Overnight anchorage for Sunday.

[wiggy]

I'm heading west towards Dartmouth on Sunday from Portsmouth and fancy an overnight anchorage either western Solent or Studland. I draw 1.8m, the forecast is for light N swing round to E for a while overnight before going back north, any ideas or suggestions?

 

[Twister_Ken]

W Solent. Shelter from N & E.

No. Can't think of anywhere except the first reach of the Beaulieu. And that might get a bit iffy if the E coincides with the ebb.

 

[flaming]

Newtown creek would get the shelter, but it's a bank holiday so the world and his wife will be there, and 1.8 might get a little touch and go if you don't get first pick at the deep bits.

Are you by any chance heading down for Dartmouth week? We're also heading down, planning on leaving monday morning, possibly stopping in Weymouth if the wind isn't fresh enough to allow us to make it all the way in daylight.

 

[grumpy_o_g]

Another time I might have said South Deep, round the back of Brownsea Island, but not with this weekend's tides and 1.8 m draft. Even if you were to pick up a vacant buoy in the Wych Channel that would be a bit rolly with any North or East in the wind. Studland could be rather uncomfortable too given the forecast but not dangerous - if it does start to turn bad you can go into Poole as long as you don't leave it too late. I think you may have to bite the bullet and go into Lymington (if you can) or Poole and take a marina berth.

 

[Robin]

I'm heading west towards Dartmouth on Sunday from Portsmouth and fancy an overnight anchorage either western Solent or Studland. I draw 1.8m, the forecast is for light N swing round to E for a while overnight before going back north, any ideas or suggestions?

If the winds are light enough, one of the outside visitor buoys off Yarmouth would work, othrerwise into Poole and anchor somewhere off Brownsea Castle or up in South Deep near Goathorn Point Studland could be rolly and spoil a good night's kip very easily, LULWORTH MIGHT Work but is a bit father west and maybe too far for leg one of your

 

[wiggy]

Ok I think it's Poole, I am heading off to Dartmouth and can't wait.

 

[laika]

I love virtual navigation when I'm on the hard not going anywhere and it's too rainy to work on the hull!

Unless either your boat is much faster than mine or you plan on breaking the journey again at Portland/Weymouth or indeed you're not concerned about the duration of the second leg, leaving from the western solent is not ideal to get past Portland bill with fair tides. Studland is about as far away from the bill as I'd like to set off from to get comfortably past the bill on the first tide. Poole is too much time and faff at the start if it can be avoided. If you're reading this now it's probably too late to punch tide in the solent to head for chapman's pool or worbarrow bay: ideally you'd be wanting to round st. alban's head with the tail of the west going and sneak in before dark. Don't know how crowded it gets on a bank holiday, but you've always got Weymouth or Portland as a fallback.

The winds tonight are supposed to be pretty light with not much wave action (but then again, it's not *supposed* to be raining now). studland is one tide from Portsmouth for a reasonably fast boat. I think I'd need more inclement conditions to deter me. But then by now your decision will be made anyway...

 

[Robin]

going outside Portland Bill 4 miles offshore we would leave poole about 2hrsbefore HW Dover and take the inshore eddy /slack water tide close in along to St Albans head, going close in at ST Albans about 45mins before HW Dover which is slack turning west. that gives plenty of time to get round the Bill and well into Lyme Bay with plenty of tide assistance We took 10hrs from POOLE/Studland to Dartmouth if we could maintain an average 6kts through the water which we did easily enough with a Westerly 33 and even more easily in our later Jeanneau Sun Legende 41

Enjoy Dartmouth! This was one of our favourite spots on the UK side of the Channel and our regular, annual, jump off point to cross over to southern Brittany via Chenal DU Four and Camaret

 

[Gerry]

Currently in Dartmouth and the place is already heaving! The sun is out (mostly) and the rowing races are in full swing.......Hurry up or you'll miss all the fun.

 

[Robin]

Do the Red Arrows still perform over the River on the final day???

 

[Gerry]

Do the Red Arrows still perform over the River on the final day???

This year they are performing on Friday pm, a clash of scheduling I understand..............

 

[Robin]

This year they are performing on Friday pm, a clash of scheduling I understand..............

not a good time to be mid stream with a tall mast

 

[wiggy]

Thanks for all the help, decided in the end on Poole and am now tied up in Port of Poole Marina (town quay full) using their free WIFI. As I'm in no rush, plan is tomorrow take the tide and either to Warbarrow or Weymouth, what's it like in Warbarrow, how much room and how's the holding? I may just chicken out and do Weymouth, I'm not even going to mention which anchor I have

 

[Robin]

Why waste time with going via Weymouth, go straight to Dartmouth as I suggested earlier using the early turn of the inshore eddy tide to get to St Albans at slack turning west. you will run out of favourable tide a couple of hours before reaching Dartmouth but heck you will have had a pretty good fair tide kick west beforehand to more than compensate and when it does turn it will be pushing slightly to the NE rather than east directly against you anyway. Other than that why not go into Portland and anchor off castle Cove , it i s good holding and free, plus gives an easier departure than from Weymouth rafted up or in the marina with the bridge to get through. There is also the newish Portland marina to consider as an option.Using Weymouth or Portland pretty well means using the inshore rout close in around Portland Bill needing careful time to arrive at slack andgoodeyes to avoid the pobster lots as my kids used to say...

 

[laika]

take the inshore eddy /slack water tide close in along to St Albans head, going close in at ST Albans about 45mins before HW Dover which is slack turning west.

Fair enough: Forgot the range was closed in august. 10 hours poole to dartmouth is a westerly 33 still sounds mightily impressive.

 

[laika]

Other than that why not go into Portland and anchor off castle Cove , it i s good holding and free, plus gives an easier departure than from Weymouth rafted up or in the marina with the bridge to get through.

I believe (could be wrong) that you are liable for harbour dues. No one has ever asked me for them though. Brilliant passage anchorage if you just want to get there but it's hardly idyllic.

 

[Robin]

Fair enough: Forgot the range was closed in august. 10 hours poole to dartmouth is a westerly 33 still sounds mightily impressive.

Route still passes well outside of the Lulworth firing ranges anyway in fact they are more of a PITA if headed for Weymouth . All it requires to do it in around 10hrs is to maintain an average 6kts of boatspeed ( as in THrough the water not SOG)unless the tides are very neapy . The rest comes from the hefty tide boost, especially when passing offshore around the bill and for several miles thereafter into Lyme Bay. depending on the wind direction we could do that under sail , but if we dropped to say under 5kts for any length of time, like over an hour we might use a bit of diesel assist. if you have dropped a knot average for one hour and later pickup half a knot to 6.5 for two hours with motor assist then you are back on target. If we had headwinds from St Albans and turning right a few degrees after Portland wasn't enough help, then we might use more motor, we had a 50hp motor so no problem if need be. before the Westerly 33 I had an Elizabethan 30 and took a couple of hours more mostly because it only had a 10hp Bukh. if motor assist was required, and before that I did it in a bilge keeled trident 24 in 18hrs in a westerly F5., bumpy but that is the nature of smaller boats, mind I vowed after that my next boat would have a fin keel and preferably a big motor, the liz had the fin not the motor. Oddly enough having switched to a cruser/racer fin keeler, we seemed to sail dead upwind far less frequently than we had to before!, Soddes Law??

 

[Robin]

I believe (could be wrong) that you are liable for harbour dues. No one has ever asked me for them though. Brilliant passage anchorage if you just want to get there but it's hardly idyllic.

Nor me but I believe they are entitled to ask but it would cost far more to administer/collect than they would earn.

Free to me and walkable by the cliff path to Weymouth shops is idyllic enough, but we also had friends who live overlooking Castle cove who would often come out in their rigid tender and run us ashore for a Barbie in their garden, plus in those days if Castle Cove SC had a free mooring they let you use it for a token donation through the then clubhouse letterbox top of the steps going up from the beach one time we were there in the middle of a big dinghy championships, Fireballs IIRC and they virtually insisted we partake free in the event barbie by the beach steps where CCSCclub members were doing all the cooking.

 

[laika]

If we had headwinds from St Albans and turning right a few degrees after Portland wasn't enough help, then we might use more motor, we had a 50hp motor so no problem if need be. before the Westerly 33 I had an Elizabethan 30 and took a couple of hours more mostly because it only had a 10hp Bukh.

You had a 50hp motor in a westerly 33??

 

[Robin]

You had a 50hp motor in a westerly 33??

it came with a42hp Mercedes OM 636 which we had fully rebuilt but then after just 800hrs went tits up after the oil pump driveshaft snapped ( a brand new pump as part of the rebuild) and the motor seized. we chose not to do another rebuild but fitted a new engine, a Volvo MD22L ( or Perkins Prima painted green by Volvo before adding their nameplate ) it was either that motor which like the OM636 was 4 cylinder or a Volvo 2003 turbo, one of the worst motors made in my book (sorry if your Oceanlord has one, they seemed to be either very bad or very good back when I was over there) The MD22L was originally an Austin Montego diesel marinised by Perkins as their Prima (painted blue) the Volvo version had Bosch electrics, was painted green and had A Volvo gearbox which gave a choice of left or right hand rotation) theMD22L was lower profile than the old MERCEDES ,was lighter weight and fitted easily in the W33 engine space and was excellent, using less fuel/hour for better boatspeed and was always instant start on even the coldest winter day without pre- heaters unlike the OM636 which needed 30 secs of preheat unless restarting from warm, disconcerting after a X-channel all under sail and thus arriving with a cold engine for when the Sandbanks chain ferry saw the whites of our eyes and pulled out in front of us as it seemed to do often. THE MD22L was a direct injection engine and never needed preheat ever, an easy quiet 2000rpm gave us 6.25 kts at 0.56 gph. OUR next boat ( sun LEgende 41) had a 4 cylinder Yanmar 4JHE 44hp and was even better, especially as it was matched with a Brunton Autoprop self pitching/feathering prop . Our current boat is a Beneteau Oceanis 36CC with a 3 cylinder 30hp Yanmar but I have yet to calibrate it's performance. I would like to fit a BrUnton to this one too but cannot afford it especially at USA prices, imported but maybe we will win the lottery!