Sailing the Solent, Isle of Wight, England

Wow!

Laika is a swift, comfortable 12m Westerley yacht that loves a good wind. The Solent is a wide expanse of protected waters with huge tides, massive ships, lots of ferries and hovercrafts, sea rescue boats and countless other yachts and boats. It's like a children's picture book page of everything you can think of that floats (and doesn't : there are more Mayday calls in a day here than we get in a year in Western Australia), and a far cry from pottering around on little boats at Rockingham.

There are lots of beautiful ports, estuaries, rivers and pubs to sail up into. Cowes, the capital of english yacht racing lies at the centre of this. This is real sailing on a real yacht!