After an enjoyable stay in Lymington we needed to leave by 2pm before we were charged for another night’s stay! We were holding off for as long as possible as we knew the tide through the Hurst narrows would be flowing against us. We chose to motor for a while whilst we fought the tide, and once through Hurst we set sail on a close reach, enduring a few rain showers, for Studland Bay.

We arrived in Studland Bay at dusk, dropped our anchor (our first first) in a spot we thought would be suitable, taking care to avoid the new no anchor zone put in place to protect the sea grass, and kept a look out to make sure we were held well for our overnight stay. We just beat the rain, and ate dinner on board and settled in for a quiet night as we knew we needed to be up early to catch the tide further West early in the morning.

It was still dark when we weighed anchor and set off (our second first) and we gingerly made our way around Old Harry under engine, avoiding lobster post and race marks as we went. The dawn was beginning to break as we passed Swanage Bay and we hoisted full sails before we hardened up to head for a waypoint about 5 miles off Portland Bill.

The weather forecast had the wind building as we headed West and as we passed the Bill (our third first) the wind was slowly backing, making it more difficult for us to make Torquay on the tack we were on .

As the wind built we reefed in our in-mast furling main sail and 140% Genoa and we were pleased with how Yanula Blue sailed across Lyme Bay (our fourth first).  Eventually our course was more toward Start Point than Torquay so we tacked through the wind and headed North.

The tide was not in our favour by now and as we were keen to make Torquay before dusk we fired up the iron sail (the engine) and motored our way in for the last hour or so, joined by two different pods of dolphins on the way. We were careful to sail off the two large fish pens as we approached our destination and found the entrance in to Torquay harbour relatively easy. Arrival to Torquay Marina was our fifth first of the trip!

Unfortunately the visitor pontoon has been commandeered by seagulls so the Harbour Master kindly assisted us in moving to a vacant berth where we tucked Yanula Blue in as we anticipated bad weather coming through so would be there for a while.