Weymouth to Dartmouth

2011 sailing with Chichester Yacht Club

Wednesday 15th


Departed Weymouth at 0930, passed the Bill lighthouse at 1107 after a bumpy trip down the side of Portland bill with once or two big waves at the bill. Set off up wind on the cross bay plate race, with one reef and both yankee and stay sail set in 20 knots and lumpy seas. As the wind dropped shook out the reef. Bob and Marlyene in Magic Touch finally overhauled me and headed out to sea, Seemed to have the edge of Quintette, Fire Dragon and seemed to be catching Coco, but the change in sail plan seemed to upset the balance and I didn’t seem to be able to point as high or go as fast, but perhaps the more choppy sea conditions didn’t help either. Put in and then took out a reef as the wind rose and dropped. Caught by the tide off the headland and finally passed the Mew Stone cardinal mark at 2000hours. 3rd overall after corrected times.

Stopped on the harbour masters jetty and had a fish and chip supper with Greaeme and Helen Jupp and David, followed by a pint in the Yacht Club. Now on the middle of the river pontoon, in sunny but showery conditions.

Yarmouth to Weymouth

Tuesday 14th


Up early to catch the tide for Weymouth. Departed 0820 and arrived at 1520 light winds and motored all the way. Drinks in the Royal Dorset and then ate up a few bits on board before visiting a few pubs!

The CYC fleet all tied up in Weymouth



Long sea voyage!

Monday 13th


Long sea passage, Lymington to Yarmouth under stay sail. Pleasant day relaxing in Yarmouth with drinks in the Royal Solent and supper on board Tanglefoot, chicken chasseur I believe! Lovely sunset over Hurst Castle.

Raining in Lymington

Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th June

Set off for Lymington from Birdham at 0600 in light winds as part of the Chichester Yacht Club Rear Commodores cruise under John Davies leadership. Sailed from the Winner to just off Osborne Bay tacking all the way where the wind dropped away to almost nothing. Popped into Cowes for a few minutes to see Jenny on Tonka. When I rejoined the cruise and the Solent, the wind had blow up so motored to beyond Gurnard and then sailed on a port tack towards. The wind gradually rose to 22 knots and decided to roll away the yankee, but the furling line decided to get a riding turn on the winch, then sailed under full main and staysail until I decided to tack and the sheet of staysail got caught under the end of spinnaker pole. So much for all this, felt very rust so decided to motor sail the rest of the way as the tide had now changed. Not a pleasant motor, until I motivated myself to put a reef in and put my oilies on.

Dinks party a 1800 followed by supper on board Poldeaux, cooked Moroccan Fish for David.

Sunday was a wet and windy day and pottered on board and than wandered into Lymington in the bleak weather to do a bit of shopping, stretch my legs and have a couple of drinks.

The weather web sites all showing it blowing 25 knots up to as much as 35 knots at Hurst Castle, not the day to be out on the water if you have a choice!

Where did it all go so wrong!  F6 - F7 and heavy rain all day!



Sailing Holiday Plans

It's the start of my sailing summer holiday and the plan is to try and get to the Isle of Scilly.  The first part of the voyage as far as Dartmouth will be made in company with yachts owned by members of Chichester Yacht Club, after that a good friend David and I intend to peel off and head west in our respective boat.  On Saturday we plat to go from Chichester to Lymington, followed by Portland on Sunday and Dartmouth on Monday.  However, the weather fro Sunday and Monday is already looking rather windy.  Lets watch and see!

First boat job of 2011

With the early onset of winter some of the usual autum boat jobs got left for warmer weather. The oil was last changed on the 10th January 2010. The morning of the 2nd Janaury 2011 saw blue sky, very little wind and even some heat from the sun. A great day to catch up with some of those winterisation jobs. Two hours on board saw the engine run up, the old engine and gear box oil drained and oil filter removed. Having disposed of the old black looking oil, it was on with the new filter and fill up with fresh oil in the engine and gear box. A short run up was made to check for any leaks, none found, job done!