Update on Saturday: Great!
06 June 2021
• Poole Harbor, UK
by Kitty
Beautiful sail, uneventful passage through the Needles Channel, another beautiful sail across a bay to Poole Harbor, and awesome docking in very tight quarters.
A really great feeling to begin our sailing travels, and an added blessing to start on such a perfect day. After months of anticipation, fears, and preparation, we have started, and it was a good one.
We have been hearing about sailing through the Needles Channel since we arrived. People treat this area with great respect because the rush of current through this narrow, shallow area leads to standing waves (like in a river rapid) that get very nasty with greater wind and with wind opposing tide. So, as with so much of sailing, understanding the factors and making a good plan is the key. Light wind was forecast and we timed the current, planning to take the main channel. The wind picked up to 15-18 knots so we changed plans and took the North Channel, which hugs the coast and avoids the worst of the "races" (standing waves). All went well. We then had a great sail 10 miles across a bay to the entrance to Poole Harbor. We entered the harbor (as everyone here tells you, the second largest natural harbor in the world) on a beautiful, sunny, windy afternoon with a huge amount of recreational and commercial traffic. The channel in is dredged, shallow outside of that. Commercial boats get the dredged channel and smaller boats sneak around on both sides, trying to follow boat right-away rules - fancy, large motor yachts, sailboats, jet skis and then the ferries and ships. Relaxation gave way to strict attention and no chitchat. We made our way along, crossed the shipping channel to get toward the entrance to our marina (did I mention that this marina is tight?) which is a 90 degree turn to starboard, followed immediately by another 90 turn to starboard, followed shortly after by a 90 degree turn to port. But we made it in, got to our lane, looked at the distance between sides, length of the docks, and size of motor boat immediately next to us and (we learned later) each of us silently thought "retreat!". Fortunately, there was no current, the slip was into the wind, and we were able to tiptoe in without drama.
The marina is right next to the main tourist area of Poole, which was hopping. England seems to have quickly moved from a super aggressive lockdown to exuberant enjoyment of socializing, dining, and sight seeing, though we haven't seen any foreign tourists around. So, we spent today exploring and doing the usual boat chores. Tomorrow, we are sailing to Weymouth, about 35 miles to the east.
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