7th August – Sunday
Despite the strong winds overnight we had a reasonable night’s sleep. The problem here is that although the water is protected by the breakwater, the wind just comes straight in over Chesil beach with nothing to act as a buffer. We were meeting Elaine and Rob today for lunch around midday, so we got cracking with having a sort out of our fore peak storage (largely Carole’s job) and deck cleaning (Chris’s job). Since leaving Ipswich in June, we had had a lot of damp weather and we were keen to give the fore peak and its contents a good airing. By the time we walked out to the marina car park just before 12.30, we had finished what we had set out to do.
Elaine and Rob picked us up in their car and we headed up to Portland Bill for a catch-up over an excellent lunch. We then took our full tummies for a short walk in the strong breeze warmed by the sunshine, after which we headed in the car to Chesil beach to briefly walk on the shingle beach before sitting in the sunshine with an ice cream. We then said our goodbyes to Elaine and Rob when they dropped us off back at the marina.
Once back on the boat, Chris settled down for a nap while Carole spring cleaned and aired everything in our “guest” cabin ready for our visitors next week when we arrive in Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight. Once done, everything felt much warmer and drier. Hopefully, now we are into August, the damp times are behind us. Chris went up to the marina for a shower and when he returned we settled down to watch some of the Olympics on the TV and a programme already downloaded from iPlayer, which had a twist and a sad ending.
The wind had increased again to around F.6 and we went off to sleep with the now familiar sound of the wind howling around us.