SOUTHCOAST - WEYMOUTH

10-8-08
1530HRS
WEYMOUTH

With jobs to do and refuelled with sleep we sailed away from Alum Bay and across to Swanage to find ourselves an anchorage or mooring for the night. This would be the first full nights sleep since leaving and we were intrigued to see how our bodies would react. Would we wake up two days later and not realise we had been asleep for so long?

The sail across became a beat against tide and eventually the ‘not making much ground’ thing kicked in and we decided to motor the last few miles in so we could arrive in daylight. Seeing a town or city from land is a totally different experience than approaching it from sea. I have been to Swanage before, climbing many years ago with Pete but I do not remember being so tainted by the beauty of its’ Bay. Steep cliffs, with ‘Old Harry’ to the right sweep down into a picturesque place of tall, narrow buildings which step back up the hill which the town sits on.

DON QUIXOTE II
MOORED IN SWANAGE BAY….beautiful

I would say that it was a beautiful, quiet and tranquil evening but it wasn’t because directly upwind(far right of the photo) there was a band sound checking. They sounded ok ish but the band that followed were a little bit louder and a whole lot ruder. I didn’t care too much as I was dead to the world. Niki however stayed up to talk to her mum and even to write a bit more of this blog, I think she should do more of her share at the helm because she obviously had too much sleep as I sailed!!

The next day dawned and we planned to pick up our very good friend Paul and his son Nathan for a trip back to their home town of Weymouth. We had a fantastic sail along the Jurassic coast of Dorset. Nathan holds the record for being the youngest person that has ever been sailing with us onboard our boat. Congratulations to him, and apart from a few tears when a hose suddenly squirted water in his face (proper Pete Clapp styleee) he was as good as gold. He did better than his dad on his first trip aboard .

Not wanting to leave any one out, we roped in Tracy (Paul’s wife who was at work) to try and find someone to try and make our davits fit by adding wooden wedges to counteract the curve of the deck. Of course she rose to the challenge and found Clarks boat yard on Portland. From the moment we arrived Tim the owner was on board measuring and drawing on the deck. We had every faith in him and his team, you know when you speak to someone who knows exactly what they are talking about it is a pleasure to see.

LOOKING BACK AT THE JURASSIC COAST
with a couple of fossils in the front

MY LOVELY WIFE PLAYING WITH THE EMERGENCY PADDLE

– with Weymouth in the background and yes Niki’s mum,

that ship is tied up

and so are we, so please don’t panic!