All week long an equinoctial easterly 6, or more, has churned the harbour mouth and driven surf ashore over Peveril Ledge.
Boats on the Swanage summer moorings have run into Poole for shelter. Only the lifeboat remains, plunging and...
...rearing among the white horses.
The breeze begins to ease. Stargazer romps out over the swell, hard on the wind, spray flying. We ease sheets at Anvil Point, to run west round St Alban's Head and into the shelter of Worbarrow Bay.
Lord Nelson and Tenacious lie, like two privateers ready to pounce, beneath the towering cliffs. Despite their lofty spars, and long dark hulls, we do not sight them until we are upon them.
Stargazer anchors off the beach, under Worbarrow Tout, out of the reach of a mischievous southerly swell.
The evening sun warms the cockpit. I sit mesmerised by a three dimensional kaleidoscope show being played out across the cliff face....
....and settle down for the night.
We rise early to catch our tide. The dawn sun suffuses Arish Mell with a rose glow through the vanishing wisps of autumnal mist.
Stargazer makes sail and slips silently away to sea. Lord Nelson and Tenacious slumber on companionably. Tall ships together.
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