The second summit on Sunday 27th October 2013 was Nine Barrow Down G/SC-013, the other of the two on the Isle of Purbeck. From Swyre Head G/SC-012, my driving route took me back down through Corfe Castle and then right onto the B3351. I drove a little beyond the main parking area and viewpoint and managed to park on a small pull-in opposite the start of the bridleway at SZ008818.  The walking route looked like a bit of work on the map, but only because the contours on OL15 sheet were every 5m rather than the more usual division of 10m. It was in fact an easy and gentle walk up onto the appealing broad ridge and the Purbeck Way path the runs to its highest point.

       

On our previous visit, Jimmy and I had failed to locate the trig point, although we certainly found the summit. On this occasion, I didn't bother going to the actual summit, as it was a few yards away in a field and totally exposed to the prevailing wind. Instead, I dropped about 5m down a bank at SZ009811, to a sheltered position about 100m away from the true summit, and about 15m lower.  And guess what was here? Yes, the trig point, tipped onto its side. So after photographing the evidence to present to Jimmy later, I used it as a back rest and shelter for my activation!

       

One of my pole sections had become loose through heavy and frequent use, and wasn't able to support a strong grip, so the pole was about 1m lower than usual. This was still fine to support the 12m groundplane antenna, and I was soon QRV. Despite self-spots, it seemed difficult to attract known chasers, but five stations were worked, 3 on CW and 2 on SSB.  I would have liked to have stayed longer racking up many contacts in the spirit of the SOTA 12m Challenge, but that would not have been in the spirit of family harmony. Hence I packed up and commenced my descent.

       

The plan worked to perfection, and I was back at the apartement in Bournemouth in plenty of time to take a shower and get changed, before heading to Prezzo Italian restaurant in the town centre. Lunch with the family, plus Marianne's brother, sister and brother-in-law was very pleasant indeed.  Later on we visited the arcade at the pier and watched in horror as large numbers of teenagers played in the ever roughening waters with their surfboards, frighteningly close to where the angry waves were crashing against the pier legs. As the rain started to come, we made our retreat to the holiday flat to batten down the hatches.

We awoke on the morning of Monday 28th October 2013 somewhat surprised at the undisturbed night's sleep we had enjoyed, and the apparent lack of the anticipated worst storm for 27 years. Live coverage on the rolling news channels showed the devastation caused a few miles either side of us along the coast, as well as the tragic loss of life suffered elsewhere. But for some reason, Bournemouth seemed to escape being hit, and was experiencing a rather pleasant day.  A walk down to the pier and along the beach was mainly undertaken in shirt sleeves as the sun beat down. Children played on the beach, jackets were off and sunhats were on. Even Jimmy's new glasses turned brown. There was not a breath of wind and we decided not to stay too much longer on a park bench for fear of sunburn? Where on earth was this storm? It had certainly missed us!

That evening we tried something new, and that was a meal in a Lebanese restaurant. And very good it was too - really interesting and tasty. After returning to the apartment, a review of the weather forecast had Jimmy M0HGY advising me that he would in fact be joining me on the following day's early morning SOTA activation on Win Green G/SC-008.