Day 87- Friday 12th August- Yarmouth to Poole.

Today I did a short sail from the Isle of Wight to Poole. I am now in familiar waters. I used to have a mooring in Poole harbour.

The wind was a fairly constant force 3/4 from the south west. This meant a long close reach to Poole, with a couple of tacks to get across Christchurch Bay. Initially, I was tacking across the Solent and slowly going backwards, until the tide turned and the water carried me through the Hurst Narrows. There was a very quick looking trimaran moving towards Cowes.

Through the narrows, I had good views of the Needles and Hurst Castle and some very showery clouds.The water is funneled between the island and a sand band called the Shingles. This causes s turbulent needles Channel on the west side of the Solent. However, it possible to turn out of the channel before the Shingles and avoid the current. This is what I chose to do.

About 12 years ago, I had a mooring in Poole, when we lived in Dorset. I'd only had Hylje a couple of years and was still on a steep learning curve. Most of the time I sailed in Poole harbour, but Gyll, Joe and I made the occasional venture out. One day we steeled ourselves and set out for the Isle of Wight, but a sea mist set in and we turned back.The chart I was using today still had the intended route marked in pencil.Now doing the the same journey, but in reverse, seemed to emphasise the sailing  progress I've made since then.

Whilst  Hylje was on her mooring she was broken into by an ex police officer.The wash boards were thrown overboard, my carefully installed wooden housing for my car radio was ripped out and the original outboard bracket was torn off the stern along with the engine. Coming back caused some very mixed emotions.

Poole is supposed to be the largest natural harbour in Europe. Whilst there is a huge surface area of water, much of it is very shallow and when the tide is out, most of the water is about 1m deep.However, it has a small tidal range and the tide is high for a lot longer than it is low. At the entrance there are the expensive properties on Sandbanks, a fast running stream and a chain ferry.

If fast running water and chain ferries aren't enough, there are some big ferries moving through the narrow entrance to keep you concentrating.

Just inside the entrance there is Brownsea Island. This is a wild life reserve, which maintains a red squirrel colony, It also where Baden Powell held the first ever scout jamboree. Its a lovely oasis away from the chips and ice cream in Poole itself.

Since I was here, a new marina has been constructed next to the town quay. I used the pontoon to stretch out my genoa so that I could sew a repair following a tear that developed on the way across the bay.

In town a load of minis were being assembled on the quayside as part of a parade. They all had stickers for a London to Brighton. Poole seems a bit off the route.Minis are great. I've owned a few, so it was great to see so many in good running order. I'm not sure how right it is for the new mini to be included in a display like this.

Poole is the home of the Sunseekers factory. It's hard to call it a boatyard. I find it difficult to warm to these things.

Day 86-Thursday 11th August-Sheltering in Yarmouth

Today I sheltered in the harbour, watched the white crested waves on the Solent, listened to the gusts howling through the rigging, and thought about Portland Bill. My normal shore based state of mild anxiety was not helped by the owners of the 4 boats next to me faffing and agonising about making a short downwind crossing of the Solent to the Beaulieu River

Yesterday's force 7 south westerlies continued, so there was no decision to make about whether to head out to the Hurst narrows. From Yarmouth I looked out in that direction with my feet firmly on the pier.The low cloudsand threat of imminent rain made it look even bleaker.

Looking in the other direction you get a good view of Yarmouth Castle and the pub that was built when its moat was filled in.

Staying in harbour gave me plenty of time to study the pilot books and plan for the 3 main challenges ahead.These are the tidal gate of the western end of the Solent, avoiding the races off St Alban's Head and Portland Bill and crossing Lyme Bay.

Paul Heiney explains what happens at Portland Bill, which he equates with the Pentland Firth as the two places in the British Isles which have ...
.."  a ferocious reputation.The Race occurs as the flood tide makes its way up the channel and finds the Portland Bill in the way.. The landmass deflects the flow southwards, which causes it to pick up speed. This fast flowing water now heading offshore, eventually meets the main stream of the flood tide and the result is turbulence on a grand scale, compounded by a sudden shallowing of the water over the Portland Ledge. Add even a modest wind against tide, and this becomes a fearsome place, fit only for the Weymouth lifeboat crew, who have to face it in a regular basis".

The answer to the problem, is to time your arrival at slack water, just as the stream is to run in your favour and either go in very close if conditions allow or very far off if they don't.So it's a doddle really.

I toyed with the idea of catching the bus to Cowes to savour the atmosphere of Cowes week, but the people on the boats I was rafted up to wanted to get away early afternoon. I needed to be around so that I could reposition Hylje when they left. They waited and waited to see if the wind would drop further and discussed how closely they would sail together and how they would throw ropes to assist in a tow should it be neccessary.. The afternoon sort of evaporated in front of me.

