Castle Cove Cruise

This weekends excursion was from East Dorset Sailing Club in Poole to Castle Cove Sailing Club in Portland harbour. This was going be a step up from previous trips for John as the weather forecast was for F4 and F5 on Saturday and Sunday.  In our favour was Easterly on Saturday and Westerly on Sunday.

Paul and Arjen on Woodmouse

We were ready to go by 9am and left he harbour with Woodmouse. The wind still hadn't built and  as I wanted to take the inner route I didn't hang about, We had full main and Genoa up and was able to make good speed and course along the training wall; only having to tack twice to clear it.
We had to do a little jig around Old Harry then a clear run past Peveril point, Durleston and St Aldelms head.  We were through the notorious bits without issue,  a little choppy but not bad.  By now the wind was building and I decided to furl away some of the head sail.  Unfortunately the reefing line had dropped of the drum and got tangled.  I went forward to sort it but it was like spaghetti. While clinging onto the front three extreme gusts came through, putting us under a bit of pressure.  By the time we'd untangled the line and started to reef, the head sail had an 18 inch rip in it from the clew end up along the line of the UV strip. I furled it away completely and hoped it would be repairable.

Back on track with just the main up we headed along the gorgeous Jurassic coast past Chapmans pool, Kimmeridge bay and Warbarrow bay before sailing into Lulworth Cove for some lunch.  Lulworth is really petty but it's not a great anchorage. The waves roll in making it uncomfortable and there are big ribs taking
holiday makers in and out of the Cove every five minutes with no regard for the amount of wake they make, Boiling the kettle was a treacherous task!

Spinach,  Ricotta and ham tortellini with roasted Mediterranean vegetables... Yarp. 

Eventually lunch was over and we pulled up the hook sailing out of the Cove and back on track.  Sailing close to the coast we had great views of the rock formations that make up the Jurassic coast, we didn't see any dinosaurs though... maybe next time.

Clay cliffs at Kimmeridge

Warbarrow Bay

Durdle Door

Durdle Door with White Nothe in the background

By the time we were at White Nothe the visibility was closing in.  I took the opportunity to practice plotting our position on the chart using the Iris compass.  I took three bearings and plotted them on the chart, expecting a cocked hat of some kind.... no such thing, all three lines intersected perfectly, I decided to quit while I was ahead.  Even from here I couldn't see Portland, I plotted a course and we followed the compass straight to the Northern entrance.  The wind and waves now were quite substantial and we were glad to be heading for shelter.  

We made our way to the Castle Cove mooring buoys and spotted Woodmouse already tied up. I went forward to pick up the buoy while John steered.. we struggled to keep direction and I called to John to give it some more power... It was already flat out, the wind and tide were giving us a hard time, we took a run up at the next buoy and this time I grabbed it.  

A change of clothes before a phone call to call out the ferry and we headed for the club house.   Castle Cove Sailing club looked after us admirably, good company, great food and a well stocked bar. Fabulous views over Portland harbour to the Olympic venue. The evening was over far to soon and we were ferried back to our various boat, I was glad I'd taken my wet weather gear ashore as it was a VERY wet trip back, with all getting a good bucket load of water at one stage or another.  Despite the weather being blowy it was still quite warm so after one last pint we turned in with the washboards out.  

Waking around 8am I started checking various weather forecasts, it wasn't looking good with 35 knot gusts forecast. I was considering leaving Ciao Bella in Portland for a few days but wanted to discuss with others before making a final decision.  We hailed the Taxi when he started at 9am and after some ablutions made our way into Weymouth.  We met Mark (EDSC member) who was on his way home by car, he'd already decided to leave and come back on Wednesday. We cadged a lift into town and settled down for a full English breakfast.  Weymouth was all decked out for the Jubilee and there was a River Pageant on the go. It's always odd to see pirates and morris dancers wandering the streets.

The decking at CCSC with the ruins of the castle in the background.

The forecast was for F5 - F6 with F7 Gust but at least it was going to be a westerly and predominantly dry where as Tuesday was going to be wet, windy and from the wrong direction; for a boat with no headsail.  Decision made... we were going.  We set off at 13:15, still against the tide but I knew we'd still make good headway with this wind.

As we left the harbour there were plenty of international sailors around, the first we saw was a Japanese Laser, followed by two Russian crews in 470's and an American crew in a Star Class keel boat.

After a little indecision about the inner or outer route we plotted a course for the outer range,  The wind direction was more SW than W making it the safest route despite being further.  We made great time with a fully reefed main and the tattered Genoa fully furled.   It was an exciting ride home,  surfing down huge rolling waves with the GPS showing over 12 knots on occasion.  We found the boat was best balanced with one person in the cabin, during my stint in the cabin we crashed into a wave and I felt a drip of water; when I looked around the front hatch was was pouring water through.  When I told John he said the front of the boat had disappeared into the wave!

One last bit of drama was as we gybe round to bear on Poole, the boom crashed over ripping the car off the runner in the process.  We got it tied down and usable again  and continued on our way.   Without a head sail and now beating into the wind we were making considerable leeway.  It became apparent that I would have to tack several times if I was going to make it into the harbour under sail.  I'd had enough adventure by now so I fired up the outboard and we charge into Poole harbour at about 8pm.  

On the whole the boat had performed excellently,  never feeling unsafe even in the blowiest conditions.  The failures had been down to a mixture of my actions and general ageing of equipment. Allowing the headsail reefing line to foul and letting the boom crash over were my fault, so I can't blame the boat for that.