Dartmouth cruise part 2

Wednesday 11th June.

The long slog across Lyme bay hadn't exactly been our idea of fun, more a necessary evil.  On the way back we wanted to break the journey, so on advice from a mooring neighbour we planned to overnight at Lyme Regis. One on the benefits being that we'd have a civilised start time from Dartmouth, we're not much into getting up to early!

Ciao Bella and Lapwing rafted up on the Dartmouth Sailing Club pontoon.

Initially the wind was fairly none existant and we had to motor out past the mew stone stone but eventually it filled in, just a little, but enough to let us pole out the Genoa and goosewing at a reasonable speed in the right direction.

Part way across Lyme bay I caught the weather and safety announcements from the coastguard. The mention of range activity had me a little nervous, especially as the chart shows pretty much the whole of Lyme bay as a range! After several minutes of trying to work out where was safe I resorted to calling up the coastguard, gave him our position and destination; he gave us the all clear to continue.  On the track at the top of the page you can see the temporary change of direction, glad we could continue as didn't fancy rerouting around Portland.

Approaching Lyme Regis

It was nice to see Lyme Regis coming into view,  with Devon to the West and Dorset to the East it seemed like the right place to stop.  High on my list of priorities when we stepped ashore was an ice cream.

Looking back along the Devon coast - Dorset in front of us.

Interesting pontoons at Lyme Regis

The pontoons at Lyme are a little disappointing... They are outside of the harbour so would be uncomfortable in any wind with an East in it and they are really wobbly.  I think you would have to crawl along them if it was rough.  The facilities, which we didn't use because we couldn't find the habour master to get the key, were a good 15min walk away.  All this luxury was £20 per night.  We would have to pay in the morning if we saw him.

Thursday 12th June.

Fantastic morning sail.

Up at 5am and off we went, what a beautiful time of day to be on the water.  The sun was very low in the sky and the wind was a good f4, Ciao Bella was in her element. The Hurley and the Corribee are quite well matched.  The Corribee tends to come into her own when the wind really picks up but through out this cruise it's been swings and roundabouts.

The best sailing all year 

Tired crew

 We headed for Chesil Cove, which is where Chesil beach meets Portland, and dropped the anchor.  We'd have quite a wait before being able to go around the bill so we pumped up the tenders and paddled ashore.  It's like a christmas cracker puzzle,  Paul and I paddled ashore in our Coracles then Paul towed mine back for John to get in.  An interesting operation and not without it's wet moments.

Coracle gymkhana at Chisel Cove

Anchored at Chisel Cove

 There is a nice cafe just on the beach here, Quiddles, which I'd never noticed before. We took a stroll down to the sailing academy at Portand harbour before walking back along the beach.  Strange that we could walk there in 20 mins but it would take a few hours the sail there :)  More coffee and cake at the cafe, then back in the coracles and aboard for a nap before setting off again.

Coffee at Quiddles with boat in background

Motoring along Portland

We pick up the anchors around 3pm and motored down the side of Portland.  I'm not sure why I raised the sail, It would play no further part in todays proceeding... Glad that we set off early from Lyme and had a proper sail this morning.

Guillemots on the Bill

 As we approached the Bill we noticed a small colony of birds which looked a little odd to our untrained eye.  The moved ungainly and looked a bit like penguins... unlikely :)  As they dived off the rocks we were convinced that they were puffins. It was only when we got home and could zoom in on the pictures that we worked out that they were Guillemots.. I guess Chris Packhams job is safe from us!

Rounding the Bill was as uneventful as it had been the other way. The water was as calm as it could be, strange to think this can be a really inhospitable place for a small boat within hours.  Once round I tried to sail again but it was pointless, we motored into Weymouth and tied up near the Ferry.  The harbour master seemed reluctant to let us stay here and wanted to move us across to the Cove where we'd have to raft out.  We convinced her to let us stay, although she said she'd move us if bigger boat came in.  A little unfair I thought, happy to take our money at the same rate as others but wants to treat us a second class.

Weymouth was busy and had a good buzz with a motorcycle gathering on the quay.  Paul and John went off for some food, I didn't feel like it so cooked on the boat and met up with them at the pub later.

Lapwing and Ciao Bella on the far side 

Friday 13th June

We messed up a bit on the timings for leaving Weymouth.  It should have been easy, we'd had to wait until 3pm to get around Portland the day before so thinking 11 am was a good time to leave was clearly going to be wrong.  It was 10am by the time we'd realised we should have gone at 7am so we decided to crack on and fight the tide as far as Lulworth Cove and wait for the tide to get us around St Aldhelms.  

Looking back at Durdle Door

We did get some good sailing in although it was a little slow SOG.  We kept close inshore to keep out of the tide as much as possible.  It's the first time I've hugged the coast along this spectacular Jurassic coast, it was great to see it from the other side.

Lulworth Castle beyond Arish Mel

As we approached Lulworth the constant stream of RIBS from Lulworth out to Durdle Door reminded me that I did not want anchor there.  We pushed on another mile and a half to Warbarrow bay.  What an inspired decision.  No one about, absolutely gorgeous.  We anchored about 60 yards from the beach and Paul dived in and swam to Ciao Bella.  After a bit of lunch Paul swam back, I decided to overcome my nerves and dived in to swim to the beach.  I thought if it was too hard John could paddle the tender over... As I surfaced from the dive I heard John splash in... I guess I was committed :)

Swimming in Warbarrow bay

After some time gassing on the beach we swam back and prepared for our last leg home.  In a few hours we'd be back home.

Back on our travels

 The breeze was not enough to push us on to St Aldhelms so the motors went on again. This was to change as we got to the head.  Gradually the wind filled in from a gentle assist until we got to Swanage bay where it built to an estimate top F4 with F5 Gusts.

Lapwing before the breeze kicked in.

St Aldhelms head

 From Swanage to Poole became quite exciting with an impromtu race between Ciao Bella and Lapwing.  Lapwings ability to make a better heading in a blow sealed it but it was close. It was a great end to the cruise.  I've tried to keep this down to a reasonable length, I have hundreds of photos and anecdotes galore but this is the basics.  We'd covered about 250NM, seen Dolphins, swam off the boat, anchored and moored in new places.  It felt great, just sad it was over.

Lapwing off Swanage (Durleston in background)