I have made a slight change to the way these posts will appear. Each day of the trip, at either the end of the day or first thing next morning I will give a brief summary of the day’s journey, with a few relevant picture. That post should email out immediately it is posted on the website. As we are all three of taking pictures throughout the day, we may add posts to the website throughout the day. These posts will email out at 19.00 daily as a summary. Apologies, all the previous posts sent last night again. This was due to the alterations I made.
Today was another early start. We left Portland marina at 05.30 to get around Portland Bill at slack water. What do people panic about. It was like a mill pond as we went around at 06.55. Now the rest of the day crossing Lyme Bay to Dartmouth, with no wind again!
Yesterday, we came away from a very peaceful Folly Inn pontoon and soon into Cowes with its packed marinas. With Daydream leading the way and Jeddo close behind we were past the chain ferry and the moored Red Funnel ferry. Foreness, a couple of hundred metres behind not only got held up by the Chain Ferry, the Red Funnel ferry came off its mooring as he reached it. It was another day of no wind, so with engines on we carried on West out past the needles and made for Durlston Head and Anvil Point. The Coastguard safety bulletin reported live firing at the Lulworth range until 12.30, but the distance off wasn’t clear. I called the Coastguard to confirm the distance and was told there was no live firing. That then caused more confusion, was it or wasn’t it? The almanac listed a phone number for the range officer who confirmed that they wouldn’t be firing and it was safe to remain inshore. We were able to hug the coast and have a great view of the cliffs. As we were making good time we decided to have a lunch stop at anchor in Lulworth Cove. From there, as Foreness needed diesel we continued to Portland marina arriving at about 16.45. The marina was very smart, obviously a legacy of the 2012 Olympics. We went for a walk and ended up in Castle Town which has obviously seen better times.
Well done. Don’t forget £50.each for lifeboats. Did a google map on Lulworth Cove. When that was taken it looked busy.