Long week end part two.

So... I managed to grab 45 minutes sleep in the club house before it was time to get out to Ciao Bella for the cruise to Weymouth. It was a glorious day, blue skies beautiful sunshine but barely a breath of wind. Corky the Catamaran was ready and waiting and Lapwing Paul had arrived at the club as I awoke from my slumber. Sails raised and the mooring dropped I sail past Escapade to say tatty bye and continued out towards the entrance. Despite the calm conditions Ciao Bella was making good progress.

Escapade 

Motorboats..  I started the engine, as is normal, to get through the entance and past the  chain ferry.  Unfortunately the breeze was dying again and the engine had to stay on.  Lapwing follow out and we pushed on to catch up with Corky.   With it being a bank holiday there was an excess of power boats heading out of Poole and coming across from the east.  Most were giving us room but some showed absolutely no regard and cut close at speed on both sides.  The wash from one of these eventually dunked Lapwings outboard causing it to fail off handfast point.  With no wind and a poorly motor lapwing had to limp into Swanage and pick up a mooring.
Corky continued onto Weymouth while I made the excuse of sticking with Lapwing.. in all honesty I was welcoming the chance for a nap and secretly hoped we'd be heading back to Poole :)

Refreshed.. I woke up and looked at my watch, 1 O'clock; I wondered if Paul had gone on without me.  No he was still there but I could see he was just putting his cowling back on.  I felt much better for having a couple of hours sleep.  After a bit more tinkering we were ready to go again.  With the delay we would have to motor but as there was little wind that was no bad thing.
We crashed through the Peveril race and took the inside passage past St Aldelms head into the calm waters beyond.

Weymouth was busy, We rafted up along side some bigger yachts outside the harbour masters office and readied ourselves for an evening out.  Unfortunately the harbour master didn't like where we were and push us out across the river to the Cove.  Having motored nearly all day our first job was to walk to the nearest petrol station and fill up some cans.  The nearest petrol station isn't that near when you are walking :)
Chores sorted, we made our way to the local Spoons for a no thrills dinner and some liquid refreshment.  Got to be said, it's a lively pub on a Saturday night.  By 10pm I was jiggered so made every excuse I could to return to Ciao Bella and get some sleep.

Homeward bound.  We left Weymouth around 9am, we knew that we wouldn't have enough easterly tide to get us home so we planned on stopping somewhere on the way.  Chapmans Pool was first choice but that would be a stretch.  In the end we decided on Warbarrow bay, we'd been there before and it's a lovely anchorage.

Lapwing heading East along the Jurassic coast

 Today was so much nicer than yesterday, breeze was good and the sea state calm, perfect conditions for a pair of small bilge keelers.  There was a bit of North in the wind which made us drift away from the shore, as the tide started to turn we had to start the motors and motor into Warbarrow.

Looking back along the Jurassic coast, Lulworth in the foreground

Warbarrow is a beautiful place to stop.  The beach is large pebbles and shelves steeply which means you can get in quite close to the shore... within swimming distance if you want, as we did last year.  Not this time though, we paddled ashore and took a stroll upto the Wartime ghost village of Tynham.

Lapwing and Ciao Bella anchored in Warbarrow Bay

Returning to the beach a chap came over to say hello, I'm terrible at recognising people but Steve (or should I say Sheila) eventually gave me the clues to who he was. We'd met up on a trip to Cowes a few years ago, Steve has a Fantasie 19 called Mudlark.  It's always nice to catch up with people, even if the recolection does take a while for it to sink in to my soggy grey matter.
Fast and Fun.. The return from Warbarrow was fast and fun.  The wind and swell built through the afternoon and we were rewarded with some great sailing.  We got back to our moorings as the sun went down.  A full weekend sailing, not without it's problems but always enjoyable.