Author: YachtMolia

We left Lymington mid-morning as there is no way of avoiding the tide-against in the Solent today. It does not really matter; it is a short leg to Gosport where we will moor in the Haslar Marina for a few days (this is a sister boatfolk marina to our home port – Portishead).

21 June 2024

We got the Portsmouth ferry and went to the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard to see some warships.

Starting with HMS Warrior (1860).

22 June 2024

Today is submarine museum day. This part of the historic dockyard is located in Gosport.

HMS Alliance (1945) was built at the end of WWII but did not serve until after. It is complete.

HMS Holland 1 (1901) was the first ever submarine built by the Royal Navy and was recovered from the seabed.

Would you go to sea in either of these?

Next stop on our eastwards voyage is Lymington. We have not been here before either; just to catch the car ferry to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight.

The channel into Lymington is well marked, and we stop in the first marina: Lymington Yacht Haven. This is a small distance out of town, but it has good facilities including an on-site chandlery that also sells beer, bread and milk.

After some wet and windy days in Portland, sailing weather has been restored, and we are off on an exploration eastwards to the Solent. First stop is Poole – we have not been here by boat before.

We had to skirt the army firing range (just east of Lulworth Cove) with a small diversion south to 50 degrees 34 minutes. They were using the smaller northern part of the D026 range (see your chart).

Jo is a big fan of Old Harry’s Rocks off Studland. She spent childhood holidays in Swanage nearby.

The narrow entrance to Poole harbour has a strong current at peak tide flow and comes complete with a chain ferry to dodge! However it is by no means as fierce as it sounds; and the channel is excellently marked.

Good tide at Portland Bill not until around 2100 – so we are not in a hurry to start (0930). However a very good sailing wind delivers us to within 5 miles of the Bill at around 1800. The boat speed is very fast, and the up-tide race has dissipated, so we take a route between the shore and the Shambles bank. Its a bit rough for about 500m but after that we reach the breakwater at 2000 and are moored up by 2030. Despite the tide against that is an average speed of 5.48 knots (57.4 NM in 11 hours).

We saw dolphins on the way.

10 June 2024

A day in Dartmouth – we walked to the Agatha Christie house in Greenway, opposite Dittisham.

We are waiting for our next crew here.

8 June 2024

Shopping and boat cleaning, then Niv and Steve arrive. We went to the Wildwood restaurant in Royal William Yard, opposite the marina.

A great sail into Mylor. Unfortunately, the engine suffered a broken exhaust elbow just yards from the pontoon. We managed to tie the boat up – but it will be a job for the engineer tomorrow.

6 June 2024

Staying in Mylor to get the engine fixed.

We are very grateful to Nick Smith, independent marine engineer in Falmouth, for working so hard to get us on our way again. Also to Mitch at Advance Marine back in Portishead for his remote consultations, and to Gerry at Falmouth Yacht Brokers for stocking the parts we needed.

Absolutely top work! – we will be able to leave for Plymouth tomorrow.

4 June 2024

With Tim on board we left Swansea as early as possible, in the first Tawe lock. It is about one hour before low water – but it is neaps. The lock keeper assures us we will be OK as long as we follow the channel (see previous post). We got a good hint from a local as well: the image on Google Maps is quite recent, and conveniently was taken at low water – so have that open as well to guide you in the channel.

This was a ‘no anchoring’ way of getting into Padstow – and anyway the wind was in the NW so Stepper Point is not suitable. So we motored around in Padstow Bay for an hour until the tide started to fill; then went up the river as it was getting dark. We tied up next to a ferry to wait for the harbour gate to open.

2 June 2024

A day in Padstow – we set off very early on the tide tomorrow.

The channel into the Tawe lock at Swansea shows in this picture of the outer harbour:

In preparation for leaving, we had a look at the outer harbour at low water. We could see that from the lock you go to the orange buoy (leave it to port), then following the guidance we got coming in from the lock keeper: make for the red brick building – keeping a straight line from the orange buoy. When you get to the old ro-ro quay, make for the (slightly port-side of the) centre of the outer harbour.

25 May 2024

27 May 2024

Walk to Mumbles Head.

28 May 2024

We went to the waterfront museum. This has very good history displays of Welsh industry.

29 May 2024

30 may 2024

31 May 2024