And so it begins

We started out by unpicking a route out of Newtown Creek, Isle of Wight, at 2330 a couple of hours before high water in order to get to Hurst Point just before the tide turned.  This worked and I was glad I'd given it plenty of time so I could adjust to being in familiar waters but without daylight.   I was also glad that my exit strategy included noting the light signatures of all the buoys and marks down the Needles Channel along with where they were and when I should expect to see them.   It all went smoothly under motor in the benign but cold conditions and I even got some fore sail out as we left.   

Leaving the Isle of Wight behind, with the sky full of stars, we were pushed along nicely by the ebbing tide and were off Portland and Weymouth when the sun rose to a sunny day that remained cold while at sea.  We followed a course that put us 8 miles from Portland as there is a tidal race there that can be deadly in the wrong conditions at the wrong time.  Even though we were in the right conditions and at the right time I felt better taking the safest route possible.    We kept motor-sailing onwards against an adverse, but neaps, tide and when approaching the outer Lulworth firing ranges took a slight detour to give the Elizabeth class aircraft carrier plenty of room.  Seeing the carrier gives a nice point in Tzu's history in my time as we saw the first carrier being in build at Rosyth Shipyard near Edinburgh when close to our most northerly point in the delivery trip after we bought her.  And now we were seeing (the other?) one while close to our most southerly point.

The advice in Reeds Almanac is to call the firing range to get up to date information on the ranges in order to see if you can pass through,  and I wanted to pass through the outer range.  When I called a couple of days ago I was expecting to hear a pre-recorded message but was surprised to find myself talking to a cheery chap from the Army.   He told me that the army rarely use the outer ranges but the navy sometimes do.  And I could tell them just to F off and quote him if I wanted.    

We arrived in Dartmouth around 18:30 and parked on the Town Quay pontoon, knowing that we would be off the following morning well before the 08:45 kick out time to make way for the ferries and trip boats. (In order to round Start Point, one of the scary headlands on my route, we will need to leave 2hours before local High Water)  It didn't take long for a harbour master dory to arrive alongside and cheerfully relieve me of £22.89 for the nights stay including electric, water, waste disposal and walk ashore.  

So first leg done,  91.5nm completed.