Leaving the Solent, heading West

Monday 21st April
We had the option of a 3am start to try and make the Needles channel before the tide changed or a more leisurely start with another night in the Solent before we pushed on West. Which once do you think Katie opted for? What’s the hurry – we’ve got six months. After a hot shower and a few final boat jobs (replace the old jackstays (lifelines) and hoist the new PSYC burgee (thanks Hugh) we left Gosport to blue sky, warm sun and high spirits.

The weather was great, although not too much wind. With high optimism we decided to have a break for lunch (anchoring outside Newtown Creek) and then push on to Poole rather than stopping at Yarmouth. We made Poole as the sun was setting and thought we’d anchor in the harbour mouth rather than continuing for another hour or so to get to town quay. Possibly a mistake…initially the anchor set well and Katie fired up the oven for pasties, beans and rostie.

Both pretty tired, I slept in the saloon to keep a watch on the various anchor alarms, needless to say the alarms repeatedly went off and there was a grinding sound coming from the anchor chain. This could only mean one thing - we were no longer attached to the sea bed. So in the pitch dark, we set about re-setting the anchor, not just once, but at least three times. Further sleep on Monday night was a little fitful; Poole harbour has interesting tidal flows, which causes the boat to swing around a fair bit on anchor further increasing our nervousness.

Tuesday 22nd April
Leaving our anchorage at 7:30, to calm conditions, although cloudy and overcast we hoped to make the passage to Dartmouth, although the first mate was voting for a shorter sail to Weymouth. Conditions were initially quite good and we made good time so continued past Portland heading for Devon. At this point the wind picked-up and the visibility reduced, crossing Lyme Bay seemed to take an eternity with no sight of land and very few other vessels. The conditions were quite rough; we reefed the sails but were pounded by waves slowing our progress. Eventually, land came back into sight and conditions improved as we slipped into the Dart just before 9pm. It was a relief to tie up to a pontoon and get some hot food down us before we crashed out...