2022 Fourth Leg - Weymouth to Gosport

Around Britain – Year 3 – Portishead to Ramsgate – 2022.

Day 34 – 4^th July – Weymouth to Poole – 30 miles

We stayed in Weymouth for 3 days and met up with Julia’s friends Peter and Barbara who were staying in a hotel for the weekend. As they had a car, we were able to take a trip to Portland to have a look at the famous Portland Race form above. You certainly wouldn’t want to sail through it as one sailing boat was doing and getting bashed about all over the place. The reason for trying to go as close to the Bill as possible became so much clearer from above and the waters to the East were totally smooth.

A boat called Caveman rafted to us for a couple of nights. They were heading to the Scilly Isles. He had been to sea as an Engineer also so you can imagine all the Lamp Swinging that took place.

The passage from Weymouth to Poole is fairly-straight forward with just the Lulworth Firing Range to be clear of if they are firing, they were the day we were there, so we kept outside the two-and-a-half-mile limit whilst passing. There is also St. Albans Head, St. Albans Ledge, and Anvil Point to negotiate and on this occasion the sea had over picked up a little but still gave us some lively moments. We had tide with us for all the passage which helped us tremendously, reaching over 7 knots SOG – we were flying!!

St. Albans Head and Anvil Point

The run into Poole Harbour is well buoyed and easy apart from having to keep clear of the Chain Ferry between Sandbanks and Studland, which wasn’t taking any prisoners! We had a berth in the Town Quay marina which gave us good access to the Old Town and Julia’s sister was able to come down to see us.

I had hoped to use our wind steering for the trip as the forecast gave us some steady SW winds. These were far from steady in either direction or strength, so the Wind Steering proved to be a bit challenging, and we finally gave up on it to resume hand steering again. The Autohelm was not playing at all now so I suspect that the electric motor is shorting out somewhere and will need replacing. Also, on this leg the Engine Intercooler Sea Water outlet hose decided to start leaking and the pipe had come up against the exhaust causing the outer layer of the reinforced pipe to melt in way of it, which in turn had made the ‘jubilee’ clip a little slack that had caused the small leak. I managed to reverse the pipe so that the melted bit was not now near the exhaust, and it stopped the leak.

Lunar Sea at Poole

Day 36 – 6^th July – Poole to Lymington, via Christchurch – 24 miles

Poole was a nice place to stay with loads to do around the area. Julia had always wanted to visit Brownsea Island so jumped at the chance and got a small ferry across with Dee for the day – they were not disappointed and vowed to go back again someday. I had a rest day, well a trip to the local chandlery to buy some new water hose pipe. I was unlucky so for now we had to make do with what we had and hoped that it would be okay. If all else failed, I did have a smaller length of hose that I could use if needed.

Dee came with for the trip to Lymington. It was the first time she had sailed on Lunar Sea, so I put her on the helm for the trip. I think she enjoyed the experience – at least said she wanted to do another trip.

The passage would take us on a detour to Christchurch Bay where we had originally hoped to anchor on our original schedule. I got in as close as I dared until the depth of water was starting to run out and we quickly turned for the inside route of the Shingles Bank and the Solent. Tide was with us all the way, so we hoped for a fast trip and managed to sail for most of it.

The Needles were there - honest

Hurst Point and Castle

Unfortunately, for the first hour coming out of Poole Harbour the Engine Sea Water hose had worked loose again and this time had managed to fill the bilges up just over the saloon deck. I have 5 electric bilge pumps on Lunar Sea and a manual one under the engine and two of the electric ones would not start including my big capacity one – I was not a happy man! Luckily have stopped the leak again, the smaller bilge pump slowly managed to get rid of all the water and it did give me a chance to prove that the manual bilge pump worked. Guess what I would be doing in Lymington?

Lunar Sea's two Berths in Lymington

Pirates are everywhere!

