Black Death

A day in Weymouth and I had to squeeze between the tables of people eating to get a picture of this sign which goes strangely unnoticed. If only they’d had social distancing in those days.. and fewer rats!

So it was on to the packed beach to discover two things:
First, and most worrying, was that when I went for a paddle (swimming trunks sadly left on the boat) I discovered that I had contracted the dreaded White Foot Disease!

My texted request for advice came back suggesting that I visit A&E but my arse and elbows were fine and I could easily differentiate between them … it was my feet !!! aaaarghh…

The secondly I discovered that there were donkey rides on the beach

I didn’t know that happened any more outside Blackpool!
I know some people say that it’s cruel, but as many donkeys spend their lives overloaded with large panniers of building materials, staggering up rocky hillsides whilst being encouraged with a bit of gorse, I reckon these Donks had got it easy: an occasional 50 metre stroll carrying a small child and as much hay as you can manage!
They still looked miserable though… and didn’t seem to make any effort at all for the selfies!

Next day was an early start headed for Yarmouth.
Glassy sea and negligable wind, but the tide was right so it was a quick journey. Despite the glassy sea there were still overfalls at St Albans Head though.

Eight knots round St Albans, Four Maydays to listen to and all going well until Hurst Castle when the tide turned foul and it was one knot all the way into Yarmouth. The last bit took half as long as the entire journey – but Yarmouth found room for me – rafted 4 deep and squeezed inbetween some large motor cruisers with underwater lighting. I thought it might attract some fish but it didn’t… the dirty water just emphasised that we were a long way from the Carribbean

The boat at the inside of the raft has just announced that he wants to leave at 6.45 – as they always seem to – and also expressed his unhappiness at people crossing his deck to get to the other 3 boats!
In fact he was lucky that Yarmouth pack them is so tightly or he’d be out in the dark looking for somewhere to anchor!

So it looks like an early start tomorrow