Weymouth to Dittisham 60nm
Monday 22 Sept
As we were in the inner harbour at Weymouth we had to wait for the first bridge opening at 10 to leave in mostly Northerly winds and fine sunshine.
Heading out we passed the Tall Ships Youth Trust boat that we see regularly, and the Pelican with her crew up the rigging.
Portland Bill sticks way out into the sea and causes chaos with the waves, creating a sort of white water vortex in Spring tides known as the ‘Portland race’. We are a couple of days off Springs at present.
Knowing this we headed straight out well beyond the Bill by about 3 miles, but the water was very lumpy and confused. We were somewhat apprehensive about the gybe we have to do to turn West. There was up to 23 knots of wind and we were being tossed around like a cork on the mad sea so we reefed down in the hope of a smooth gybe.
To make it all a bit more interesting we had got as far out as the cargo lanes and there was an enormous ship not far off, do we gybe before it goes ahead of us or after? … the tension was killing me so we decided to go for it.
The main thing is to get our huge boom across smoothly and safely. First we release the preventer, David’s new bit of rigging that keeps the boom safe when the wind is behind us. Then we use the lovely electric winch to pull the boom central, go through the wind and quickly let it out the other side. At the same time the Yankee head sail gybes itself through the slot ahead of the furled stay sail.
Despite shaking like a leaf and my knuckles turning white on the wheel through stress, the gybe was as gentle as a lamb. David looked at his garmin watch and it told him he’d done enough intense minutes for the whole week – and it’s only Monday!
Once clear of the race, and the tide turning to go with us, the lumpy sea settled down and no more gybes required! We had the sea to ourselves and had a beautiful sunny sail with gannets and guillemots sighted from time to time. The wind was mostly on the beam between 15-20 knots and we cantered along.
Last time we sailed in July we had Lily the Pink up and saw dolphins. This time we had more wind and were regularly hitting 10 knots with a reefed main and the Yankee. When you are two-handed and you’re going along nicely there is no need to push it!
Dartmouth has a handy cairn up above Kingswear that is obviously there for sailors to point at. And then when you get a bit closer there’s a massive rock just outside the harbour entrance to aim for – these landmarks are useful because the charming narrow harbour entrance just suddenly appears out of the headland.
And to welcome us were the Dartmouth dolphins! (as we now call them) – playing in the bows and popping up under the boat! We saw two together – one big, one small which must have been a mother and baby. It was a lovely finale to our voyage.
Instead of staying in Dartmouth, this time we head up the river to pretty Dittisham and picked up one of the visitor mooring buoys. They are looked after by the Dartmouth harbour master who is very helpful.
It’s so beautiful here, we are going to stay a while!