Hi dejongj, had a brilliant time,we did go up as far as the mouth of the River Wareham, then turned back, and came back along channel past Rockley, then the Marines base, last time I was down there was in the late 70's, how that's changed the marines used to have dory's then, nice pieces of kit they've got now, when we go back in June, the guys we met, said that if we fancy it, a trip down to Wareham is on the cards, then a trip to Yarmouth I.O.W, is on the cards, weather permitting, and probably to Lulworth Cove, also recomended Studland bay, bit of micro climate by there, so I was told by the rep for one of the boat dealers in Cobbs quay, while we were there, on one of the windier days, took a drive down to Swanage, to check out the water taxi service, told that they will hook you up to a mooring, and take you onto the beach for a small charge, go for a bite to eat and a shandy,

nice open air restaurant not far from the pier, also recomended Worrel Bay, we did drop in at Wareham, not much room to manuovere, and not much space to tie up at the quay, especially when the tour boat is in, saw a few moorings up river, going to check it out on the next trip.
The channel through the chain ferry was a bit rough at the time we went out, but that was more due to the out going tide, and the wind coming the oposite direction, when we went through, there was a Royal Navy diveboat, working in the middle of the channel, don't know what they were doing, but you had to admire the divers in the water, hanging on to what ever it was they were working on, the wife got a bit worried when she saw the fast cat ferry, coming in when we were going out, but it was ok, as he past down the port side of me, and I moved out of the main channel, into the channel, next to the training wall.
Looking forward to going back, we went down to see how our 4x4 would cope with towing the 220, we drive a Ssangyong Rexton, towed it well, apart from the sat nav taking us down some country lanes, at least it made the trip a bit more interesting driving back to sunny Wales

next trip after Poole is the South of France, to Port Grimaud for 2 weeks in August, can't wait, 3rd trip now, 1st time with the Larson, can't wait, already planned some longer outings, Cavalier sur Mer, Pampellone, where I went last year with a couple on their Windy 34 karhman, fantastic day,

don't remember much of it, too much rose,and cointreau, although I won't be doing that when I'm driving, going to go to Sainte Maxime, and probably Saint Raphael, some nice coves along the way.
Next year though, might do two weeks at Cobbs quay