Weymouth to Poole

I decided the best time to leave for Poole was about 1pm to fight the last of the weak inshore ebb to St Alban's Head and get the flood over the bank and round into Poole. Alison asked the Harbour folks and they said the tide was stronger and to leave early. We compromised.

Shadowfax inside us on the raft left around 9am, exiting the raft skilfully with the help of the Hilyard 8 tonner on the inside and the old GRP sloop inside us. Very skilfully done.

We popped up to the chandlers and bought a replacement rope for the jib furler. We got ready to go while I chatted with the chap on the Hilyard and Alison bailed Worm and we were off.

We raised sail outside the harbour and then the rain came! I got my oilies on and took the helm while Alison did the same.

But the sailing was OK. I did some more tide research and decided we would be at St Alban's head two hours early for a nice passage so we decided to have lunch in Lulworth Cove.

Durdle Door

We passed Durdle Door and Stair Hole - very impressive and crowded with sight-see-ers on the shore and then we were at Lulworth.

We were early and the second yacht in so there was plenty of room. We anchored in about 1m on the chart and had lunch and then I got to work trying to get the AIS and depth display back. I found that there was no 0V reference on the NMEA link to the chart plotter - maybe it had broken - there was no loose wire. I wired it to the main earth and everything started working. Luckily it told us we had enough depth!

We motored out and continued. The wind was strengthening and we reefed down but ended up putting the jib away. That got us a nice comfortable close reach to St Alban's head. Now we shouldn't have had a close reach - the forecast was for a broad reach. Oh well.

We took inshore passage and did get some overfalls on the west side of St Alban's head but nothing to mention and only for a few minutes. Then we had the flood with us and flat water.

The only problem was that we had found ourselves on a line of crab pots. Some hard to see. And the wind died. We put the engine on to get round the crab pots.

Out to sea we spotted Cine Mara and Susan J. They must have left a couple of hours later and caught us up. They went outside St Albans's bank but they still nearly caught us up on the run in to Poole.

The sun tried to come out as we passed Old Harry.

For us, the rest of the trip was uneventful. We passed the Ferry while it was loading and headed to Poole Quay.

Cine Mara got caught by the cross tide past the ferry and went aground in the entrance to the harbour. Hopefully they will get off at high water.

Alison had phoned ahead and booked a berth so we picked that up and put Robinetta to bed and Alison went to mortgage the house and use the money to pay for the berth while I cooked burgers for dinner.