From my position I could see the dory of the berthing master going out to shepherd newcomers.It's a very friendly and helful service. I thought about what a great name he has and if he could moonlight in a maternity ward, conducting the goings on and the comings out!

I did manage to take a look at St. Jame's Church in town. It was built on the site of the two previous churches, which were both burned down on separate raids by the French. The two other interesting bit about it were the old paintings inside and the way the tower had been extended.

One of the paintings is of St. Catherine of Egypt, who was martyred in 307, by being burned on a revolving wheel. Apparently that's how the firework got its name. Pretty gruesome eh? Why have they never named one after the Portland race?

The forecast is for the winds to ease, so tomorrow, I aim to go to Poole. From there I'd like to do the attractive bit of the Dorset coast up to Weymouth. Then its around Portland to the Exe  unless it's very settled so I could go somewhere in Lyme Bay.

Day 85-Wednesday 10th August- Bembridge to Yarmouth

Today I moved from one end of the Isle of Wight to the other, but it seemed like a much longer trip.Wow, how things can change quickly on the water.

I looked at 3 different web sites last night, and each one gave me a slightly different picture of what the wind would do today. All indicated the wind would come from a westerly direction, but they varied in the predictions on actual direction and strength. The Met Office said NW force 3 or 4 backing to the SW force 5 or 7 later. So it looked like I'd have a few hours of modest winds and I'd need to be in harbour for when the blow arrived.

First off, I cycled into Bembridge to retrieve my mobile phone from the very helpful cafe, where I left it yesterday. On the other side of the road, there is an estate agent with the sort of sounding name you might associate with this profession!If my name was King, I don't think I'd have gone into partnership with them though.

It was calm and peaceful at 7.30 as I crossed the causeway, and back on board I was soon under way.As I moved out into the Solent, there was a gentle north westerly and I set full sail for a  close reach up towards the entrance to Southampton Water. Though my speed through the water was only about 3kn, the outgoing tide was sweeping the water westwards, so I was making good progress. As I started to tack back towards the isle of Wight to take a closer look at Cowes, the wind started to strengthen just as today's Cowes week races commenced.

Within half an hour, the wind was a high force 6, and blowing from the south west. One of the races seemed to involve a line stretched north  out of Cowes, so I had no alternative but to cross the race course. By now, the wind over tide conditions had set up a big chop and there were boats every where crossing my path. As one 80-90ft monster, with about 20-30 blokes on board bore down on me with full spinnaker and all sails set,I turned a way to avoid a collision. It shot past me at about 25kn with a shout of thank you. The power of the thing was awesome.This picture isn't the boat.It was all too close to take photos, but it's typical of the sort of thing that was about, though not as long or heavy as the one I came close to..

As I moved as close to the shore as I could to avoid the mayhem, I heard someone on the radio  reporting a partially dis masted yacht to the coastguard. Soon I could see it myself, and someone was up the mast trying to cut it away. They were not requiring assistance and were sorting themselves out.

Another, radio call was reporting a drifting craft. The coastguard was telling him that this a boat had been involved in an earlier capsize, when 4 people had been safely rescued. I had I really close view of various races and none of the boats had a reef in the sails. Do racing sails have such things? I had 2 reefs in the main and still felt pressed.I wondered how many incidents arose in a day like this in the Solent

I was relieved to reach Yarmouth and tuck into the harbour.I have been through the town before when catching the ferry to the Isle of Wight, but I have never looked around. The first place I went to was  Yarmouth castle. This was built in the the year Henry VIII died. It was an advanced design for its time, with a sharply pointed bastion that sticks out of one corner that allows guns to be aimed back along the main walls. The fort was one of a a number of defences to guard the entrances to the Solent and so protect the fleet in Portsmouth. It also was supposed to help stop the French getting a toe hold on the Island.

It was never built as designed, as military funding was restricted even back then. Only really half a fort was built, with the ground raised to form a firing platform where the other half of the castle should have been.The ferry now has a good view of the fort.

Yarmouth is a pleasant little town, full of pubs and cafes.I may need to be here tomorrow as the winds are likely to remain a SW force 7. I don't think I can make Poole into that.

Day 84-Tuesday 9th August-Littlehampton to Bembridge.

The north westerly winds helped me do a close reach to the Isle of Wight today. This was another modest leg, but at least progress is being made into these generally strong westerly winds.

There are no rough water warnings on the charts in the vicinity of Selsey Bill at the eastern end of the Solent, but I expected the shallow water off its tip would probably kick up a chop. What i wasn't expecting though was the horrible sea just south and west of this over the Looe. The waves were about 3m high and breaking. Fortunately, I was able to skirt around the edge,rather than go through the middle.

