12th August – Friday
We left our berth in plenty of time for the 10:00 bridge opening. There were several others leaving with us so we had to jill about for a few minutes in a limited space. The bridge opened on time and we proceeded slowly through the harbour while Carole tidied the ropes and put the fenders away. The sun was shining and the wind was from the west so the sails went up as soon as we cleared the harbour.
Like most passages there is nearly always a point where we need to keep clear of tidal races or overfalls, so we needed to be at St Alban Head (overfalls) when the tide was due to turn at 13:30. Our planning was good but the water was still a bit confused some 5 miles off. Once we cleared this we turned towards Old Harry’s Rock (tidal race) towards Poole. The wind had picked up so a reef was put in both sails. Eventually the wind went behind us so we got the main sail in and managed to continue under sail right up to the Chain Ferry at Poole. We followed our charts to the Town Quay with the wind blowing 16 knotts. Carole radioed into the Marina, confirmed our berth for two nights, and requested assistance with our lines. As we turned into the Marina we saw one of the berthing masters waiting for us. Chris approached the Berth turning hard to port and we came in at a perfect angle and stopped, with Carole throwing the bow line ashore and calmly stepping off with the spring line. Our kind assistant smiled at us and said it was spot on and we smiled back and thought phew! By the time we had sorted our lines and plugged the boat into the power supply, it was just gone 16.00. We had arranged to meet Paul and Sue for the evening and just after 18.00 we heard footsteps on the deck – they had arrived. Carole made tea and then we made our way to the local Wetherspoons pub where we enjoyed a good chat, a satisfactory meal and a drink. Paul and Sue then went off to catch their train back to Christchurch and we returned to the boat for a catch-up on the day’s Olympic news before heading to our beds with our books.
13th August – Saturday
The morning was dry and bright and after tea and biscuits, we had nice hot showers on the boat followed by a visit to the small Tesco on the quayside to top up our stores. Once our shopping was all put away, we had some breakfast, after which Carole took some washing to the laundry and Chris did some passage planning. We had some bacon and ham to use up, so Carole cooked Chris a big bacon roll, while cooking herself a nice tasty cheese and ham omelette with fresh tomatoes. After washing up, we took a stroll into Poole, over the railway line, past the new shopping mall and to the bus station, stopping on the way back for Chris to get a coffee.
Carole then got busy with baking some chocolate Brazil nut brownie (courtesy of Delia online) and with Chris’s help, saved it from having a burnt bottom. (Our little gas oven is a nightmare for not distributing the heat evenly!) It doesn’t look pretty but it tastes good. After clearing away, Chris took over to cook a supper of pasta with tomato and mushroom sauce with a green salad and garlic bread. Carole opened a bottle of Cotes de Rhone which, although not Italian, went very well with it. No TV tonight as there was some exceptionally good music on Radio 2 on both the Trevor Nelson and Craig Charles shows. We settled down in our beds with the sounds of the Poole Quay nightlife. Tomorrow we are off to Yarmouth to see Sally, Tony, Liam, Daniel and Bobby. Can’t wait!