We eventually found a safe anchorage for the night, but now we were back in ‘tidal’ waters, it was necessary for us to calculate the rise and fall, which turned to be 3 metres!

Our sailing friends Joe and Cherrie, from Narsillion, had kindly given us a voucher (which they had won in a raffle) which entitled us to 3 nights free mooring in Portland Yacht Services.  So we took full advantage of this and  moved onto a mooring ball no' 1615 on the first day and then into a slip for the next 2 days. 

During our few days in Portland, we naturally found one of Michael’s favourite shops, a chandlers store, and within moments of arriving we started to chat to a couple who were looking at purchasing a new liferaft.  Within minutes, they offered us their mooring ball in South Freeport, home to LL Bean!  Of course we accepted their offer and the following morning we left the dock and sailed up to South Freeport.  Whilst it took a while to identify the mooring, we eventually found the one marked “Lebovice”.  We took the dinghy up the river to the local dock and called for a taxi to take us to LL Bean.  The store was fascinating with every type of outdoor gear and wear you can imagine.

On returning to the dock, we spotted a Contest 36 in the marina.  We should have guessed, the owners of Spirit, Fred & Susan were so pleased to see us and invited us on board to discuss Contest’s!  It wasn’t long before we Susan offered us drinks and nibbles.

Both were really keen to see a larger Contest, so we invited them to come to Nimue the following day for coffee.