Poole to Weymouth

Being mean types, we rather fancied a few free nights in Portland. To be fair, we didn't fancy Portland at all as it is a bit of a wasteland really but the berthing cost is a draw. The idea was to spend a few night there and catch up on some external boat maintenance. Well, Portland, the forgotten ugly duckling of harbours, was full!!! Never before had we heard of this. Proof positive that summer 2021 is just chaos. Instead the helpful harbour folks in Weymouth said that we could have a couple of nights there. As we love being in the harbour where you feel a real part of the town, we happily accepted the offer (NB - only two nights, full afterwards!)

Getting the tide times right for the trip was pretty much impossible. To get tidal help we would have left well after the 12pm throwing out time in Poole and arrival in Weymouth would have been very late. So, we just manned up and pushed the tide for much of the time. Leaving Poole we passed two "laid up" Condor fast ferries that normally are taking folks to the Channel Islands. They looked very sad:

and close up very scruffy too. Exiting the harbour, the Sandbanks area always smells of money:

If you don't know the area, have a look at most expensive seaside towns  Passing Old Harry the famous stack is always pretty:

and seeing it from the other side you get a better idea of the real colour of the cliffs even when taken from the little phone camera:

The route to Weymouth always looks strange when the firing range at Lulworth is active:

We contacted the range safety craft and were told that firing was up to 3.5 miles offshore so staying south of  50 degrees 33 minutes north would be fine. Hence the "flat bit" heading due west on the track above as we skirted the south of the active firing range until abeam of Lulworth when we could turn for Weymouth harbour. Rather a lot of "Fast motor craft approaching St Alban's head this is range safety craft" calls were heard on the radio as it seemed that several folks were either unaware of or didn't care about the live gunnery activity - despite the very audible bangs from the shore! The two safety craft chatted to each other about intercepting boats who did not respond to radio calls and one said "they are all out to play today". It certainly seemed so. 

There were plenty of anchored "laid up" liners in the area to amuse us on the way into the harbour:

,also a few poorly marked pots too. We were given a berth that we had used a couple of times before and even had a harbour guy helping us moor up. Excellent service. Somehow it felt a bit like home. No idea why but Weymouth, despite the "interesting" types of holidaymaker wandering along the harbour, is a happy place for us. 

To get some exercise, we cycled to Portland along the old railway line now known as the Rodwell trail. You get great views over Chesil which the sad captain remembers from geography lessons many many years ago:

Upon our return to the harbour, Lady Grey had arrived and doubled the local Nordhavn count as Zephyros the 43 was already in the west country (see, we said that everyone was heading that way!). She makes our boat look rather tiny:

A social afternoon / evening with Alex and Gisele was enjoyed before an early night, ready for an early morning departure. Thank you tides.