Ad Lib 41

 

Search parties patrol Poole Quay. Dressed in full foul weather gear.

Where the towering TS Royalist and Pip Hare's foil-shorn IMOCA once lay, there is a space. Empty, save for a white fishing catamaran. The two crowd pleasing sailing craft missing.

AIS (Automatic Identification System) tracking places Royalist in Salcombe. But yields no results for Pip's boat. Speculation fills the information vacuum: Relocation to a cheaper berth? Refitting, elsewhere, to enter the Route du Rhum race? An offer, too good to be refused, accepted?

Time will tell. Meanwhile, RNLI teams genially scour the pavement cafes. Collection buckets in hand.

Ad Lib 40

The misty mauve undulations, of the Purback hills, fill the horizon. Emerald green scrub rises from crescents of silver sand. And the Wareham channel weaves its way sinuously upstream. 

Past the old Flying Boat jetties, at Dorset Lake. Where the Special Boat Squadron (SBS) base nestles improbably amongst beachside bungalows. "No photography allowed." Not even by the all-seeing-eye of Google Street View.

A quiet and intimate spot in which to contemplate Stargazer's next move. Sheltered from today's forty knot blast. Which will be followed by several days of light airs. The tides, all the while, moving from neaps to springs and advancing by an hour per day.

From Poole (A) to either the head of the Alderney Race (B) or the Casquets (C) is around twelve hours of sailing, for Stargazer. In order to continue to St Peter Port (D), we need the tide to turn south-going on arrival. This is more critical in the Race, where spring flows are five to seven knots, than off the Casquets where the tide rates are slightly less extreme.

Over the (too) windy weekend, just past, the tides have turned south between sixteen and eighteen hundred. Perfect timing, for a dawn departure from Poole and an evening arrival in St Peter Port. 

It is likely to be the second half of this week, before the breeze has rested and returned refreshed. By then, the tide will be turning south at around ten in the morning and twenty three hundred at night. 

The question is, how to harness the later tide timings to Stargazer's purpose?

The answer: an overnight passage, to catch the morning turn of the tide. Most likely at the Casquets. Where we might make some progress (or, at least not be swept backwards) if arriving early. Departing Poole and clearing the, pot buoy strewn, Anvil point before dusk. Benefitting from daylight, by the time we encounter shipping entering or leaving the Casquets Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS). 

Unless the forecast should shift once more. In this most mercurial of transitions from spring to summer.

Picture Credits

Isle of Wight to Guernsey passage planning chart courtesy of the United Kingdom Hydrography Office (UKHO)

Long range forecast screenshot courtesy of the metoffice.gov.uk

Ad Lib 39

Training Ship Royalist takes pride of place on the Poole waterfront. Sheltering from today’s brisk breeze.

Supplanting Pip Hare's IMOCA from the prime spot. Her boat symbolically shorn of foils. Which are strapped to the foredeck.

Pip has been without sponsorship, since her Southern Ocean dismasting, in the 2024 Vendee Globe race. All available funds were exhausted in shipping the stricken craft home. No further financing, with which to launch a 2028 Vendee Globe challenge, has, so far, been found. In these uncertain times, of 'strong men' (swollen machismo?) and world financial insecurity.

Conditions which, one might have supposed, would not suit a builder of superyachts. However Sunseeker, despite another change in corporate ownership, seems to be thriving.

This stroll, along Poole Quay, thus suggesting that the prevailing principals, of global economics, are similar to those of a game of Snakes & Ladders.

Picture Credits

Southern Ocean jury rig picture courtesy of Pip Hare Ocean Racing.

Ad Lib 38

 A tale of two dogs and a cat, replaces that of Stargazer’s planned passage. The dawn forecast check revealing wind speeds rising to 25 knots, in the Alderney Race (Raz Blanchard), by evening. Too much for comfort. Albeit the tide timings are perfect. 

“That Doggie, In The Window” of the Poole inshore lifeboat station (no indication given as to “how much,” or whether “for sale”), is cleverly crafted from cast off yellow RNLI deck boots.

Perhaps the curriculum, of the Lifeboat College, is broader than its name suggests?

Meanwhile, the cat in question is concealed in a quiet corner of the Cobbs Quay boatyard. Evidently named by an aficionado of Hoyt Axton's 1979 Country hit "Della and the Dealer."

"It was Della and the Dealer and a dog named Jake

And a cat named Kalamazoo

Left the city in a pickup truck

Gonna make some dreams come true. . . ."

Canine companion, Jake, subsequently coming in for a cursory mention.

". . .If that cat could talk what tales he'd tell

About Della and the Dealer and the dog, as well

But the cat was cool, and never said a mumblin' word. . ."

