Monday 19th July – Poole to Portland
An early start with Gillian feeling the strain of sailing, organising weddings via WhatsApp, hosting and sorting out the usual domestic trivia of being away from home with Jenny looking after the cat and getting sunstroke from too much time outside at Newbury Races. So I set up the additional berth in the saloon of the boat. It had not previously been used so it took a little while to work out how the jigsaw of cushions fitted together. I clearly got it right as Gillian on testing it fell asleep for the remainder of the trip and did not come to till we were inside Portland Harbour with mainsail already taken down and packed away.
It had been a pretty windless start of the day coming out of Poole Harbour but thankfully at 0630 in the morning there was not the level of traffic trying to mow us down. There were no major navigational challenges, however we did have the military ranges to cross by Lulworth Cove. Having done our research and even telephoned the Ops Room of FOST to see if we had any ships that capable of going to sea and had ammunition to fire, we discerned that the Army both had ammunition and soldiers to fire it and were going to make the most of this situation by hurling projectiles somewhere in the vicinity of our planned path. The Navy were taking a day off. Despite technically having right of way at sea to cross the range we deferred to the national interest and plotted a course on the edge of the range. One of the boats decided to brave snipper ally – only to be chased by the Range Boat and politely asked to steer a more helpful course to those firing the weapons.
We arrived in Portland for lunch on another hot day. Having the time I decided to take the 2nd job that needed doing. The on board wifi. This was put on when we had the boat delivered by someone in Hamble Point. it has been a pain and never seemed to work consistently. So with time on my hands I took the dome off the back of the boat to see what I could find. Essentially a bodge job with lots of electrical tape that would have done a lazy workman proud. Clearly they had cut the cables too short, put in an additional wire which was badly done and kept shorting out. Whilst I am no electrician, it was pretty clear neither were those that had installed it. But simple job to fix.
Now having completed 2 DIY tasks for which I have no natural skill, it was off to the bar for a drink.
Prior to an evening together at the Boat that Rocks, we cooked the some chicken on the Cob to be had cold when we arrived in Dartmouth. I was a little sceptical as to its qualities but was pleasantly surprised when time came to eat after a longish day to Dartmouth. At the restaurant I did not pay enough attention to the menu and thought I had ordered a burgher, halloumi cheese and peppers. Thinking this might be too much, I asked for a skinny bugger – without the bun. But I should have paid more attention! The burgher was the halloumi – a vegetarian burgher. Hence I ended up with a slab cheese – very nice cheese but definitely not meat – with some peppers on top. Walking back to the boat as the sun was going down, the sunset was magical. I snapped a quick photo to put onto Instagram and was surprised the next day when Portland Marina asked for permission to use it.
Purrfect Tale 