As the pod of dolphins move on so did I. My bunk was bliss. In my unconscious state we crossed the separation zone between the Scillies and Lands End. This zone is designed to keep large ships apart and has to be crossed at right angles. After five hours sleep I was hungry again. We had made good progress and we had sight of land.
It is a surprisingly long way from Lands End to the Lizard and it took us all day. We made it to a mooring on the Helford River in time for dinner. A crispy lobster I’m afraid. A disappointment after the delights of Crosshaven.
One new thing I learnt was AIS. Fredrick showed us an app on his iPhone which pinned shipping to google maps using the internet. This was new to me and of course became ‘a must have’!
We set sail again very early on yet another beautiful day. We past the Eddystone Lighthouse off Plymouth en route to Dartmouth making good progress all day. Despite the good weather there were very few other sailing boats.
Dartmouth provided another dinner, an improvement on the dry Lobster of the night before. Local bass in an Italian style, but the wine flowed extremely well fuelling an argument on the state of Dragonfly’s navigation tricolour. Was it working? No. Yes it is! No it isn’t and so on.
The next day came slightly later; but we were off in good time with the tide. Lyme bay I had done before in the dark the previous February, so it was nice to see it in daylight. Err...except that you don’t see much of Lyme Bay and it takes for ever. 12 miles off shore you are in international waters and out of sight of land. Again not much other traffic on another beautiful day with perfect sailing conditions. There are few places these days when one is so far away from other people.
After Ten hours we reached Portland. We out ran one other sailing boat which was quite satisfying. We were making use of the tidal vectors more efficiently. Adrian had decided to do the inside route round Portland Bill. This was a fascinating experience and we were able to view a rare and significant amount of the Portland coastline. To get round it safely the passage takes you very close to the shore. 
It was then plane sailing to Adrian’s berth in Portland marina.
A brilliant trip. I learnt a hell of a lot. Thank you again Adrian.
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