A WEEK ON THE JURASSIC COAST ON AN AXOPAR
One of our owners took their Axopar 28 for a week-long trip along the Jurassic Coast. Below is their write-up.
Axopar 28, Jurassic Coast week.
Our Axopar’s mooring at Southampton provided the ideal launch pad for six of us to do a five-day trip along the Jurassic Coast last summer.
We journeyed along the coast westwards from Southampton, initially through the well-trodden Solent, but this time venturing beyond the Needles, towards Christchurch.
We pootled about in Mudeford initially as the tide was nice and high, and stopped for a pre-packed picnic lunch on the boat, before carrying along past Bournemouth to Poole.
The Axopar spent the night in Poole Harbour, which was very easy to navigate and book a mooring in (even in August!). We spent an early evening walking from Poole Quay to Sandbanks, taking the ferry crossing on foot, and then continuing along Studland Beach at sunset up to The Pig for a very nice dinner!
The next day was a stunning ride to Lulworth. Lunch in Lulworth Cove, and a stop off to see Durdle Door on the way to Weymouth. This part of the coastline is beautiful and also a great dolphin-spotting point! We were lucky enough to see dolphins nearly every day of our trip – all along the coast between Weymouth and the Needles. They really loved going along the boat as we rode with them – and we had a much better vantage point compared to the neighbouring cruise-ship passengers!
Day three was spent around Weymouth, crossing West as far as Lyme Regis. The Isle of Portland headland was the choppiest sea we encountered, but wasn’t too bad at all, and was made better by how picturesque the landscape is. Lyme Regis was an ideal lunch stop and a beautiful little seaside town to visit – plus mooring the boat on a floating pontoon was really straightforward. That evening was spent travelling back to Weymouth, as we began to work our way back East again – with more dolphin spotting! Another stop at Lulworth Cove on our return saw the emergence of the water skis, as two of us gave skiing a go just outside the bay, plus even more riding with dolphins!
Our final night was back at Poole Quay, which had a surprise firework display that we were lucky enough to catch, and we enjoyed takeaway pizzas on the boat (after feeling slightly too tired for a long walk to dinner this time!). We returned to Southampton reluctantly the next day, having had a wonderful and exciting time at sea.
Our five-day trip really shows how much you can see and how far you can go on the Axopar – and along the coast gives you such a lovely view of the shoreline as you go. We plan on doing longer stints and trying to get across to Salcombe in a seven-day trip next time!
Below are some pictures of our trip.
