Sunday. A busy day in Poole harbour. Boats going all over the place. We left about 1130 after having bought a Sunday paper, filled up with water, made the cheese and ham rolls ….etc. The wind was thankfully light for once, weather warm and sunny. We sailed out of the harbour with full main. The wind is Southwesterly so perfect for the beginning of our journey. We’d enjoyed Poole but were quite glad to get back in the open sea without having boats everywhere to dodge. As we left the harbour and headed towards Handfast point, we noticed loads of boats in Studland bay. Presumably mostly local boats… just ignoring the prohibition??? We passed by Old harry and his wife, and on past Swanage up to Anvil point and then St Albans head which you have to give a wide berth. That’s because there’s a shallow ledge which runs out from it, under the sea, creating overfalls ( breaking waves) because of tidal flows. It actually seemed relatively quiet today and caused us no problems. Although the wind was on the nose, and the tide with us, the water stayed pretty flat and we made good progress. It was in fact an amazing days sailing.. maybe the best yet! We passed close to the Jurassic coast and the beautiful white cliffs reflecting in the late afternoon sunshine. Passed Worbarrow bay, Lulworth cove and Durdle door. The whole coastline looks like the edge of a vaguely folded pile of washing . Some bits of it just obviously crumbling into the water… revealing hidden treasures behind? Eventually we arrived near Weymouth and took down the sails. We radioed as instructed along with quite a few other boats waiting outside and were told to go to B5 where we would be second boat out from Firebird of Arne. We entered the harbour, thankfully sheltered in this wind direction ( never forget Whitby😱) , and spotted Said neighbour. Julian turned the boat round so were were into the bit of tide, and we drew alongside. Weymouth is gorgeous! By now you know we love a river harbour! Beautifully peaceful, protected water surrounded by glorious, colourful, well maintained, old buildings. I used to hate rafting up but it’s actually rather nice. You get to meet interesting people who always ask “ where have you come from “ ? and seem genuinely interesting when we tell them. You also pick up lots of tips and local knowledge which is invaluable. It was 1830 by the time we were there, so not a lot of time to explore but it was just lovely sitting watching the world go by.
What I learned today….. that the Portland bill of tomorrow, should not stop me enjoying the Weymouth harbour of today……
Sue x
Escaping Poole harbour 
Old Harry and his Mrs 
Jurassic coast 
J winching headsail 
Weymouth 
Angelique 