Day 26 - Tuesday, 15th July - Portland. Crossed back over Lyme Bay on Sunday, sailing most of the way in better weather than forecast - mainly sunny with a NW force 4 speeding us along at 7 to 8 knots plus assistance from the tide to begin with after leaving Dartmouth at 9.15.  We needed to round Portland Bill between 5 & 5.30 to avoid a big Spring tide race and so slowed the boat down at 3 as we were ahead of schedule. That worked fine until the wind suddenly picked up to 25 knots and we were over-canvassed. After sailing rather faster towards Chesil Beach for a while to cover some ground, we then put two reefs in, furled the jib and started motoring towards the Bill against a strong current and rather lumpy, quartering seas built up by the fresher NW breeze.
All worked out fine as we rounded the Bill on the inshore passage just after 5 in nice calm water and then it was a relief to have flat water once round and into the lee of the Bill itself. Arrived in Portland Marina at 6.30 with a stiff breeze that blew us straight off the allocated finger berth and against the boat alongside.  Happily some very helpful gents came to help us warp WH into the right place. A long and tiring day so we ate on board and watched the World Cup final before an early bed.
Monday dawned bright and sunny and we enjoyed a lazy lie in, shower and breakfast before heading to Weymouth by taxi at lunchtime to explore its "delights" and look for a graduation dress for Imy before returning to Il Posto, where we had had such a great meal on the first visit.
In the end, dress shopping was hopeless as the choices available were all unsuitable / downright horrid so we decided to see a film instead. The new Transformers movie - lots of action and nonsense but just what the doctor ordered to fill the time until the table booking.
The meal was as a good as we recalled, even having the same scallop linguine, although Imy's gnocchi was very simple.
We have decided to spend another day here as a relaxing last opportunity rather than heading to Poole today and. Yarmouth tomorrow.  We can do that in one, longer, hop tomorrow and the tide times are friendly so it is nice to have another quiet day, with sunny weather, books to read and generally relax. We do not seem to have spent much quiet time on the trip, instead filling days with outings and exploration when not actually on passage between places. I am typing this at 10.25 and still no sign of Imy stirring, as if that is a surprise...