Sail 6: Poole to Weymouth

After the Poole of Oil fiasco, we were looking for a good amount of wind to push us along to Weymouth so that we wouldn't need to use the engine too much. We were pretty sure it was fixed but didn't want to push the old girl too much. The forecast showed us that we would have enough wind, but not too much as we had a couple of gnarly headlands to deal with. We'd be passing Old Harry's Rocks, Peveril Point, Anvil Point and St Alban's Head. All had different eddies at different tide directions to deal with so we decided to go as close to land as we could to avoid too much turbulent water.

This passage was one of the most awkward to plan for the tides as our charts used 3 different standard ports to tell us the tidal currents. We had to reference Portsmouth, Dover and Plymouth, which have different High Tide times. The pilot book didn't make much noise about St Alban's Head, but the eddies looked quite severe on the chart. A bit of googling reveals that we should take a fair bit of care and that it can be as bad as Portland Bill. However, according to the locals "if you were to get caught in the race/eddies, you just need to hold on and it'll spit you out the other side in no time". Not very reassuring but hoping we arrive at the right moment and don't have to experience the log flume option.

Passage plan

Most accurate wind speed prediction is ECMWF.

11:00 10-12 Knots ENE

16:00 9-12 Knots ESE

Most accurate wind direction is PWG.

11:00 11 Knots ENE 74°

16:00 11 Knots SE 126°

Need to reach St Alban's Head by 11:20 to avoid the eddies, we're 4 days to springs. Tide is against us until high water Dover (11:23) then with us after that until 18:45.

- Leave Poole Harbour via Swash Channel 2NM at No2 Port Buoy. Evaluate race and eddies at Old Harry, get onto bearing 167°. Tide going East 1.5Knots. Port tack, beam reach.

- At waypoint 3 on GPS or 285° 4NM from Durlston Head castle, turn to 268°for St Alban's Head for inside passage, port tack broad reach/dead run. Experiment with sails. 6NM.

- Pass St Alban's Head on inside passage, look out for lobster pots, have the engine on in neutral and have everything stowed just in case.

- Turn to 320° towards Chapman's Pool. for 0.5NM beam reach starboard tack.

- Turn to 284° tide with us approximately 1.3 Knots, broad reach, starboard tack 10.5NM to Ringstead Bay. 4.5 Knots speed or 2.5 Hours.

- Turn to 256° towards Weymouth Harbour, tide negligible 0.1 to 0.2 Knots West, 3.5NM

Total Length - 25NM

Estimated Time - 7.25 Hours

3 Hours from Poole Harbour to Durlston Head, Leave harbour entrance at 8:15ish get up at 7:00 to leave anchorage at 7:45.

Passage log

Left late 8:15, motoring out to waypoint 3 to make the tidal gate. Weather looks fine in the harbour, barely a ripple. Observations at Weymouth say Easterly wind 10 Knots, observations at Swanage Pier say Northerly 10 Knots. NOTE! REMEMBER TO TURN GREASE SCREW WHEN ENGINE IS OFF

Running late for waypoint 3 to St Albans Head, it's 6NM away or 1.3 hours of motoring. Need to reach waypoint 3 by 10:00. 2.5NM at 5.4 Knots, 45 mins away.

Passing Old Harry's rock, v.nice. All is calm so changing course to cut the corner near Durlston Head rather than going out to waypoint 3.

Passed Dancing Ledge, very excited to see it from the sea, it's a big Hill family swimming, diving and crabbing spot (picture below on the right).

Passed St Alban's Head on the inside, some eddies to the east of it. We arrived an hour early, and could easily chuck a biscuit to shore, great practice for Portland Bill. The water is very clear and we could see the bottom. Passing along the coast through the firing practice area, clothes are off, bit of naked sailing ensues. It's very hot.

Anchored at Lulworth Cove, incredible! The coastline has been stunning all the way, with different rock formations and cliffs. Can see why all the houses in Purbeck have such regular shaped stones, they're not cut like that, they're formed that way.

Andy enjoys diving off the new wheelhouse roof. We're the last people to fit in the anchorage it's very busy and doesn't feel crowded.

Left Lulworth, there's no wind, it's variable. Just past Durdle Door, the beach looks surprisingly multicoloured and there are so many people there. Motoring to Weymouth, the sea is slight, we are sat at the front with beers letting 'Brian' the autopilot do the work.

Approaching Weymouth Harbour, contacted Harbour Master and we're good to go inside. So many people on Weymouth beach it looked like a wall.

Passage Reality

This was quite a long journey, we did a fair bit of sailing but lost the wind as we passed the firing range and ended up motor sailing and then just motoring. The coastline was super beautiful and you can't usually pass this close inshore as it's normally a firing range for the tank division. They all go on holiday for August which means you can really get in close and see all the lovely coves, cliffs and rock formations.

This sail was super hot, the lack of wind and no shade coming up to midday made it almost unbearable. We were so glad to swim and cool off at Lulworth Cove. Planning wise we seem to struggle to get going on time when it's an early start, no surprise there, we are not early risers. But this meant we felt like we were late when actually we were a bit early. With sailing it's always easier to slow down than to speed up, we could've hove to and waited before the headland, but as it was so calm we decided to go through a bit early.

We were a bit quicker than expected as we used the engine more than we thought we would. The wind predictions here don't seem to be accurate at all, we're learning to just go with the conditions as we find them.

Distance: 23.9 NM

Time: 6 hours 45 minutes

Average Speed: 4.3 Knots

Max Speed: 7.4 Knots

We're rafted up in Weymouth Harbour for a couple of days whilst we prepare to round the infamous Portland Bill!