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.

Whistle Stop Cruise: update 3

31.5.14. Studland Bay, Poole





Stargazer heels to 14 knots of NE breeze and treads lightly into a dawn filled with promise,





We beat down harbour past the Gare Maritime....





....leave the breakwater in our bubbling wake.....




.... and lee bow our way out to the shipping lanes....




....where we lie off awhile, sails limp, while the breeze takes an afternoon siesta.




I celebrate its return, now from the W, with birthday flapjacks and coffee.




We reach over lightly ruffled blue seas....




....until Harry, pale and slender in the soft evening light, welcomes us home.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Ferry Road,,United Kingdom

Whistle Stop Cruise: update 2

30.5.14. Quai de la Hune, Cherbourg





I awake to the creak of mooring lines as Stargazer stirs to the incoming tide.




Tall windowed, pastel painted buildings gaze over a lushly planted boulevard.




Shops overspill onto pavements...




.....filled with knots of exuberant conversation.




Tunefully tumbling fountains play brightly in the square.




On the front, the stone built church surveys the shifting sea.




Tomorrow is my birthday. To celebrate, Stargazer and I will be on passage.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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

Whistle Stop Cruise: live update 1

29.5.14 Quai de la Hune, Cherbourg.








There's a fair breeze for France as we leave Studland in the misty dawn.




The sun breaks through mid channel...





... and a piratical tan sailed silhouette, on the horizon turns, out to be the pilot cutter Jolie Brise - maybe heading for the Old Gaffers gathering in Yarmouth.




The breeze veers from NE to W and I break out Stargazer's cruising chute...




....as we cross the eastbound shipping lane and....




....slither across the sluicing channel tide and in under Cherbourg's stalwart Napoleonic battlements.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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