Studland Bay

The Voyages of Richard and Amanda
Sat 17 Jul 2010 19:30
POS: 50:38.77N 001:56.30W
 
Despite some reservations about whether the wind would die down overnight the forecast for Saturday was good to cross Lyme Bay, so the alarm was set for 4.30am for a 5.00am start. The early start was to enable us to hit the tidal gate at Portland Bill where we needed to arrive at the latest by 1.00pm otherwise the tide would be against us.
 
Neither of us got a very good night. I wake a few times in the night believing the alarm is just about to go off and can't get back to sleep, Amanda was a bit stressed about the thought of the long crossing (about 65 miles altogether); so when the alarm finally went off we were both a bit tired. Still a cup of tea for Amanda and strong coffee for me soon got us going. For once the weather looked good with plenty of clear skies, even if it was too early to say if they would be blue. We slipped the mooring and motored out coiling up ropes and stowing all the fenders. Once out in the bay we found the wind was coming from dead astern and not really very strong, so, as we needed to keep an average of 5knots to get to Portland Bill by 1pm we needed to motor sail to start.
 
We eventually motored till about 11am when a combination of a slight change in wind direction, increase in wind and tide with us meant we could dispense with the engine and let the sails take over. We eventually arrived at Portland Bill almost exactly at 1pm with about 3 knots of tide with us carrying us along at 8 knots past this major landmark on our way home. We made sure we were 5 miles off shore at this point to keep out of the 'infamous race', after my last lot of overfalls, going throught the notorious one off Portland wouldn't have gone down well.
 
We carried this fair tide for the next 20 miles to Anvil Point covering the distance in 3 hours. By this time we were just using the genoa because the wind was coming from astern blowing at about 20-24 knots (F5). Just using the genoa makes the steering easier and stops sails flapping around as the mainsail is not blanketing the genoa. The autopilot was handling these conditions very well which I was pleased about as usually downwind in a strong wind is the hardest to cope with.
 
From Anvil Point to Old Harry's Rocks things took a turn for the worse. The wind was still blowing at F5, but now the tide turned so that it was flowing directly against the wind. This throws up steep choppy seas that break at the top. This was keeping me on my toes making sure that the stern of Justine Gabrielle was kept at right angles to the waves, and Amanda was kept busy praying for it to end and holding on for grim death. It wasn't as turbulent as the overfalls off Start Point but the waves were steeper. As each wave went passed you were looking over the bows at what looked like a sheer edge, with the certainty that the boat would just fall into the hole. It never did of course, the wave just flowed passed and J G got ready for the next one.
 
Eventually after three miles we were able to turn to port to the relative security of Studland Bay, where although the wind whistles through the anchorage the sea is relatively flat. On the second attempt we managed to lay the anchor with a reasonable certainty that we weren't dragging and so at last we're able to relax (a bit). Now we have returned to Studland we are really beginning to think we are nearly home, we can see the Isle of Wight for the first time in 2 months. Now we just have to come to terms with the fact that the adventure is nearly over.