Sam came down by bus to help us break our chains from Plymouth and get across Lyme bay. We slipped at 1915 and headed out into a big swell from a few days of high winds. As we came out of the sound and turned left for the mewstone, the wind was behind us and we made good progress as far as bolt head, hand steering with the big waves. Then the tide turned and we started to crawl. I didn't realise at the time but I think mr die hard sailor, Sam, was horrified that I put the engine on - but it was a good decision (by luck) making good progress in that section and carrying a fair tide past Portland bill, where we would have been going backwards otherwise. The engine stayed on for the rest of the 21 hour trip, at 2000rpm, helping us against the tide & increasing our average speed when fair. It was a really nice sail (motorsail!) and I stayed up the whole night, taking over when the autopilot struggled with the waves. The sea was a lot smoother the next morning and we just enjoyed the sail, even breaking out the cruising shute for a while. We sailed into Poole harbour on Tuesday afternoon and as we all gawped at another cat moored up, I ran aground - but blamed Sams navigation ;-) , and finally moored up at Sams work and went back to his house for a few hours sleep before the attempt at France!
