Swanage fishing trip

Wow, what a great week end.. I went to Goodwood Festival of Speed on Saturday and managed to get a pass out for sailing on Sunday :)
With no real plan I decided to nip out of the harbour and see where from there.  I got away just after noon, a couple of hours before low water and tacked under full sail out through the harbour.  Into the swash channel and I was able to make good speed close hauled towards Old Harry so Swanage became my destination.   The autohelm went on so that I could set up my fishing rod,  we where moving far too quickly for fishing so I took a chunk out of the genoa and depowered the main.

Just of the headland I saw a dorsal  fin, always exciting to see something new.  Checking online later it looked like it was a local bottle nose dolphin with a distinctive damaged fin.  Anyway, he was obviously terrifying the Mackerel as instantly three jumped on my fishing line and were soon in my bucket.

The tide was now starting to turn so I tacked onto the bay and towards the town.  Although overcast the weather was great for sailing but surprisingly when I got Swanage there was hardly anyone on the moorings?    I could have picked up a buoy but following a lost anchor incident recently, I wanted to anchor and set a tripping line.  Interestingly I realised that by setting the length of the line to the fender you could also make a visual depth alarm.  

The Mackerel made a lovely lunch,  simply fried in olive oil with Garlic, pepper and chilli flakes tossed in with Pasta.  I didn't go ashore as there wasn't really time.  I pulled up the hook and turned for home a little after 5pm.  The trip back was a blast, able to goosewing across Swanage bay and along the headland then a broad reach back to Poole.  

Once again I  picked to mooring up under sail, with out drama, and even managed to unclip the tender from the buoy and clip it to the boat in one maneuver.  

I had a little motor around Ciao Bella to check the anti foul, It's looking ok still but is starting to get slimy around the water line and a bit of weed is just starting above the antifoul at the bow.  I might try to give her a quick clean and use up the last of this years tin before trotting off across the channel on the 11th.