Still sunny we left Lymington late morning and emerged into the Solent with a few other boats. Tacking back and forth, dodging boats and all the “rules of the road “ involved, reminded me of happy days gone by on Quango….. a Hunter 707 we used to race up in North Wales. Once past the nice bright white lighthouse and Hurst castle.. presumably napoleonic? We took the Route of the North channel rather than bucking lumpy wind and tide out by the needles. Which did mean no iconic pictures! We had one reef in the main and in the headsail and we sailed on the wind putting in a couple of tacks as needed. It was only a few hours journey and with the wind still blowing 15-20 knots as usual we were approaching Studland bay off Poole, in no time. The very obvious white cliffs and stacks of Old Harry approaching are truly stunning. Especially as we had blue sky and sea with green fields to complete the scene. What amazing geology we have in this island of ours. We were aware of all the issues surrounding anchoring in Studland bay, given its been in yachting monthly etc, but couldn’t find out on the internet just exactly what was there… we gathered there were some visitors mooring buoys but it wasn’t clear how many. We could see a line of neatly separated boats maybe 6 or 7 , and then a few random ones. We rightly guessed that the line did represent moorings but they are small and white, so not easy to see. However, binoculars in hand we made our a free one between two boats and headed for it. On arriving at it, no pickup but a nice open metal hoop of narrow gauge. J turned around so I could get my yellow mooring tool ready and a line. Not easy as it’s still windy but we managed to get a line on it to secure us. Once secure we did the same with our ( heavy duty….. weighs a tonne) chain bridle. Fixed for the night! There is a website that you’re directed to, to make a donation to the seahorse trust. I did this but wondering how many people do? I’m hoping they do because that’s the only way they will afford to put more mooring buoys down. At the moment there are only 10, which patently obviously is nowhere near enough if you look at photos of this place on summer holiday weekends. We loved the place and despite the wind we had a really comfortable night. We watched Wimbledon and the world go by…… eventually the sun went down. Good to imagine the little long-snouted seahorses in their weedy home underneath our boat .
What I learned today…… all about seahorses, sea grass, The seahorse trust, boatfolk, the marine management organisation and eco- moorings with the novel way of anchoring them. Read in the pictures……🤗
Sue x
Laundry all done 
Hurst castle 
The Needles 
Old Harry 
Studland bay 
The eco buoy
Angelique 