It started out as a quick trip to Lulworth Cove, but with such wonderful sailing conditions and a favorable tide, it would have been a crime to not go further.
I've always sailed past Swanage so thought today would be the day to visit. With a good F4 off the land the sea was pretty flat and so efficient progress was made. With full sunshine the sailing was hard to beat. The Lulworth ranges were not active so a direct course for the inner passage round St Albans Head was possible, wasting no time.
Maybe my shinny new mainsail and the fancy new antifouling paint on the bottom helped, but such good time was made, there once again was the urge to sail past Swanage. So I headed for Poole.
Tacking up the approach channel and through the entrance single handed whilst negotiating the chain ferry was hard work, but ultimately rewarding. And now, like a dog with a bone, I was not going to resort to using the engine at all today. I'd spent the previous night anchored off Weymouth beach and sailed away from my anchorage, so now it was some long and quick short tacks through the moorings and round to the west end of Brownsea Island... furled the foresail, ran into the anchorage, rounded up head to wind in 3m of water, dropped the hook, down with the main, on with the kettle.
Such a peaceful spot to anchor for the night, enhanced by a superb sunset.
As much as I'm not normally an early morning kind of person, missing the tide and spending hours getting nowhere or going backwards is worse... so at 05:30 I was heaving up the anchor chain!
It started of rather still as forecast, however to my surprise a northerly wind soon picked up an she was soon doing 6 knots (fast for my little boat) as the sun rose and lit the chalk cliffs near Studland with an orange glow.
Again the conditions were right for a close inner pass round St Alban's Head. With the wind top end of F4 gusting F5 she was going like train. Recorded some sustained bursts of 7 knots which is maximum hull speed! Needless to say the dinghy under tow was nearly airborne!
Kimeridge Tower soon passed, then Warbarrow bay and then Lulworth cove was soon astern....
... then the wind died and so the next couple of hours were somewhat slow in comparison. But there are always jobs to be done on a boat, so after re-lacing the cockpit side screens, out came my palm and needles and I sewed up the mainsheet stowing bag in the cockpit which had split down one side after repeated attempts at using it as a step during rough weather!
A breath of wind was just suficient to finish the trip under sail. Anchoring of Weymouth beach in time for a late lunch and plenty of time to tidy up the ship.
Paul Burger, Winter's Maid (Van de Stadt Trintella 29)
Submitted on 22nd September 2022