Some times names mean soomething

[lionelz]

So Friday I gave my friend a task of planning his first fairly long passage from Portsmouth to lulworth cove to do this Monday . When he gave me his route I noticed he went out via the needles, past dolphin bank I made a hopeful comment saying we may see some dolphins. Imagine my amazement when we got to the needles turned west and within 2 minutes a pod of about 8 large dolphins gave a display exactly at dolphin bank!!!. Made a perfect day, with great weather, sea conditions good friends and a great location and a portion of chips each when we got to the cove. We had 11 hours of perfect boating conditions. His planning was ok, although he gave a few incorrect coordinates which would have meant we would have needed a hovercraft to do some of his route. On days like this it makes the 1000s we spend on this hobby all worth it

 

[hg2016]

So Friday I gave my friend a task of planning his first fairly long passage from Portsmouth to lulworth cove to do this Monday .

Sounds like a great trip especially with the added bonus of the dolphins. Awesome, and Lulworth is a lovely spot.
This is a trip swmbo and I would like to make when we eventually get down that neck of the woods. How long did the Journey out to Lulworth take you. I'd like to get some idea of fuel burn and speed etc if you have any idea.
BTW I'm very jealous.

 

[Angele]

Coming back from Studland to the Solent on Sunday, just off Christchurch Ledge, I saw a couple of dolphins about a quarter of a mile ahead about 30 degs off to port on a southerly course. Unfortunately, they were intent on going their way and didn't want to play.

Quite likely a couple from the pod that you saw.

 

[JerryC]

It's a good cruising ground and it's nice to escape the madness of the Solent when you cruise West. The gunnery range extends from St Alban's Head to Lulworth Cove, they're closed for summer now but if you do this trip after 2 Sept you will need to either keep 6 miles out or call them up on ch8 to get a safe distance to transit the range.

Couple of years ago we were cruising from Poole to Weymouth a few miles offshore, kept trying to call them up for permission to cross, but no reply. Heard some comms between a range patrol boat and another cruiser a mile or two in front of us, they were told "firing today is limited to 3 miles offshore so just keep South of lat 50deg34". So I put it into the plotter and kept another half mile south just for good measure. Guess what, 5 mins later we were intercepted by a very fast army rib with a gun, speeding straight at us, what fun!

My crew said these military types just like to practice intercepting pleasure boats even when they're obviously adhering to a safe straight course announced over the radio. Wrong! Message learned: when they are firing it's not good enough simply to understand the safe distance offshore and course to steer through the firing range, you also need to let the patrol boats know that you know.

 

[lionelz]

Sounds like a great trip especially with the added bonus of the dolphins. Awesome, and Lulworth is a lovely spot.
This is a trip swmbo and I would like to make when we eventually get down that neck of the woods. How long did the Journey out to Lulworth take you. I'd like to get some idea of fuel burn and speed etc if you have any idea.
BTW I'm very jealous.

So it took me about 3 hours to get there. I have a 29ft rinker which is an American sports cruiser powered by a single 240hp Yamaha diesel on an outdrive. I supposed I avereraged about 18 knots at 3000 revs at that I burn about 40ltrs an hour coming back we spent the first part of the journey at tick over averaraging just over 6 knots with the tide with us. Total burn for the day was approximatly 170lts the overall journey was about 8 engine hours so that averaged out at about 22lts an hour. But it did take just over 5 hours to come back because of us enjoying the lovely boating weather. The coast past durlston head going west is just fantastic I would second the journey to anyone

 

[hg2016]

So it took me about 3 hours to get there. I have a 29ft rinker which is an American sports cruiser powered by a single 240hp Yamaha diesel on an outdrive. I supposed I avereraged about 18 knots at 3000 revs at that I burn about 40ltrs an hour coming back we spent the first part of the journey at tick over averaraging just over 6 knots with the tide with us. Total burn for the day was approximatly 170lts the overall journey was about 8 engine hours so that averaged out at about 22lts an hour. But it did take just over 5 hours to come back because of us enjoying the lovely boating weather. The coast past durlston head going west is just fantastic I would second the journey to anyone

Thanks for taking the time to post all the info, very helpful and interesting to know what to expect. Shame I'm missing such a stunning summer down there but the budget just couldn't stretch to transport and berth on the south coast this season. Got a couple of days with the Mrs booked at a Hotel in Lymington this coming weekend. We'll have a good look around.
Enjoy the rest of your season.

 

[lionelz]

Thanks for taking the time to post all the info, very helpful and interesting to know what to expect. Shame I'm missing such a stunning summer down there but the budget just couldn't stretch to transport and berth on the south coast this season. Got a couple of days with the Mrs booked at a Hotel in Lymington this coming weekend. We'll have a good look around.
Enjoy the rest of your season.

Thanks. And you. It is expensive on the Solent especially in a big marina but as I said on days like this it doesn't matter