Peter Simpson

A brilliant passage starting off at 9 am with a gentle Jenny around the Bill just at the start of the title gate. We had to motor sale most of the way to Dartmouth and it got quite choppy towards the end, but we were rewarded with the site of some baby dolphins and a smile on my dad‘s face as he took the boat in to his home port once again, Pete left us at this point and suffered seven hours of drinking with Walchie which I narrowly escaped!

Although not sunny, we were fortunate in having a favourable tide and a southerly wind all the way to Weymouth. Quite punchy around St Albans Head with breaking waves so we took that one wide. Dad had a two hour sleep! Fish and chips tonight

Beautiful conditions with a favourable tide all the way to Yarmouth meant that we did it in a record three hours! Not much wind but with a clean prop, Cardellino flew! Celebrated dad’s 82nd birthday at the restaurant, on the rocks.

Without doubt the most challenging sale, I have ever skippered. We knew that it would be Punchihewa because of the forecast at 20 to 30kn winds so we took the precaution off going well outside the over, falls at St Albans head, but even having done that, it was a hell of a rollercoaster getting through that stretch of water. Effect of wind against tide was super challenging. We found ourselves surfing down some massive rolling and breaking waves with the wind behind us! Thank god for the mainsail preventer… even with the adverse tide, and some faffing at the start, we still managed to averaged 6.5 kn over the passage. We obviously didn’t try to go through the needles with a strong, south-westerly wind took the north Channel instead which was straightforward. Great meal in Gastronomy!

This was the return passage from Dartmouth to Weymouth. The conditions were very gentle – a10 kn south-westerly wind and neaps tide. We set off early at 6 am in order to get to Portland Bill in time for the start of the title Gate going east. Always nervous when approaching Portland Bill, but this time it was very straightforward. As soon as we got into Weymouth, the bottle of Chablis was opened. A great day. Tomorrow is going to be very different-24 to 30, not winds heading to the needles…