We left Poole early in the morning and had a fast sail to Portland in up to 30 knots of wind and choppy seas. Two reefs in the main kept us steady but both of us felt a little sea sick. We took a sturgeron each and that helped but by the time we arrived in Portland we were pretty exhausted. It was very windy in the harbour with the wind gusting hard. We had to dodge a dinghy sailing race which was a bit stressful. On arrival at the Marina the wind was still howling and the bow of the boat got blown away from the berth. Luckily a man assisted us in his rib by pushing us onto the pontoon and two other men helped us with our lines. Shew - what an exhausting business! Portland was not very pretty and very windy, so pleased we only had a night then.
Awake at 5am and left at 5.30am so we could catch the tides right when rounding Portland Bill. This is a notorious headland with a mix of tides causing standing waves so we needed to get this right. We were too chicken to try the inshore passage so went for the offshore passage which was quite a bit longer. All went well and we caught the tides perfectly. The wind was good too (15 to 20 knots, beam on) so we flew between 6 and 10 knots all the way arriving at Dartmouth at about 4pm. Dolphins met us near the entrance which was wonderful and cheering. Dartmouth looked beautiful with castles and gorgeous houses. At the Marina we made a perfect berthing but it was the wrong berth! So we had to reverse out, fend ourselves off a huge launch and then move into the next berth. When will we ever get this berthing business right!? We enjoyed a gorgeous evening with sundowners in the cockpit.
Today we plan to explore a bit of Dartmouth and head to Plymouth tomorrow.