050:36.47N
002:27.03W

Friday 17 April

Since arriving in Weymouth on Tuesday, we’ve spent our time waiting for the westerly blow to pass over before continuing on towards Dartmouth. The weather forecast looks like it will turn easterly on Sunday which is exciting.

So Wednesday and Thursday have been filled with exploring and doing some walks locally, last time we were here was to watch the 2012 Olympics; now we are the only boat on the pontoon.

Today we did some boat admin; Harry went up the mast with some PTFE spray as the jib was quite difficult to furl on Tuesday. The big difference between now and 2012 is that back then Harry went up the mast for fun, now he is being very helpful!

In preparation for some hoped-for downwind sailing we set up a preventer on the main boom to help hold it in place and prevent any accidental jibes, luxury to be alongside a pontoon for this job. Plenty of curious by-standers asking what we were doing.

We also reeved a third reefing line and dug out the bright orange storm jib and experimented with hoisting it in various ways; these latter two jobs were insurance against never needing them for real.

We don’t plug into pontoon electrics as TC isn’t set up for that, so Bol has done an outstanding job with solar panels this winter. So much so that we were able to make our mid morning cuppa using a tiny 12v kettle powered by the sun, nice.  

Planning a trip to Portland Bill tomorrow, us going by bus and Harry has hired a bike. Then fingers crossed we’ll be underway early Sunday heading west.