Day 40 – 10^th July – Lymington to Southampton – 18 miles

It was good to finally reach Lymington and for us it was an area that we were familiar with and now so close to the end of our 5-year adventure and somewhere that I have fold memories of in connection with previous long sailing trips. Julia had managed to charm her way to book two nights on Lymington Quay pontoons. So, it was a great place to be and there were two much needed Chandleries just over the road. Julia went back with Dee to meet up with their dog Bliss and spent a night in their caravan together.

The day we left Lymington

I had better things to do – the bilges and in particular the pumps needed some serious looking at. It would take me all day and part of the next one before I could say that it was now 100% working. The high-level warning light, the automatic pumps, and the big-capacity pump all now running. All thanks to some rewiring of a badly corroded junction box, a new float switch to replace a ‘Mickey Mouse’ level sensor and lots of cleaning to remove as much built-up debris as possible. Then to refill the bilges again with some cleaner/disinfectant solution to pump out when we get back to open sea and I can test them all again.

Our arrangements had changed slightly to make it possible to meet up with friends in Southampton, this meant two further days in lovely Lymington, which because our original berth had been booked already, would this time be on the outer ‘first come, first served’ pontoon which could mean that we would be rafted against. It also cost us more as well because it was ‘the Weekend’. The extra days in Lymington also meant that we would not now be gong to Yarmouth or Cowes on the Isle of Wight or Beaulieu. Not too much of a problem as we had been to them before, and we could come back and do these again another time.

We managed to sample the ‘Ship Inn’ on the quayside which is not now how I had remembered it and had changed from a pub more to a restaurant. Luckily, the next pub we found, ‘The King’s Head’, was full of atmosphere and character and although it served food had a separate bar area. We also had a lovely meal there the following night.

We had to be in Southampton to meet up with friends in the afternoon. This would mean an early start at 08:30, which unfortunately, would mean sailing, or actually motoring, against the tide for the whole passage up the Western Solent and into Southampton Water. The trip itself took us a frustrating five hours which should have only taken three. At least it was a lovely sunny day and Dee managed to do the trip with us again – I think she has the ‘bug’ now! Being a Sunny Summer Sunday in the Solent is truly hectic as anyone that has done it will testify and you need to have your eyes open wide and have your wits about you – dodging high speed boats that do not follow the ’Rules of the Road’, or, keeping well clear of Container Ships and Ferries – all very tiring for an ‘Old Man’.

Julia and Dee in the Solent

We eventually moored up in Ocean Village at 13:30 and had a lovely afternoon with friends, food, and Champagne – marvellous.

Lunar Sea at Ocean Village - Southampton

Some other boats around the Marina

Day 41 – 11^th July – Southampton to Gosport – 15 miles

Ocean Village - Southampton

Ocean Village was extremely disappointing. The last time I was there it was a lot cleaner and in a lot of ways friendlier. I also think that when we booked in, they looked up Lunar Sea and decided that we should go to the outer side of the Marina and away from all the expensive looking boats. The facilities on that side were not working as they had been boarded up. The other facilities were about a 15-minute walk away. I had said we had a holding tank, but I didn’t say that it was being used, so we chose to give our donations to the Grey Mullet.

I took advantage of a favourable current which was with us for the 15 miles to Gosport. It was a gorgeous sunny day with winds on the nose of course, but we could use it to keep a steady boat by tacking across the Solent. Being a Monday, there was not the same numbers of ‘big toys’ on the water that there had been on the Sunday and so mainly sailing craft rather than motorboats. It was also the start of Cowes Week and we did see one class of boats under spinnaker making for the line at Cowes.

Warsash from the Hamble

Passing the Hamble, I took the opportunity to go up the River and past Warsash Nautical College where I spent the first 2 years of my Cadetship from 1969. It has changed quite a bit from my memories, with a lot more training aids – the Fire training and Life rafts and boats training. My old Cadet block was still there with the track to the Rising Sun on the Rivers edge still evident, that we sometimes used after ‘lights out’.