Ad Lib 37

 Come to Poole Quay, for a day, to help you work rest and play. To misquote the iconic Mars strap line.

Simply saunter in the sunshine.

Or perhaps, “row, row, row your boat gently down the stream. . . . 

. . . .merrily, merrily, merrily, for life is but a dream."

A repair team, replacing work-worn timbers on the Quay wall, takes a break. Admiring the view.

On the opposite shore, an industrious Sunseeker commissioning crew are, in quick succession; launching, stripping protective wrappers and system testing engines and thrusters.

Before sounding a single long blast, on imperious air horns, and casting off for sea trials.

Ad Lib 36

Two wins in one day:

  Stargazer's fuel filler pipe is swiftly disconnected and drained without spillage. The errant cap retaining cable, complete with end fitting, emerges with the gush. (See Ad Lib 28). In the ten years, since we last met, Mike has grown his Purbeck Marine business to employ a team of nine Technicians. After our reunion chat, he therefore despatches Zak, to draw the thorn from Stargazer's metaphorical paw.

Stargazer's skipper is no less fortunate. With a win on his Premium Bonds. Alas, it is not the life changing one million pound 'jackpot.' More of a welcome boost to the summer ice-cream fund. (For readers not in the UK: Premium Bonds are a British, state operated, savings product. No interest is paid, instead savers are entered into a monthly prize draw. Their ‘luck’ increasing with the size of their stake.)

Ad Lib 35

 Stargazer treads a dawn paved with gold.

Turning her bows west at the foot of the Chichester channel.

Fourteen knots of north east breeze on her starboard quarter. The gilded sunrise glowing in her portlights.

The morning ferry turns for Portsmouth, as Stargazer slips past Horse Sand Fort and into the Solent.

The sun is wide awake, by the time we pass The Royal Yacht Squadron, on the well groomed Cowes waterfront.

A leviathan tanker in ballast leaves Southampton. Tethered to a tug, for help in the tight turn, at the Prince Consort cardinal. Stargazer hugs the shallows to stay clear.

A familiar craft emerges from Newtown Creek, making for Lymington. Martyn and Hilly's Styria, a Hallberg-Rassy Rasmus. We met during Stargazer's first Biscay cruise (See Living the Dream - Sail South to the Sun). Years later, we rode out Storm Evert together, in the isles of Scilly (See An English Summer)

So far, Stargazer has made unexpectedly good time. But the price we pay is that an adverse tide still pours through Hurst narrows, at the western end of the Solent. We duck behind the Keyhaven spit to avoid the worst. Studying the lighthouse at our leisure. Re-emerging once the flow slackens sufficiently.

Stargazer romps across Poole Bay. Past the Christchurch entrance, hidden beneath Hengistbury Head.

We race up Poole harbour. Radioing for a sixteen thirty bridge lift as we go. Conscious that, on weekdays, there is no seventeen thirty lift. (To reduce rush-hour road congestion.) With a long wait until eighteen thirty. Stargazer arrives with seconds to spare. Up goes the 'old' Town Bridge. Sunseeker power boats, fresh from the production line, rafted three deep beside it.

There is a short pause, whilst traffic diverts between bridges. A chance to get our breath back, stow sails and deploy fenders. Before the dramatic, scissor style, 'new' Twin Sails bridge releases Stargazer. For the final leg: Past the RNLI’s national training college and maintenance workshops, then on up to Cobbs Quay. Our former home.

Ad Lib 34

My friend Helene, from Vannes, messages to suggest that I take a look at page 15 of the 2026 edition of Pass-Ports magazine. To which she has just put the finishing touches.

Stargazer's skipper was invited to contribute pictures and anecdotes because Stargazer was amongst the top participants in the Passeports Escales scheme during 2025. This grants five free nights in most French marinas.

I wrote in French but supplied an English translation. In case my French proved too gramatically wide of the mark to be understood. As happens from time to time. Both versions are used. The French, I am encouraged to note, without the need for editorial tweaks.

The 'storyline' revolves around Stargazer's love of craggy French granite. Exemplified by the Granit Rose of Ploumanac'h. . . .

And our 'secret' anchorages, sheltered by the tall cliffs of Belle Ile.

Boats, of course, come in for a mention: The memory of Armel Le Cleac'h explosively taking wing, alongside Stargazer; 

Plus Stargazer's annual reunions with Eric Tabarly's Pen Duick and Bernard Moitessier's Joshua.

Click here to view Pass-Ports Magazine 2026  Where picture quality is far crisper than in the (pixelated) screen grabs above. Original shots reproduced below: