Poole to Portland

The bank holiday Monday in Poole was a non-event. So much for hiding away from all the boats out and about. There were very few and the marina visitors area was pretty empty too. Grim weather might just have had something to do with it of course.

We planned to head a bit further west on the Tuesday and, as is often the case, timing was tricky. The wind was from the west, in other words right on the nose. If we left later on to take a favourable tide with us, then the "wind over tide" fun would have built up some messy waves over the bank that runs down from St Albans Head. It can get very confused there in the wrong conditions and the inland route was not an option as the gunnery range was active. So, we opted to leave a little earlier than "optimal" for the tides, aiming to cross the bank around slack water. We knew that the Lulworth range was active that day and would be firing out to sea. The only question was "how far" and so how far south we would have to go to clear it. By the time the tide got going in a westerly direction,  over the wind, we would start to get shelter from the land around Portland and so the wave heights should be fine.

That was the theory. the practice was pretty much spot on too. We left a deserted Poole Quay in the now standard wind and grey weather. Pushed the tide down towards Studland and the famous "Old Harry" rock and his neighbours:

Old Harry lost his wife (another chalk stack) quite a long while ago thanks to erosion, not divorce.

For folks who don't know the area, this is a UNESCO heritage site, have a look at Wikipedia entry

As we passed Swanage and headed out of the shelter of St Albans Head, there was a little more wave action but, rather unexpectedly, some fog banks too. The view became more like this:

and the radar was our friend. We called the Lulworth range guys on the radio and asked how far south they would like us to go. The answer was "south of 33.5 or 33". ie south of  the 50 degree and 33 minutes north line. You can work out where that line is from our course below:

basically following that line westwards until we were abeam Lulworth cove itself and could head up towards Portland harbour. The crew took a turn at the helm and the ship's dog just kept on snoozing:

The fog banks came, went and got thicker and bigger so not much to see bar the radar plot. The good news is that the St Albans ledge area was very calm as we traversed it. Approaching Portland it all got busier with a little tanker moving across our track then spinning around to come alongside an anchored ship for bunkering:

This meant a diversion for us and as there was some commercial traffic, we took the longer route into the harbour, through the more northerly entrance. It was pretty thick fog in the harbour too but the fast sailing dinghies were still out, up on their foils and haring around in poor visibility. Portland marina gave us a berth and as we approached the fog cleared a bit, thanks to very heavy rain and 36 knot wind gusts. Ideal for mooring up when we had to back down between two pontoons and wriggle into the corner berth.  As we approached, we noticed that the allotted spot had a yacht in it so a quick (soggy) radio call and we were given another option. Why that kind of thing has to happen in the rain and with strong gusts that make berthing tricky at the best of times is a mystery. 

Despite the best efforts of the fates to conspire against us, we moored and happily pottered up to the office once the rain cleared. Portland is in the same marina group as Penarth so berthing here is a freebie for us. We prefer being in the harbour in Weymouth but our bank balance likes it here.

Maintenance News:

Nothing really to report. The wing engine had some exercise on the way over, the big Lugger was happy too. The captain needs to adjust the position of the port stabiliser locking pin next time we run the engine - it didn't slide in happily to lock the fin when we arrived. This is a simple enough 4 bolt job with a big allen key.