We left Studland Bay at around 7.00am for Lymington, to catch the assisting tidal stream through Hurst Spit, the journey took a very quick 4.5 hours for 18 miles.
We heard a very strange Mayday call with a yacht coming back from France announcing that the skipper’s wife had been lost overboard. As the emergency services on both sides of the channel engaged he suddenly remembered that she had not been on the boat when they set sail and cancelled the Mayday. Odd to say the least.
At Lymington we refuelled after we had been beaten to the fuel pontoon by a cheeky cabin cruiser who just queue jumped. Increased the difficulty for us, as the area around the fuel pontoon is very tight with boats. However we were up for the challenge and navigated it with no problem.
Overall we completed 1883 miles over the 6 weeks and one day! Quite an adventure…
We had a very quick journey down to Studland Bay. A Beam reach most of the way and only one main tack once we were setup to sail. We arrived off Portland Bill some 4 hours before we expected to get there. We were helped by utilising the cruising chute. This is a very large fore sail similar to a spinnaker without the pole.
This was a bit of fun to fly, requiring a good deal of team coordination and also meaning we could travel much faster than the other yachts around us. Always enjoyable!
Once again we had a dolphin escort, amazing really as up until the last few days we had seen very few.
We are overnighting in Studland to wait for the tide to get past The Needles tomorrow morning where we end our adventure back in Lymington.
We are leaving Kingsand at around midday, next and penultimate stop is scheduled as Studland Bay. We should get there by midday tomorrow. But before we leave, the shrouds could do with a clean, the shrouds are up the mast.
So Paul, having not had any excessive for a while and being the lightest, volunteered to go up and clean them. The Bosun’s chair is the equipment required so we dug it out and up he went.
Who needs a drone when you have an Irishman v1966!
We arrived in Plymouth or more accurately Kingsand anchorage around 8.00 pm. Unfortunately it took us a while to set the anchor. Persistency paid off though with our fifth attempt being successful, the boats already there and anchored had an evenings entertainment watching us.
The trip down from Milford Haven was very good. The first 24 hours including through the night and past Lands End were made under sail. We travelled 235 miles over the 2 days with an average speed of 6.5 knots. Our quickest passage by a considerable margin. Check out the video on Day 40 to see what that looks like.
We encountered a number of different vessels including a very strange working boat. The Seajacks Leviathan shown below, was travelling at 8 knots out of Falmouth and was a very strange thing to see coming at you.
We also had another 4 dolphin escorts, with groups of various numbers and sizes. A family group of 3 including an infant and a large group of at least eleven who stayed with us for around an hour. Never tire of watching them have fun on the bow wave.
We left on time at 9.00am this morning, got about 500 yards from the marina and Nick spotted the engine wasn’t spitting water out of the exhaust. The engine is sea w after cooled so this is potentially a serious problem. So whilst Nick went below to check, we raised the Genoa (the front sail) that is easily handled and kept steerage in the channel. Nick filled the water filter with tap water as it was dry recapped it and we tried the engine again. Success!
The forecast is much better so next stop hopefully Plymouth tomorrow late afternoon/early evening.
We will not have a signal until then at least, as we go too far offshore to get anything. So no more updates until then.
You can follow our progress round Lands End by visiting www.marinetraffic.com and searching for her MMSI number 235063936.
Under way again
Haven’t seen many container ships, looks like a small island
The weather today is shocking and we are very glad to be in shelter. Today was a rest, cleaning, stretch your legs and passage planning day. We discovered by telephone that there is no room in Plymouth Yacht Haven. It is fully booked for the next 2 weeks. So our plan is to leave tomorrow and head for an anchorage just at the Breakwater Fort at Plymouth. That should take us around a day and a half sail time.
Today was a late rise for us, catching up on our sleep.
The bay is very pretty and we have a seal at the stern having a good look at us. We have managed to get a berth at the Marina in Neyland where we stayed at the beginning of our adventure. As it has turned out the weather forecast has worsened from yesterday to Gale Force 8, this has reinforced that it was a very good decision to come in. We will stay here for at least 2 days and then make a plan to round Lands End.
