Day 34 Weymouth to Poole

Rounding Old Harry Rocks .

Dear Readers, yesterday we left Weymouth at 10 for a six hour sail to Poole, along the beautiful Dorset Jurassic coast. The wind was in the right direction and varied from a start of 12 knots wind speed, to a soon increasing 20 knots by 1.00. We had a pleasant sail although it got a bit "lumpy" around Portland Bill race, and rounding Old Harry Rocks to enter Studland bay, when the wind got up to 23 knots.

We had to helm the whole way because the auto pilot has broken and we did set up the wind steering, but that wasn't playing ball either!

Poole is the second largest natural harbour in the world, second only to Sydney. As we have no plans to sail to Australia, this will be the largest harbour Lunar Sea sails into, with us at least. At the entrance you have to give way to the chain ferry, but luckily it was loading cars on the Studland side of the bay as we entered, so we were able to proceed without having to wait. 

It took an hour to sail up to our berth in the Poole Quay Boat Haven marina, passing on the way Brownsea Island and a strangely named East cardinal buoy, Aunt Betty!


My sister Deidre came to meet us and say hello as she lives in Christchurch, not too far away from Poole. Josh and I were both very tired but managed to find a very nice pizza restaurant on the old quay, (being Monday a lot of restaurants were closed) , and I enjoyed the local Mermaid gin and Josh had a Meantime. 
The Needles as seen from Lunar Sea sailing from Weymouth to Poole

We are staying here for another day then heading off to Lymington, with Deidre as crew, should be fun. Today Deidre and I took the ferry over to Brownsea Island, which was a delightful day out,  I thoroughly recommend it. The island has had a chequered history, mostly privately owned, but since 1961 it has been owned by the National Trust. The Dorset Wildlife Trust help manage it as a nature reserve. The John Lewis partnership have a 99 year lease on the Castle, which is now a luxury hotel for JLP employees to enjoy. There are also NT cottages to rent and of course a campsite, as this was the site of the very first Scout camp. So Brownsea Island is the home of scouting around the world!


Dee and I on Brownsea Island, with Studland in the background.


Comments

  1. Anonymous6 July 2022 at 00:52

    Another great blog Julia

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous6 July 2022 at 04:16

    Dear Julia - I reckon Poole is roughly half way from Penzance to Ramsgate. So only a few more point bits to negotiate. Hope you enjoy Lymington. Brother Chris lived there for a while so we frequented the drinking establishments on numerous occasions. Superb coastline too. Stay safe. Ali

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day one and two of the Caledonian Canal - the adventure continues

Image
The Lunatic crew for the Caledonian Canal   We entered the  Clachnaharry sea lock at Inverness for the 1.30 lock and were met by a very helpful, calm lock keeper who talked us through. There was a large sign saying Ireland this way! Clachnaharry Sea Lock, the entrance to the Caledonian Canal, The Great Glen, Loch Ness and Ireland! The lock was timed so that you could then sail through the railway swing bridge, then on to the Muirhead flight of four locks. We had relaxed once we got on to the canal, thinking things could only get better and there is much less to worry about in a canal as opposed to being out at sea, no tides to think about for example. How wrong we were, we were forgetting this is the Lunacy cruise. At the second lock Mick fell in! We heard a plop and a splash and Mick had fallen into the lock between the lock wall and the boat. Josh's quick thinking saved the day as he put the long swim ladder over the edge and Mick managed to climb up before he
Read more

Day 48 and the return to our home port of Ramsgate.

Image
Lunar Sea and her crew back in Ramsgate  Dear Readers, we finally arrived back in Ramsgate five years after setting off on 1 May 2017. The weather then had been atrocious, but it couldn't have been more different for our return. It was promised to be the hottest day of the year, so we had plenty of sunshine and not very much wind. lt did pick up to about 12 knots as we approached Ramsgate, so we managed to get the sails up and the flags flying for our entrance to Ramsgate.  Leaving Dover, heading for the Eastern entrance,  on our way home now. It had been an uneventful 4 hour trip from Dover to Ramsgate, but for some reason the unusually hot weather had created an optical illusion and we had a really clear view of France as we passed Deal. Perhaps it is the high pressure, not sure why?  France, shall we go there instead? We had Josh's daughter Jo on board and Owen and Jordan, two of Josh's grandchildren, joined us in Dover for the day sail. When we got to the approach to Ra
Read more

Day 47 Eastbourne Sovereign Harbour to Dover

Image
  Passing Dungeness Dear Readers, a brief blog today as we are in Dover and just about to leave for our final leg to Ramsgate, which will be day 48 of this leg of the trip. We had a pleasant and uneventful motor sail to Dover, but it was a long trip of 9 hours. The time does go quickly when you are at sea, so it didn't seem so long. We had a couple of visits from porpoises, but they don't come and play around the boat like dolphins do.  Yacht trying to fill it's spinnaker, Eastbourne We had an exciting lock out of Sovereign harbour because it was very busy, so we had boats of all shapes and sizes jostling for position. We passed the remains of a wreck just outside the harbour, only the boilers remain and the birds seem to like it as a perch! Dungeness nuclear power stations. We passed Dungeness which is always interesting, as you get a good view from the sea of the two nuclear power stations, and the two light houses. There aren't many fishing vessels left on the beach,
Read more