20th May
We set off at about 10:30 from Lymington following a few other boats out. The sun was breaking through the light clouds. As soon as we were out of the channel we put the sails up heading for the North Channel past Hurst Point. The tide was setting west at about 4 knots pushing us like a cork out off a bottle towards our destination – Poole. The wind was about 12 knots from the SW so we were close hauled, putting in a few tacks just off Christchurch. Unlike sailing on the East coast, we could settle the boat into long tacks as we had plenty of sea room to sail.
Having bought my fishing line back in Yarmouth I let the line out at the stern hoping to catch lunch. I felt the line tug a few times but this was nothing more than bits of seaweed. I will keep trying!
We found the first buoy at the entrance of Poole and started to push against the outgoing tide. The speed of some of the motor boats using the approach is excessive, but not illegal as the harbour limit is 10 knots and only confirms what every sailing skipper thinks about them.
We decided to go to the Town Quay, as it has easy access to everything. My brother Paul then joined us for the evening visiting the local Wetherspoons for something to eat. We had not seen each other for some time so we had a lot to catch up on.