Plod to Portland

Sat 23rd Aug 

EDSC had planned a three day cruise to Portland for the bank holiday.  As is the way with bank holidays the forecast for Monday was absolutely pants, F6 gusting F8, that's not my bag so I went for the Sat/Sun option which was forecast F1/2 S SW on Sat and F3/4 W on Sun.  

We were looking to be off the mooring by 0930 and all was looking good to go but Paul in Lapwing hadn't arrived.  I called to see if he was still going and he confirmed he'd be there as quick as possible.  We loitered in the harbour for a while eventual slipping out into the bay around 10am.  Still no sign of Paul.  Whisper, a Southerly 32RS (I think) was waiting for us in Studland bay.  I called up to let them go, I thought it a little unfair expecting them to travel at Ciao Bella speed also we were still dragging our heels waiting for Paul.

Easy to see where and why the engine went on

I managed to get Lapwing on the VHF around 11am, due to various complications he'd only just managed to leave the mooring.  At this time we were almost becalmed just around Old Harry, which was odd as Paul said it was quite blowy in the harbour and wondered if he needed to put a reef in!  I said we'd pull into Swanage and wait for him.  I then made a huge mistake and decided to go to Chapmans pool and wait,  I sent Paul the following text 

Hi Paul, change of plan, Going to drop the hook in Chapmans pool. V calm out here today.

Almost immediately the skies darkened and within a space of 10 or 15 minutes a squall hit us, a thin line of heavy black clouds, stretch south and moving quickly east  dumped on us.  I continued with the plan and took the inner passage past St Aldhelm head, with, the now stronger, wind over tide it was quite lumpy and the bow went under two or three times.  Fortunately it was only about a hundred yards so we were soon through,  I knew then that the right thing for Paul to do was take the outer passage, which is what I should have done.
The wind  stayed around F4/5 on the nose for the rest of the day with occasional rain to brighten our day. This was the second weekend on the trot were I'd found myself beating into a strong head wind, contrary to the weather reports... Humph!

This made me smile, John and Michele on Whisper had made it to Portland AND climbed the rock while we were still bashing into waves around Lulworth... Picture blatantly stolen from Johns FB page ;p 

We continued to tack our way along the gorgeous  Dorset coastline, we made it past Durdle door before the tide started to turn and we resorted to motor sailing.
We eventually tied in Portland Marina around 7pm.. That's a long day to cover a small distance.  Still, we were early enough to grab some food and a well deserved pint or five at the Cove House Inn :)

photo borrowed from Cove House website.

The Cove house Inn was a surprisingly good pub, the food was good value, not michelin star but better then many chain pubs.  They had good beer selection, I stuck with Doom Bar and most surpisingly it had a good atmosphere.

We discussed the options for going back.  The forecast was for F3/4 South Westerly but increasing later in the day.  To catch the full tide back we'd have to leave at either 4am or 5pm.  We went for a compromise a decided to set of around 6am and aim to get to Swanage before the tide turned.

Sunday 24th Aug

My alarm went off at 0530 and I got up straight away.. Snoozing would be a bad idea.  Ablutions done and boat readied  we got away around 0630.   The forecast was as accurate as ever, ie wrong,  and we motored away from Portland hoping for the wind to fill in as the day progressed

Lapwing heading east  towards St Aldhelms

The wind stayed away for quite some time and I was starting to worry about fuel levels.  Fortunately we only needed to make 4knots and with the tide running I was able to maintain that on about 1/4 throttle.

Still motoring under the watchful gaze of the Coastguard station.

There was barely a ripple at St Aldhelms today as we motored round.  I had raised the main when leaving Portland, more in hope than anticipation, and I was glad I did as slow the breeze started to fill in; variable but mainly south westerly.   The tide was starting against us now and we had to push on into Swanage.   The tide over Peverel ledge is quite strong so we had to crab our way into the bay... this would not be a good time to run out of fuel!  We motored in fairly close to the beach and dropped the anchor.  Our now well rehearsed coracle relay challenge got the three of us on to shore in two rubber rings.
The brief for our visit to Swanage was: Food, Ice-cream, drugs (for headaches, backache etc... we're getting old and worn out now) and a gift for Pauls two year old lad.
So several hours later feeling full, ache free and with a 9 piece jigsaw we made the treacherous journey back to the boats.

At last, able to sail out of Swanage.

The sail back from Swanage was just right, we goosewinged out of Swanage and ghosted around Old harry. The breeze then picked up a little for a final flourish down the Swash channel and home.
On saturday, John and Michele weren't sure what their plans would be but they  took Whisper West towards Dartmouth.  I wish I could just keep sailing... Work gets in the way.