Swanage

We had a weekend away down in Dorset and visited Swanage, originally a fishing village the town grew during Victorian times  as a seaside resort.

Nestled in the rolling Purbeck hills with the wide bay facing east and protected from the prevailing winds Swanage has that old fashioned charm.

The pier is still active and home to a classic ketch which operates tourist trips. Anyone who trained as a BSAC diver in the south of England will probably be familiar with Swanage pier which provides interesting and relatively shallow open water, great for training.

In anything except easterly winds the anchorage is normally calm and settles, but there can be quite a lot of noise coming off the beach.