050:36.681 N
001:56.943 W

Swanage

An exhilarating, exhausting and epic penultimate day of this trip!

We left Dartmouth as the sun rose, silhouetting the Mew Stone beautifully. The forecast was spot on which meant light winds to begin with and 25-28 knots towards the end of the day; when the jib wasn’t poled out, the spinnaker was flying.

We’d left a few hours before the turn of the tide to enable us to have favourable tide with us passing Portland Bill. As a result, TC was absolutely storming along when we passed the familiar landmark with its stunning white/red/white lighthouse, it felt great to be munching up the miles so fast.

Finally some photos of Dolphins, and not just their splashes. They are so energetic and busy, it is almost impossible to keep track of them but they were clearly enjoying themselves today.

So quite a long day going from 004° to 001° longitude which was quite impressive but lovely to end our trip on such a high. We picked up a mooring in Swanage Bay and during supper had the highly entertaining sight of 30 dinghies racing around the cans right by the boat. Our front row seats meant we could see the many sailors clearly having a blast from their smiles and waves.

Our beautiful Island home started showing over the horizon as we rounded St Albans Head, and is now only 18 miles away. We’ll leave here around 1000 and aim to be off Yarmouth Pier and RSYC between 1400 & 1500 and very much looking forward to seeing everyone again. 

If we don’t get a chance to write a blog tomorrow, we will do so before the end of the weekend.