Yarmouth to Studland Bay
12th July
We decided to take the north channel out past Hurst Point as we have done before. Chris had worked out that the earliest we could pass Hurst Point would be at 13:30 when the tide would turn and help us through. We decided to top up our diesel before we left. We had a bit of trouble getting off the fuel berth as the wind was pushing us on so one of the Harbour boats pulled the bow away. As we were leaving we could see other boats getting ready to leave. Once we left the harbour we put all the sails up and pointed to Hurst Castle. It did not take very long to reach Hurst Point and we passed it getting a push through the small channel then set our course for Studland Bay. The wind was kind, gently blowing us along.
When we arrived at Studland Bay, there were a couple of other boats already anchored, so we motored round cautiously, looking for a good spot to drop the hook. On our first attempt the anchor did not hold as there was a lot of weed on the sea bed, but we tried again and this time it dug in. We worked out the length of chain that we needed and then enabled the Anchor Alarm to let us know if the anchor was slipping.
We had arranged to meet our brother in-law, Rob, who was going to spend the night with us and try to teach Chris how to fish. We contacted him via phone, then untied the tender and headed to where he was waiting for us on the beach and soon we were back on board with Rob and his bags and fishing rod. The sun was warm with a gentle breeze and we sat in the cockpit catching up with his news. Later Rob was fishing at the back of the boat showing Chris how to use a fishing rod. Unfortunately we did not catch any fish as there was a lot of sea grass floating by. Carole prepared our evening meal which we all enjoyed with a beer.
The wind was now coming from the south east which caused us to roll a bit at anchor. We settled in our cabins and could hear strange sounds under the boat. The sound was like a bowl of rice krispies (snap, crackle and pop). We googled this on the ipad and found that it can be caused by small crustaceans eating sea weed on the underside of the boat. We were then rocked to sleep, although Carole was more disturbed in the front cabin, saying it felt like trying to sleep on a mechanical bull that needed oiling.
We decided not to have another night on anchor and to push onto Weymouth. Chris worked out that we had to leave at 13:00 to catch the tide around Anvil Point. So after a coffee and chocolate brownie at the National Trust café, we said au revoir to Rob on the shore.