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.