Now we are in Weymouth

We arrived in Weymouth at about lunchtime on Sunday 18th July after a very early start from Yarmouth. We left our berth at 05.00 and headed out into the Solent, quickly being caught by the tide and swept towards the Needles Channel. Having seen the turbulence in the Solent there was no way we were going near to the Needles so headed west as soon as Hurst Castle had been passed through an inshore channel. . From then on the seas just mounted, getting bigger and bigger. We slogged on with a reef in the mainsail and no jib, motorsailing just to punch into the waves. Fortunately the tide was in our favour as we ticked off the headlands, very rough off Anvil point and quite docile off St Albans Head where we had expected the worst seas. Forty miles later the seas moderated as we entered between the two piers of Weymouth Harbour entrance Arriving at Weymouth the sun came out and we had a leisurely afternoon in the cockpit with fish and chips on board for dinner.
We hope that boat handling skills in Weymouth are an improvement on Yarmouth where they seemed to be appalling. Examples included the following. A sailing school boat came in to berth behind us. It hit a yacht moored beyond the spot he was coming into, quite a clout. Never mind, I’ll try again he must have thought and backed out for another go at berthing. Bang went his boat into the same moored boat again. I was pleased to see he did at least admit to the harbour staff what had happened. Another boat, when leaving his berth did not look at all before heading away from the pontoon. He swung out immediately in front of the boat coming in causing it to swerve to miss him then give full astern before hitting another boat moored in front. In turn the two boats following him in had to take evasive action also.....mayhem! Another boat, a Grand Soleil 47ft with just two on board (do they really need all that space) came in and tied up on a long section of vacant pontoon. Over the next 30 minutes or so they then moved the boat a couple of feet at a time along the pontoon towards the stern of a moored boat further along. Each time they moved all lines were secured and inspected by the skipper and adjustments made. I could not believe how long they took especially as other boats were waiting to tie up. All very entertaining though.
We hope to be in Weymouth for three of four nights before heading on to Lyme Regis for a sailing rally, weather permitting of course.