The Nab tower marks the entrance to the solent from the east.Paul Heiney explains that it is a left over from the 2nd World War.As part of the defence against submarines a floating barrier of wires was strung across the Dover Straights, but in order to make a more permanent defence it was decided that a chain of concrete structures would be laid across the Chanel.. When the war came to an end none of the 24m high structures had been put in place. In order to find a use for one of them it was used to replace the nab light ship. The tower was constructed so that it would fill with water until it stood on the seabed. This one filled too quickly and settled at 1.5 degrees to the vertical, which is the angel it has retained ever since.

On the approach to Bembridge there is a nicely designed new lifeboat station.

It is just south of St Helen's Fort, which was built be Palmerston in 1860 to guard against another French attack,which did not happen.

It's Cowes week i believe, which means it wouldn't be worth trying to get into anywhere near Cowes. there were some very fine racing machines out on the water.

The long pontoon sits in a pool of water in an area, which dries. there is an old causeway, which connects one side to the other.

I stayed in Bembridge a couple of years ago, when I went to a friends birthday bash,which coincided with the Bestival festival. I never got down the harbour, though so this seemed like a new place to me.It used to be a busy Roman Port, but it has long since silted up. The town was sacked by French and it was only the Mary Rose, which set out to intercept them, and we all know what happened to her.

This is boat house country again, but its not like the shanty town in the Medway.Its more up market.

A couple of them actually offer Band B.

As house like as the accommodation is likely to be, the best ones are those that still look like boats. A couple of them are for sale, but what are you buying? Who owns the bit of land with the decking and the pedestrian access?

nearby there is a block of flats, which is getting a face lift by having timber cladding and new windows. Its amazing how the most dull of buildings can be transformed in this way. i saw a semi in Maldon, which had been similarly transformed.

I have started leaving things around again. This time it was my mobile phone. i left it in a coffee shop and it was closed by the time I realised. Fortunately the hairdresser was still open who knew of of the girls who worked there. She confirmed they'd got it and she starts at 7.30, so it shouldn't interrupt the day.

The series of short hops i have been making recently look like this on the map.

Day 83- Monday-8th August- Brighton to Littlehampton

Last night there was a thunder storm over Brighton. The rain continued on and off throughout the night. However, it wasn't the rain, but my coughing that kept waking me up. I had resorted to phoning the doctor, believing that I need a course of antibiotics, but she said unless I had a fever it was probably a virus. It could take 2-3 weeks to shake off. It will lead me to be more cautious about what I tackle.

More strong winds were forecast, but there would be a time when they would only be force 4/5. The chap in the marina office said that westerlies didn't kick up much of a sea because the south east facing coast line means the land acts as a shield. So as all was calm at 7.00, I thought I'd set out for Chichester.

Whilst I could hug the coast and so reduce the size of the waves I was finding the 22kn of wind right on the nose was slowing me a lot. Furthermore, there were big rafts of sea weed, which had been loosened by yesterday's wind and this kept being wrapped around the rudder and causing drag, which slowed be down even more. I thought it would take forever to get around Selsey Bill in these conditions, so I went into Littlehampton instead.It meant that I only did 18nm today. This is half the distance I was aiming for.

Littlehampton has a bar within the entrance, and I arrived almost at low tide. However, it was neap tides and I was able to get in by lifting the keel and the rudder. On the way up the channel against the strong running river it was odd to be next to kids only up to their ankles in water.

The helpful woman in the harbour office started telling me what the town had to offer. Apart from the usual recommendation for certain restaurants and the local chippy, it was the SSSI on the other side of the river Arun, and the" long bench", which are the main highlights.

The bench is indeed and interesting feature, and it runs in and out of a couple of architecturally interesting shelters. The bench seems to become a climbing frame within these, but bizarrely, there is a sign saying "no climbing". there was a healthy disregard for this sign, which doubtless is an attempt to protect the Council from accident claims.

Along the quay there is the usual residential redevelopment, but they seem to have tried to produce something interesting, by having some variety in the built form.

The town centre is modest, but there is plenty for the kids, with a fun park. For adults and kids there is a viewing tower at the top of the quay. On the walls there are bits and pieces about the history of the town. I was stuck by the photo of a remarkably modest boat that was intending to provide a round the world cruise.

When I got back to the pontoon I recognised the name of the Parker 335 that had arrived. Shemar is often mentioned in the Parker and Seal Sailing association newsletter. Its owner Martin Hopton introduced himself and invited me for a drink later.

finally, last night I received an email from Phil Ashwin, my fellow circumnavigator. ( Cowman's Dream website). He had now arrived back in Poole. He had met dolphins off Dungeness and a cross Channel swimmer off Dover! The radio is full of news about riots in London following Saturday's march in Totenham.The downgrading of the credit rating of the USA and the state of the financial markets and the Euro suggest we are moving into very uncertain times.

I have been using Imray   and various cruising club pilot books as I've worked my way around. I have found these universally dry tomes.So now I'm using Tom Cunliffe's "Channel Pilot", it makes a very refreshing change. He gives some colour to the places he describes and gives his opinions about them. Good on yer Tom.