Tuesday 14th April: Weymouth - West Cliff, Bridport

Timed the departure from Weymouth to take advantage of the first of the ebb round Portland Bill (thanks, Barbara, for your excellent tidal stream info from "Tidal streams between Portland Bill and St.Albans Head", ISBN 1-871680-16-6). Some of the tidal stream data hereabouts has proven unreliable, with some tidal diamonds on the Admiralty Leisure Folio plainly being 180 degrees in error.
Met some of my wife's family at the Bill, but the landing just east of the Bill, onto small boulders in a little surf, was a bit dodgy and I took a swim. No big deal, but brother-in-law Pete waded in to help, and I then had to think about the danger of a loaded and swamped boat getting surfed down on top of him.
Round the Bill in calm conditions, and then paddled on a bearing to Bridport. This meant I kept well offshore, avoiding the adverse eddy that sets in downstream of the Bill. From this vantage point, Chesil Beach is insignificant compared to the sweeping, green, arable land to landward of the Fleet. Far from being boring, it's actually quite attractive.
Reached Bridport, to find that the camp spot recommended by Barbara looks like it has been covered by new sea defence rocks, so paddled on towards Eype's Mouth, where the campsite marked on the OS map looks pretty inaccessible for a laden kayaker. Paddled back to SY452908 and camped on the beach, feeling it shudder under my sleeping mat whenever some particularly heavy dumping surf came in.