First Weekend Away
07 May 2013 | Studland
Marcus
Just had a lovely weekend on board El Nino. Beautiful weather for the bank holiday.
Ben had a party to go to on Saturday evening so we didn't head down until Sunday morning.
First time with the new dog, Mish, so thought it could be total chaos - three children and two dogs. Are we nuts?
But Mish seemed to take to the sea quite well and was no problem at all. Probably helps that her companion Vassy has been with us for almost 10 years now and is an old salty sea dog.
Anyway we simply stowed away and then sailed slowly out on the tide with just the genoa out and headed into Studland Bay.
Arriving at low tide we poked into the shallows of South Beach with the keel up.
The kids and dogs all had fun on the beach for rest of the afternoon. Ben and Jamie both wanted to do lots of rowing.
Barbecue on the boat in the evening.
Bit of a cold night and everyone was up early with the sun on Monday morning. Ange took the kids and dogs ashore while I found some important boat jobs to do ;-)
Quite a misty morning and after it cleared over Studland a sea breeze set in and you could see a big bank of thick fog over Poole and Bournemouth and running along the channel right to Old Harry, with just Studland Bay clear. Quite odd. We weren't in a hurry and I didn't see much sense in venturing into a blanketed harbour. I could hear but not see the ferries coming and going!
So fry up breakfast on Middle Beach and more lazying around :-)
The wind actually picked up in the Bay and by about 2pm the fog had lifted and Poole reared back into view. We weighed anchor and sailed out of the Bay. Full sail up, nice sailing. Then as soon as we came clear of Old Harry the wind died to nothing. Weird. All due to the land temperature I guess.
Motor sailing gently back along the channel with the tide to head home I suddenly noticed some black crescents poking out of the water away to port and realised I was seeing Dolphins. We were then treated to a display with one dolphin jumping clear of the water. Fantastic.
I have never seen Dolphins off Poole before. We've seen many on our travels but never this far East. Wonderful. And great that the kids saw them too.
As expected there was wind in the harbour and with the wind and tide with us it wasn't long before we were back on our mooring. The boys helping to helm on the way up the channel.
The weekend was finished off with chips at the club house for tea and some very weary children were carried to bed when we got home!
A great start to the season and so nice to see the kids getting more involved and enjoying themselves.