Poole

Over the weekend, we decided to head out of the Solent and go to Poole. This involved sailing through an area called the Needles which is a narrow channel with “shingles” (shallow, rocky area) on one side and a submerged point referred to as the Bridge on the other, both of which need to be navigated. The area is well charted and marked with bouys and a lighthouse, but the passage needs to be timed to the currents and tides to ensure a comfortable passage. We calculated the best time to go through and had a relatively easy trip. The winds were relatively light and the day was sunny.

We needed to find a place to spend Saturday night in Poole and investigated Stutland Bay which has mooring balls but Flight was about a ton heavier than the maximum weight limit. We called the Harbormaster who suggested a mooring field inside of the harbor, but the mooring balls did not have “pennants” or lines attached to the top of the ball which are easily retrieved with a boat hook and popped over a cleat on the boat. Another call to the Harbormaster and we were referred to the Town Quay and a marina berth for the night. Marinas are great because they have showers, electricity, water and often laundry facilities. Their main drawback is that they are expensive. Given our lack of other options, the marina was perfect as we needed to do a couple of loads of laundry and I wanted to go for a walk.

The Poole waterfront was quaint and had lots of shops and eateries. Summer has been late to arrive to this part of England, so it was not crowded even though it was Saturday night. We walked around and discussed dinner options and ended up with a take-out order of fish and chips which we took back to Flight and devoured. The batter was light and crisp, and the cod inside was mild and delicious. We crawled into our bed later that evening tired from the sail.

We knew that the weather was turning on Monday, so even through we would have liked to explore further, we decided to head back into the Solent on Sunday. The winds were very light close to shore but picked up as we headed for the Needles. There were a lot of currents and waves as we headed back through the channel and the stern of the boat was getting kicked around as we rode down the waves. I was on the wheel and there was a definite rhythm to keeping the bow headed in the intended direction. We made it through without incident and moved into shallower water to allow a small freighter to pass us. Given that we were sailing and were in the channel first, we had priority although I like to get out of the way of other, faster vessels as a matter of safely and principle. We headed back to Newtown Creek which is familiar territory and where we knew we would be safe during the upcoming unsettled weather.

We’ve been hanging out on the boat in Newtown Creek for the past few days and have been doing boat projects. I made straps for and attached a new winch handle pocket at the base of the mast. We went through all the storage under the bunks in the forward cabin to note where things were and how they were stored. We did the same in the aft cabin yesterday. A few days ago, we inadvertently sucked some seaweed into the dinghy’s outboard engine and we spent today working on unclogging it. It is still too windy to launch the dinghy, but we will see if our efforts were successful in the next day or two. I’ll let you know.

All of our friends and family back home know that we like to eat good food and we don’t mind cooking it. We’ve been having fun exploring what we can cook using three pots and a two burner propane stove. So far, we have hosted two dinners with friends, made numerous Thai and Indian curries, and had crepes with lemon curd and raspberries for breakfast. We are not roughing it where food is concerned!

We are expecting our first visitors from home to arrive on Friday. We are meeting up with Roman’s sister, Christine, and a friend in Lymington and they will spend Friday night on the boat with us!