Poole Rally Report 3rd - 5th May
Saturday morning broke with fair winds and a
tide in the right direction for a sail to
Poole Harbour.
A number of yachts made it to Hurst Point by 10am we were not one of
them.
Aruanda and Arctura were the first boats to arrive at an already popular
anchorage by Brownsea
Island.
Pottery Pier was quite busy when we arrived, shortly followed by
Freebooter but there was still plenty of room for 11 Moodys.
We gathered on the beach just after six for drinks
& nibbles around the beach table and were there for almost two hours
with plenty of drinking and talking before everyone headed back their
boats for supper.
Most had a good nights sleep whilst others felt the effects of the
wind and the strong currents that run through the harbour. Two
crew actually jumped ship on Sunday morning and caught the ferry to
Poole from Brownsea Island because the anchorage had been a
little too rough for one of them.
On Sunday morning we met on the beach by Pottery pier at 10:30am
for a tour of the island.
Red squirrels were easily spotted & we were also
fortunate to witness a wonderful courtship display by a peacock and
though the peahens were not impressed we thought it amazing.
After walking the length of the island
it was time for a rest in the café where we enjoyed tea & cake as we sat
in the garden and watched the activity on the water. We waved goodbye to
Charles, Hazel and Dave on Rafiki as they made their escape out of the
harbour heading back to the Solent.
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After our refreshments Tim and his merry crew decided
to make their way back to the Solent along with Delfini (Peter)
whilst those who where left went to explore the nature trail in
the wildlife reserve on the island. We discovered that there
were a number of keen birdwatchers amongst us and Richard in
particular was determined to tick all the boxes on the ‘birds to
spot’ list and John (Hexidor) managed to tick all the birds off
on the list even though it was the wrong time of year for some
of those birds to be there. Well done John! Tony, Eleanor & crew
on Arctura spent approximately 7 hours ashore making the most of
the natural beauty of the island.
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We had such a lovely time that we didn’t notice the drizzling rain as
we walked around the trail and when we returned to our boats the weather
had faired up.
Some decided to head back to the Solent
in the evening making use of the Tides and fair winds.
It was a very relaxing weekend and the showers didn’t dampen our
spirits (we kept the lids tightly on the bottles!).
Many thanks to Kim & Joseph for coordinating this fun weekend.
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