Waverley on the South Coast: 10 September 2005

by Martin Longhurst

The weather was good on Monday 5 September 2005 and the Waverley was able to make her scheduled call at Worthing to take the worthies to Yarmouth, Bournemouth and a cruise round Poole Harbour. Nearly 500 joined the paddler at the Sussex resort for an excellent day's sail. At Poole, the world's second largest natural harbour, the steamer entered via the Main Channel and left via the North Channel. As usual, the harbour tug Herbert Balam assisted the paddler to turn just off the continental ferry berth.

The good weather continued enabling the scheduled sailings to take place on Tuesday and Wednesday. That night is spent alongside Swanage Pier and the steamer sets off at 06.00 light for Portsmouth. Here she took up her scheduled cruise to Yarmouth, Bournemouth, Swanage and cruise to Lulworth Cove. About 200 boarded at the Harbour Station Pier and just under 100 more at the Island pier. A strong tide held the steamer back, meaning she left Yarmouth some 10 minutes down. There was a good exchange of passengers at Bournemouth before the quick sprint across the Bay to Swanage.  Here many left the ship to take a trip on the Swanage Railway. I received reports that the BR Standard tank was in service.

Then the paddler headed west to Lulworth along Dorset's beautiful Jurassic Coast. Initially we had to slow and stand out to sea at St Alban's Head as the Army were still firing in their Range. However, after a few minutes, Captain Colledge received permission to enter the Restricted Zone and headed across the bay to Lulworth,

The mouth of Lulworth Cove - the two promontories either side almost enclose a circular cove in the rocks

where we made a close pass to the mouth of the Cove, before turning east to follow the cliffs back to Swanage.
Unfortunately our berthing was delayed as the Solent Scene was alongside the pier and not due to depart until 5 minutes after the Waverley's time. Inevitably this put us substantially behind time for the home run.

Passing the Old Harry Rocks just north of Swanage - the counterpart of The Needles

Sunset over the New Forest

Despite the previous evening's weather forecast of rain, it had been a beautiful day with blue skies, virtually unbroken sunshine and a calm sea!

The good weather continued on Friday with excellent loadings from Southampton and Portsmouth to Yarmouth and The Needles cruise. Saturday saw the steamer take her second Round The Island trip with nearly 700 on board out of Yarmouth. The sea was still calm but there was a little rain between The Needles and St Catherine's Point. We benefited from an excellent commentary by Chris Phillips, a former PSPS National Secretary, now a resident of Brighstone, Isle of Wight.

Legend of the Sea passing the beautiful chimney of Fawley Power Station

On the return run to Portsmouth we could see a procession of liners, all due to leave Southampton at 5 p.m. First there was the Sea Princess and then the Aurora. Finally we had a close encounter with the Legend of the Seas off Cowes and exchanged the traditional three blasts with her before she sped off to warmer climes.

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