The day started with a great downwind sail in a light breeze and ended with no wind and motoring nearly 2 hours into Brixham. Some highlights were:
Using the wind vane steering downwind, rigging a preventer, using the whisker pole and sailing wing to wing.
Meeting a pod of common dolphins.
And some things I did not photograph, such as getting caught in the Portland Race tidal flow and having to motor out, and running out of wind and having to motor the last two hours.
No wind again today so a day at anchor in Brixham chilling, blogging, fixing a few things, the best bit is for the first time this year I only have a pair of shorts on because it is warm and sunny.
While sailing into Weymouth today a motor yacht came up from behind me on my starboard side, he was on a similar heading to me put our paths were merging. He was under motor power, I was under sail so I had priority. He will change course or speed in a minute or two…. Has he seen me?…. errr, we are going to collide so I started shouting across to him, a man and woman on deck were busy looking down, they looked up…. and just looked, did not change course… OK I was getting frantic now, pointing at my sails shouting “I have priority” finally they reacted and steered Starboard, they matched my speed and course and were about 10 meters from me – far too close. They seemed happy with that, I wasn’t. I shouted across and pointed in the direction I needed to go, finally they slowed and passed astern of me.
I stayed three nights in Poole Haven marina to avoid the worst of a few storms passing through the area. Today I returned to the anchorage by old Harry rocks and Studland Bay because although the winds have died down, they are still mainly from the West which is where I am trying to go. I plan to spend a couple of days here doing some fishing. The weather is set to improve from next Tuesday.
After dropping anchor, a coastguard weather warning of gales tomorrow came over the radio 🤔😳. I checked the forecast before I left and strong winds were forecast for Sunday, not gales. I check various online forecast sites and they do not agree with the gales prediction.
I decided for peace of mind, I would drop the second anchor now so I can sleep soundly tonight. I am protected from the wind direction by the headland plus l know the holding is good here with sand plus the currents are not strong here.
I spent two nights in Swanage, it was nice there. I went ashore, saw the sights and returned with fish and chips. I caught a few mackerel too.
Swanage
I headed to Poole harbour today to escape some big storms over the next two days. First I tried an anchorage South of Brownsea island but its very silted up over that side, I grounded twice, I deliberately came in on a rising tide so the first time I waited 10 minutes and I was free, the second time I waited 20 minutes with no sign of coming off. I took the anchor to the back of the boat and dropped it, then back to the winch and that pulled me off the muddy bottom toward the channel. My depth sounder alarm went off both times as I hit the bottom, I think I need to look at the calibration because I want an alarm before I bottom, not as I hit the dirt. I wasn’t going to try that again so made my way back to the North of the harbour and booked into an expensive marina. Do cheap ones exist?
Poole is really nice, lots of small traditional shops and LOTS of pubs. Much of it is pedestrianised, the last time i was here many many years ago it was traffic mayhem. The RNLI have a training college here.
It seems mother nature does not want me to travel to Wales yet. The winds were supposed to be South Westerly, ideal for sailing West but forecasters were wrong, its blowing Westerly so lots of tacking back and forth if I move now.
I went out anyway hoping it would change later and did have a great sail. But I realised that to get round the next headland, and Lulworth military range which was active today, I would have had to go out several more miles and there were big rolling seas out there from yesterday’s wind. I decided discretion was the better part of valour and headed to anchor at Swanage for the night then head to Poole tomorrow morning to shelter from big winds due Thursday and friday.
It started foggy so that put paid to my plan to leave early to get through Hurst at slack water. By the time I got there, the tide was racing, the wind had dropped and was coming directly from the West, where I wanted to go. I motored through, and caught a mackerel on the way.
The castle was damaged by storms a couple of months ago, they have started work on sea defences.
After Hurst, the wind picked up, and so did the waves, by the time I reach my anchorage outside Poole Harbour, it was getting exciting. I must admit to being apprehensive, thats a posh word for scared. I need not have been, once I got used to the boat heeled right up to the gunwales, the bow slaming into the trough of waves, spray coming right over the cockpit, it was fine 😳. Its about building confidence, now I have more in both mine and the boats abilities.
This was after it calmed down
I am anchored behind old Harry’s rocks near Poole and have so far caught 3 more mackerel and two dogfish that went back. The wind is really strong and forecast to get worse tomorrow. I will see in the morning but may sit it out another day, the wind is from the South West so I am well protected here. I can do some more fishing 😁
Great sailing from Town Quay to Fawley then the wind died, I put the motor on to get past the Hamble entrance because it was busy and bumpy because of all the motorboats coming in and out, I left it on until past Calshot and then more or less drifted from there to Lymington at about 3-4 knots, the currents are strong in the Solent. Whilst making a cup of tea, the wind suddenly picked up so good sailing again. I have stopped at Yarmouth because it was about 4pm and very few places to stop after here until and I did not fancy sailing at night. Wind tonight is South Westerly so I should be well sheltered here at night. The biggest risk is the anxhor dragging in the current but it was racing through when I anchored so it should be fine. The turn of the tide when it pulls the other way is the time to be ready with the second anchor if needed.
I have been back in Southampton for a few days resupplying and doing a bit of maintenance. I have also been waiting for a weather window to move West. It looks like I have at least 5 days of good winds so I’m off.
I hope to get down to Cornwall and if the weather holds, go around lands end, cross the Bristol Channel, then up the Welsh Coast to New Quay. I am in no rush and may need to shelter somewhere if the weather changes.
After the gales, I decided to go out to the South of the Isle of Wight to bigger winds and seas. I have been nervous of doing this and to be honest, putting it off. I had a great time and my confidence in myself and the boat are massively boosted.
The sail to just before St Catherine’s point went really well. I was keeping pace with a yacht about a mile ahead of me. Then a big squall came in so I hung back waiting for it to pass, I was on a southerly tack at the time. The clouds stopped in front of Mr, I waited, they waited… OK, tack back toward the island and then back out to avoid it. It was about then the tide turned so now I was fighting some big currents but making progress. Then the wind changed more North Westerly, that was in my favour so now I was winning… and then the winds dropped from 15-20 knots down to 7 or 8, I was going backwards 🥴. It was getting late so I decided to turn back and head into Chichester Harbour again. It was a great downwind run with tide behind me as well.
Although I did not get around the island, the day was a massive success for me. I tackled 4-5 meter swells, winds ranging from 4 to 30 knots and some big currents. I got back safe, nothing broke and neither Dotty or I got seasick.
My water pumps have been playing up recently plus I found that under the heads sink was not a good location because of the damp caused by condensation. I decided to move the pumps to the engine compartment and strip them down to see what’s wrong with them. Moving them was easy enough, I had to move the hoses and power as well but on stripping them down I found the cause of the problems. There was debris in both of them blocking the pump diaphragms. OK, my bad design error but fixable. I have ordered two replacement pumps plus inline mesh filters. The sea water pump was really bad so I will replace that, the second pump is to be a spare, it’s bound to happened again, even with a filter. I got it all working, and then this happened…
I think its a manufacturing flaw, but it does mean waiting for more parts 🙄 some days you take two steps back for every one forward.
