And back again

We left Pendennis when the winds stopped blowing from the east momentarily, and sailed to Dartmouth.  It was motor sailing as there was not enough wind to sail, but the sea was quite calm and we saw a couple of dolphins and a shark.  Martin spotted a big fishing net just drifting around, and decided to pick it up so it wouldn’t cause any problems.  Good practice for man overboard too!

About two hours out from Dartmouth the autopilot drive unit broke - the drive cable had pulled out of the socket.  Martin hand steered the rest of the way.  We moored up on the deep water pontoons again in Dartmouth, this time on the inside of them facing downstream so we had a bit more shelter from the wakes of the ferries and other boats, and it was easier to get off.

Martin fixed the autopilot motor cable by installing it properly in the motor - the cable hadn’t been pushed in past the locking bolt, and the washer was missing too.

While we were in Dartmouth, Martin gave me my second lesson in dinghy sailing with our Walker Bay.  This time I had to do the mainsheet as well as the tiller, it was great fun but a bit scary at first with the wakes of other boats and having to avoid the chain ferry.  My hands and wrists were aching after about 10 minutes!  We went all the way down to the bay on the Dartmouth side before the castle, and stopped there for a drink and a snack.  Martin then sailed us back to the boat.

We set alarms for midnight Saturday and left Dartmouth at 01:00 to get the tide right for the Needles and arrive in daylight in the Solent.  It was a really clear night and we could see lots of stars.  We also saw the moon rise!  There was enough wind to sail so we spent most of the night just under sail with no engine running for once, that was lovely.  The wind died away in the morning, so we motored the rest of the way.  Coming back through the Needles the sea was quite choppy, and also past Hurst, but once we were through that it was fine.

Martin decided it was best to go to Lymington Town Quay as we could have showers, go shopping, and pick up the spare autopilot motor cable that he had asked for from Greenham Regis.  The plan then is to head over to Beaulieu to pick up a mooring buoy and do some dinghy sailing in Beaulieu river, then go over to Cowes for the regatta.