Poole to Weymouth

Sometimes you cannot help people. So Anne could say that she enjoyed at least one holiday breakfast in bed, the captain duly delivered it rather than just the normal morning coffee.  This was the look it generated:

Never again.

We had a lovely old Camper and Nicholson yacht berthed ahead of us in Poole. Lord Portal was used by the Joint Services Adventurous Sail Training Centre (have a look on line for her) and has been around the world 3 times plus a bit more. So nice to see a proper offshore yacht of her vintage still in use and being enjoyed. She was in Weymouth with us later on:

We had to ask her to move so that we could slip out of Poole and begin the fight against the tide to Weymouth. We left at a bad time for the tides but a good time to try and get a slot to berth in at the other end as we were told that Weymouth was very busy. It was.

We are getting ahead of ourselves. Here is the route:

With a diversion to the south as you can see because the Lulworth Range was active. Someone was popping live rounds of ordnance out to sea up to 3 miles off so we had to stay a little further south than you ideally would. Our idea of anchoring in Lulworth Cove for a while was abandoned as the loop around added a lot of time to the trip as did the foul tide. Around St Albans ledge with some fierce eddies and confused sea, we sometimes dropped to 0.9 knots over the ground.

Leaving Poole harbour, the cloud formations were very impressive and atmospheric:

You really get to enjoy the Jurassic coastline though (and some of it for quite a long time when making 0.9 knots!) First of all, there is Studland Bay and Old Harry:

Heading for Anvil Point, we passed the rather good lunch spot (Durlston Castle) from the day before:

and then the cute little lighthouse which we had to include although we've featured it before:

Arriving into Weymouth after a flybridge trip that got a bit chilly when out of the sun but in the breeze (SW 4) we were given a berth alongside another older craft. A 40 year old elegant motor cruiser called Alaskan Dawn which we had seen in Chichester Harbour when we used to frequent this area. Here is a picture of her from Marinetraffic:

It turned out to be a day of classic craft and chats to their owners.

It was also a special day for Izzy - she went to the groomers after Anne managed to get a last minute appointment. Most unhappy at being left there, afterwards she looked rather good:

Naturally she had to go for a run on the beach that evening to undo some of the good work:

A cockpit shower beckons....