Cpn Kelly and toobs set off for a reccy of the Portsmouth docks in preparation for their piratical attack Sunday at 14:00hrs.

Yes! LIVE on Team toobs' Facebook Page will be a piratical attack on ships in Portsmouth where we plan to take control of at least one vessel, steal its booty and hoist our colours!

Set your watches...

What a great night Team toobs had!

Playing with the amazing musicians at the Irish Bar Shenanigans and then onto the World Famous Rapscallions Pirate Bar in Portsmouth.

The fine Bosun even lent nme a tricorn hat in order that  I can complete my attack on Portsmouth ships on Sunday fully dressed!

Wind-down time, as I set Stray up for a two-week rest un-attended.

With a lost friend and a sick sister, I need to stay ashore to assist in dealings and support.

It will give me the chance, however, to catch up on all the videos due out. So expect some great uploads very soon.

But, for now, the sailing is paused.

But, when we return, we have HMS Victory, Warrior and The Marie Rose to explore and share with you all! followed by Leg 4 when we leave the country and begin our foriegn explorations!

Another all-steaming trip due to no wind, but not before we enjoyed a wander around the interesting and quaint town that is Yarmouth. With its lovely rebuilt wooden pier, lovely old buildings and funny sculptures, it is a fine place to spend an afternoon.

The Coachhouse is the most amazing pub with scattered spaces throughout, of old panelled smoking rooms, snugs, and various meeting rooms squashed beneath a low beamed ceiling.

A flat calm sea saw a stunning sunset and an equally beautiful Snow Moon rise to show the way.

Exciting passage with ferries, high-speed hovercrafts, and catarmarans heading straight for you!

Arrived in the expansive Gosport Marina with helpful staff and interesting toilets on the pontoons - it is that large, it needs them!

A joyous day of all-motoring, due to the complete lack of any wind. Still, we made up for it with the fantastic sights and TWO Live Facebook Broadcasts.

The first was from the spectacular cliffs of The Foreland and Handfast Point - Old Harry and Old Harry's Wife are a couple of wonderful structures of chalk arches and stacks that, I think, are more impressive than the IOW Needles themselves.

We then crossed after a busy Life Feed and plenty of folk joined us for our live feed from The Needles, Isle of Wight, also.

Stunning cliffs, stacks, caves and arches, as well as hidden wrecks lurking to foul our ship.

A slow crossing against he tide, but a quick hop into the ludicrously expensive Yarmouth Marina. Even the steaks were £28!

A lovely 20nm sail with a full set, today. Leaving Weymouth after a nice rest and toobular check-up.

A bit of a motor/sailing slog in rolling seas, but toobs was very settled and enjoyed the gentle night in Stanage Bay. Even if it did wallow a bit!

Anchor took first go, and remembered to keep out to miss the chains of the old moorings further in. (Local knowledge helps!)

The small cyst on the inside of toobs' right paw toe has reddened somewhat and she now is licking it. As it appears not to have settled on its own, I had to take her to the vets today. £172 later, she had her cyst cleaned and poked, aneasthetic administered, anti-biotics, and painkillers.

Sylvia the Wondervet is a bit worried that it may need removing, and that there is not much skin to put her toe back together afterwards.

So, it is a wait and see what happens to it with the medication over he next few days.

I managed to fix the Autohelm - it had just blown a fuse! I also fixed the sounder and log - which was a faulty switch.

Looking forward to sailing to Swanage Bay just South of Poole on the morrow, with a late set-off due to the tides now getting strong as we close into Springs and approach the notorious Solent.

Well, I managed to get my sister with a Pinch, Punch, even though she is in hospital after a heart attack! No prisoners!

We tried out the new 12v trolling motor on the dinghy today and it was a huge success! We could maintain a 3kn skim along and the setting up took just a couple of minutes. Looking forward to using it again, but need to buy and set up a solar panel for the battery.

A much-needed rest day after the heavy-duty sail yesterday. My knees are aching, my thumbs do not work, and I am dog-tired.

A little smooch around town to check out the vets for toobs on the morrow. Her paw is not getting better.

At over 71 nautical miles travelled, up to 3 metre following swell, up to 2 metre beam waves and a fickle wind that blew from nothing to F5, it was a mammoth 14 1/2 hours slog.

The day began as we set off at 06:15 from the lovely Starehole Bay, which looked very different in the cold dark morning, as we sailed into a 2m following swell.

Made some good sailing at first, though rocking uncomfortably. As the sun rose it showed an overcast day and this stayed for the day. What a difference a day makes!

Just before we began our Live Facebook feed at noon, the wind died to nothing and I had to start the engine and dropped the sails - that were flogging as we pitched in the swell. Then, a small pod of Atlantic White-sided Dolphins joined us for a play. They spent a total of four and a half hours with us and grew to well-over fifty of them. I think they realised that we were alone, and offered moral support. I even captured one calling to me on the sound of the video as she rose to breach. The Live Crew seemed to enjoy it and we had viewers from as far as Italy!

Then the wind returned and we got an houtr or so of good sailing and Gerald the Autohelm managed well with the surfing. But, then the wnd got up and things went pair-shaped!

I decided to reef the main and to do thids I needed to point to wind and roll in the jib. Sadly, the roller-reefing line jumped its cassette and jammed the system. At the same time, Gerald decided he had had enough and failed. This meant that, as I was soloing, I had nobody to take the helm. With full sail I had to head into the swell and wind and heave-to then went forward to the heaving foredeck amid thrashing sails to untangle the jam. A good while later, I returned successful to find that the flogging mainsail had untied the stopper knot in the end of the mainsheet and unsheaved most of the blocks. With engine running hard, I had to try to thread the line back through the blocks as the boom wound passed my head!

As we turned back on course, the beam-to created such a roll as to lose some thngs down below. Now, forced to stay at the helm, I had to leave them for five hours as we sailed from the sunset and heade for the Portland Bill Lighthouse and some final shelter.

As we rounded the Bill, I realised that the time wasted going the wrong way added to the slow way we made for much of the time, resulted in us hitting the tide against us. This meant a 1 knot way over the ground.

I put a lot of throttle on and we made 2 knots and I decided to go into Weymouth instead of anchoring off.

A welcome sight was the sheltered River Wey and we berthed on the pontoons.

Apart from one trip on a square-rigged Barquentine, it was the hardest sail I have done in 25 years.

What a suspicously faultless day - we had it all:-

Glorious Sunshine, Fat calm seas, Light airs, The Edystone Lighthouse and a stunning anchorage in a breath-taking bay.

Alyhough we onlt cover 35nm in 8 hours, we had a lovely time. It is always a great feeling when you set sail from a port you love, having had a grand time, into glassy seas, aiming for the amazing lighthouse in the middle of nowhere.

We arrived just in tim efor our noon Live Facebook Feed and I hope eveyone got a great feel for the day and the epic history behind the lighthouse.

It was a detour of 15nm out of our way, but well worth the visit.

Then as the sun was getting into its pyjamas, we turned intot he gnarly-looking Starehole bay which sports rising craggy-black cliffs towering around you, a small beach inpenetrable by land and a waterfall cascading onto the rocks below.

I very nice, relaxing day ready for the big leg tomorrow.