and were met there by the Hand family in their immaculate Bursledon Gig Mistress, complete with monogrammed carbon fibre blades and matching T shirts. They row pretty smartly too, and don't hang about.

Bembridge arrives at Bursledon (thanks to Anthony Hewett-Hicks for the pic)

At Bursledon we were joined by six other gigs of Hamble River Rowing and the fleet headed up river. The wind had died to a complete calm, the tide was high and the autumn colours were just fading into deep russets and golds. It was bliss.

The fleet at the Jolly Sailor

Coming back down, we stopped at the Jolly Sailor, home of Hamble River Rowing, before paddling back to Warsash in the gathering gloom.
The GPS tracks are here.
We got a great welcome from HRR and we will be back - and we hope HRR will be over at Langstone soon.

Hamble River Rowing launched

Hamble River Rowing launched on Saturday beneath cloudless and blissfully planeless skies. The club's home, the Jolly Sailor pub in Bursledon, teemed with people interested in rowing the pair of gigs that will be based on the pub's pontoon.

I am always in awe of people who can scull properly like this guy. He managed to get quite a speed up, though to do it he seems to have to face the wrong way, which rather detracts from sculling's main advantage which is that you can see where you are going.