Winter Sun

Poole harbour 6.12.14:





A low winter sun suffuses the wake of the Inshore Life Boat with a rose pink glow....




....as it races across the mercury waters of the harbour on a December afternoon.




Off the stork legged Parkestone starting box, a beach cat searches for zephyrs in the still air.




Ashore in the fishermen's dock...




...the sun warms the body and slows the pace.




It casts long dark shadows at the feet of the Guild Hall....




....and turns the weathered stone of the church tower a honey gold.




Withies, marking the channel to Stargazer's berth, balance precariously above their reflections.




A sunbathing barnacle goose nonchalantly stands, one legged, watching the tide recede and surveys....




....migratory boats returned from their summer travels and snugged down for the winter.




A snowy egret waits patiently for his supper....




....standing as motionless as the surface of the water in today's bay.




A heron stalks the shallows of the uncovering mudflats. The paintbrush of the winter sun stipples a variegated grey cloak onto her back; highlights her beak with an abrupt dash of chromate yellow; and renders the water beneath her as shimmering folds of blue silk.

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Chercher la Baguette

16.9.14: Quai de la Hune, Cherbourg






I collect Stargazer's new Hydranet jib from Crusader Sails' loft and rush aboard to hoist it.




Feeling pleased and hungry I duck below for lunch. A ripe Brie beckons.... But there's something missing. I need a crusty French baguette to go with it.




I cast off Stargazer's lines. She beats down harbour to Blood Alley in a NE 5.




The wooded cliff shelters our anchorage as I work out the tides for Cherbourg.




We leave at dawn. It's blowing an Easterly 5. Stargazer romps across Channel - she reels off 67 nautical miles in nine and a half hours.




Our new sail pulls like a train!




Stargazer barrels in past the breakwater.....




.... to arrive amid the relaxed industry of Cherbourg by mid afternoon.




I make her fast.....




.....and walk in to town, with salt spiked hair and a broad grin,




...to find a crusty French baguette and juicy sun ripened tomatoes, to eat with my Brie.

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Location:Quai de la Hune,Cherbourg-Octeville,France

Chapman's Pool

The wind abandons us off Anvil point. We ride the westbound tide to St Albans Head and ghost into Chapman's Pool on a zephyr, to anchor for the day.

Astern a valley winds its way inland between grassy slopes and a sheer cliff of black and gold.

Ahead the bluff snout of St Alban's Head is our harbour wall, soaking up the swell that marches westward.

A weathered boat shed and a deserted mooring nestle amid the boulders on the shoreline.

As the sun dips toward the western horizon it honeys and mellows the craggy visage of our anchorage.

We leave on the morning tide. The NE breeze has returned and Lulworth Gunnery Range has announced that firing is over for the summer. Wind and tide carry us past kaleidoscope cliffs to Worbarrow Bay.

A thunderstorm looms. We anchor snug behind Worbarrow Tout to watch a celestial firework show.

Westward Ho

With an exuberant whoop from its whistle and a fire breathing sigh the steam locomotive pounds across Brunel's long legged viaduct - high among the tree tops. 

A basking seal raises his bewhiskered muzzle and stares quizzically at the spectacle.......

....whilst a snow white egret continues to study her reflection in the looking glass river.

Stargazer rests, with folded wings, on a mooring below the Anchor Stone.....

.... amid rolling Devon fields and ancient woodland echoing with birdsong.

Last night Stargazer sailed into the River Dart, as a full moon rose over the castle.

We left Poole on the morning tide. The lifting bridge our gateway to a long weekend.

Beyond the lee of Town Quay, Stargazer sniffed 22 knots of NW breeze....

.....and romped past Brownsea Castle under double reefed main.

Hard on the wind, she flew past Portland Bill, the tide under her,.....

.....to scud west across Lyme Bay in a joyous welter of wind-song and salt-spray.

Jurassic Jaunt

A mint fresh buttress cloaked in cascades of purple heather and plunging green grass reaches up towards the soft morning sun.

Overnight, Mupe rocks have sheltered us from the north west breeze which bore us here. 

Through the morning the wind veers north east. We cross to the east side of Worbarrow Bay.....

....seeking the shelter of its warmly striped walls of sandstone. In their lee the sea is sliver smooth.

We anchor and watch the sun paint hue and texture deeper and deeper into the rock; as it marches across the sky above the clifftop...

....until it makes way for the tide master moon in a  fiery display of imperial crimson and gold.

Yesterday Stargazer beat close in along the Jurassic Coast.

Past the hanging cliff and tumbling screes of St Albans Head......

.....and the anchorage it shelters in Chapman's Pool.

Beneath the blocky bulk of Wagon Rock.

Until we sight Worbarrow Tout, spotlighted by a shaft of afternoon sun - an outsize clam shell containing the peerless pearl of anchorages.

Stargazer noses into the broad crescent of Worbarrow Bay.

Soft featured and innocent, blue sea undermines the land's illusion of solid permanence....

....seeking to repeat its moment of sculptured triumph at Handfast Point.