Dartmouth to Weymouth

The tide timings were not ideal for this trip. To avoid pushing the big tidal streams off Portland Bill, we needed to arrive there at about 8am. That means a late evening departure from Dartmouth for the slog across Lyme Bay. Funny how that is a slog and other trips are “a trip”. Lyme Bay always seems very uninteresting somehow. The only time it was entertaining was when we were joined by a show-off dolphin who loved playing in our bow wave and treated us to 2 spells of great tricks before slapping his tail on the sea as a farewell and heading off.

Most other times, it has been a slog and as the wind had been a strong easterly for a couple of days, this was likely to be the same. Our plan was to get to Weymouth early on Thursday morning and get a mooring spot in the harbour before the hordes of Easter holiday folks from the Solent area descended upon the place. Then we would take a leisurely trip to Southampton ready for the lift out on the following Friday. The tides dictated a 10:30pm departure from Dartmouth.

One benefit of the full(ish) moon was some help in seeing the permanent moorings in the harbour as we nosed our way out in the dark. Sure enough, there was a fair swell from the easterly winds right on the nose so we nodded our way across Lyme Bay, with a couple of big detours for fishing boats en route. Good thing was that there was a little visibility with the moon so you knew when a big wave was coming. Bad news is that when you are trying to sleep in the pilothouse berth, you don’t see them of course.

As we reached Portland Bill, the tide turned nicely to help us. Portland was pretty misty / gloomy at 8am though:

Luckily the sun came out more seriously and the tide pushed us hard towards Weymouth and the harbour entrance which doesn’t look that appealing really:

The tower is one of those rotating observation things which for some reason in Weymouth is linked to the SeaLife centre. If anyone knows why….

Once inside the harbour. it is a lovely, lively spot though. Moored by 9:30am and in need of breakfast we spotted that it was a lot like being in Penarth – with one of the “plastic navy” patrol boat thingies moored ahead of us. If this is one of our 23 ships, we worry that our Nordhavn will be enrolled in times of need:

As the harbour slowly filled up, we inherited a Princess 54 motorcruiser rafted outside of us. The owner was upset with the harbour master as he wanted to be alongside the quay (first come first served here, no bookings possible) and wanted to be “port side to” when moored so the sun was in his aft cockpit in the evening. Of course, we always moor starboard side to (only one walkway on a Nordhavn, as we mentioned before) so he had the double whammy of being rafted out and the wrong way round for the sun. His life was, clearly, over. Actually I don't think he liked his 54 foot boat looking small against our 47 either. So sad.

Funnily enough he had an enormous flybridge to sit on with sun all day so he got little sympathy from the harbour master or us. This behaviour made us remember just how “M25 outside-laneish” the Solent based boaters are.” I want what I want and when I want it”. Looking forward to going back to Scotland soon…

For the interested, the trip was just over 54 miles and took just under 11 hours - lots of pushing the tide. Nothing to report on the maintenance front except it was nice and warm whilst doing the engine checks in the "wee hours" of the morning.