Today's trip was only ever going to be a short one, a couple of miles from Weymouth to Portland to get fuel, anchoring overnight in Portland Harbour ready to leave at the crack of sparrows tomorrow to catch the tide around Portland Bill to continue our journey.

With the genoa newly patched, we decided to have a sail around Weymouth Bay, just to make the trip a little less utilitarian. After a few leisurely tacks in the gentle breeze, we noticed it was looking rather black behind us and decided to head into the harbour pronto. With the arrival of rain as we fuelled up and F7 newly forecast, we decided to stay where we were in the marina rather than head out again into the harbour. It's now some five hours later, still raining and with the weather forecast worsening almost by the minute, we may be here for some time!



Weather following us into Portland Harbour

Portland is a rather odd sticky-out piece of land off the Dorset coastline, described by Thomas Hardy as 'carved by Time out of a single stone' and joined to the mainland by Chesil Beach. The harbour is one of the largest man-made harbours in the world and was once an important Royal Navy base, prominent in both the First and Second World Wars. The now civilian port was used for the 2012 Olympic Games sailing events.

The 'island' itself is home to two prisons and an aversion to the word 'rabbit'. Look it up for yourselves!