My plan last night was to do a night sail back to Guernsey. It was the first opportunity to move for several days due to high winds and a sequence of storm fronts moving through the Channel.
I got as far as the outer harbour entrance in bumpy seas and noticed a line flying around over my head… that’s not a line, that’s the stern shroud (the wire running from the top of the mast to the back of the boat.. it holds the mast up 😳).
Panic!!! No… stay calm… I quickly got the engine running, furled the headsail and dropped the mainsail and turned back to the harbour. On the way I figured out what went wrong. The shroud is attached to the boat via a thick clevis pin which should not be able to work loose due to a retaining pin. Both pins were missing. Fortunately I have spares.
I anchored outside the marina, did the repairs and went to bed.
I set off about 9.30am, conditions were good with at one point 7.5 knots of tide pushing the boat up to just over 11.5 knots.
I made good progress as far as Alderney but then wind dropped and tides were against me. Heading too far East I switched on the engine and motor sailed to Sark where I am anchored for the night.
In this blog entry.. crashing the boat, crossing the English Channel, playing dodgem with big ships, storms, checking into France after Brexit and more changes in plans (why do I bother planning?).
Let’s start with the embarrassing 😳 bit, hopefully you will have forgotten all about this by the time you reach the end of this blog.
I set off from my mooring at Deacons Marina in the Hamble at 9am. The marina is on a tidal river with a fast flow, I headed to the Channel. As soon as the bow got into the river flow, it swung the front to starboard (right), toward other moored boats, then the stern swung against another boat, its anchor went through my cockpit canopy canvas. I was pinned there by the current and had to wait till the current lessened to move again.
Fortunately no other boat was damaged, only mine. I eventually got clear and under way around 11am. I spent the first half of the Channel crossing sewing up the canvas.
Have you stopped laughing yet?… OK I will carry on 😳.
The Channel crossing went very well, it was a night crossing and the only scary moment was crossing the busy shipping lanes outside Cherbourg. There are two one for eastbound ships, one for westbound, they are separated by a 5 mile gap. First I had to cross the Westbound lane, that was straightforward, not so scary I thought… then I picked up the AIS signals from the Eastbound lane. Think of crossing the M4 on a bank holiday and you will understand. These were big tankers, container ships, ferries, cruise ships etc. Fortunately I also have AIS and one ship changed course so I could thread the needle at an angle…
After Cherbourg I rounded a Cape where the winds and waves started to pick up. At first I just thought it local winds and tides, usual around headlands. But then both French and UK coastguards issued new storm warnings on the radio. Things were getting worse, the forecast had obviously changed so, change of plan again, I decided to head to nearby Guernsey in the Channel Islands. There I could find a sheltered anchorage and have a good look at the new forecasts.
The new forecast was not good news. A big depression was due south of Ireland and will spread its tentacles around Biscay, worse it was set to last until the end of the week and another was hot on its heels brewing in the Atlantic.
I needed to enter the EU by a Port of Entry. Crossing Biscay to Spain was out but I had two options in France. Brest was best but it will be effected by the storm, Cherbourg was the safe option, although it meant going backwards. I am now in Cherbourg marina with my passport stamped as is Dotty’s health certificate. We are good to stay in the Schengen zone (EU) for 3 months.
I plan to stay here at anchor in the harbour waiting for the storms to clear from Biscay. If I get the chance I may run to Brest to wait. I am in no rush.
Oh yes, nearly forgot. This is a big squall that passed through the marina earlier. The video shows the start, in the middle of it a massive gust knocked the boat against the pontoon.
What a summer ☀️ 🙂 but today I will be travelling back from Wales to Lady Cindy in the river Hamble to resume my travels.
I have spent the summer with Ffion and her family helping them to move and paint their new home. It’s not all been hard work though, I have spent a lot of time up at their fields with the horses, been to two music festivals, a couple of band gigs, birthday parties, days and nights out in the town, country parks, got a tattoo and much more. Dotty has been on an adventure too but lost her tail in the process. She tried to climb some scaffolding to sit with me while I was painting. She slipped, caught and broke her tail and had to have it amputated due to no blood circulation. She has recovered well and seems to manage fine without it.
I originally planned to enter Europe via France to get Dotty a European pet passport but French vets have been told to only issue them to French citizens. I will go to A Caruna in Northern Spain instead. There is also a big Atlantic storm coming into Biscay next weekend so I will go to Portland harbour and shelter there until the weather is right to cross the Channel and Biscay. I have an opportunity to stop at Brest if needed.
I spent the first part of this week finalising plans to sail across the Channel. As I had to wait a week to get Dotty’s animal health certificate, I decided to hire a car and go to see Ffions family doing their first live gig since before Covid. The hire cost per week was not much more than the 3 days I needed so I booked it for a whole week and have spent the entire time with Ffion.
Ffions parents have been preparing to move house and in the process her Dad has made an already bad back much worse. So I have volunteered to stay with them for a while to help with the heavy lifting. There is a lot of work needed at both the new house and at their field. Its not all hard work though. I get to use a mini digger and spent more time with Ffion and her family.
The boat is going to be moved to Deacons Marina at Swanwick where it will be lifted and stored ashore, its cheaper than a pontoon mooring. At the end of August she will be put back in the water and I will cross the Channel in September.
It’s been a tiring week of sailing, sometimes it’s been fun, sometimes relaxing, sometimes exciting and a couple of times a little scary.
From St Ives I went around Lands End and stopped just before the Lizard point at a small anchorage called Mullion, I stopped there on the way up too.
From Mullion I went to Falmouth where I stopped in the marina for a couple of nights to alow a predicted storm to pass. Next was Cawsand just inside Plymouth sound and then on to Brixham and then Weymouth.
I had some excitement with an aircraft carrier. It came within 5 miles ahead of me then turned back. Ha.. scared her off I thought… then she came back and passed within a mile of me. Two helicopters were on deck loading with personnel one of which later flew off.
Winds were good to cross the Bristol Channel but with good winds come choppy seas. For the first time on Lady Cindy I felt queezy. It lasted about 3 hours before the seas started to calm a little and so did my stomach. I wasn’t sick and I have been in worse conditions but I think it started at dusk when I would have lost the horizon as a fix for my eyes.
I arrived in St Ives at dawn, dropped anchor, had a meal and spent the rest of the day napping and reading.
I left St Ives about 8.30 this morning after a few chores and plan to get around at least as far as Penzance, preferably further but with no winds and under motor at the moment, that looks unlikely. I want to get to the safety of Falmouth by Wednesday because a storm is predicted for then. It should only last a couple of days giving me a clear run along the South Coast.
After spending two weeks in Milford Haven, I am on the move again.
Ffion went home yesterday and I moved the boat to Dale anchorage in the evening. I plan to set off this morning on a 24 hour sail to St Ives, the winds look good but then should drop off in the following few days. I will make the choice at St Ives to either wait for better wind or, more likely, motor around Lands End.
Whatever I do, I will be out of contact for at least 24 hours.
We left Milford Haven and had a great sail with good winds and moderate seas to Lundy and then on to Padstow. That’s the good news… the bad news is that Ffion was seasick the whole time and when we arrived in Padstow the anchorage near the lifeboat station was very bumpy. Things got worse when the wind shifted to North Easterly and the waves in the anchorage got worse.
There was no way we could stay there overnight, especially with Ffion so unwell and there were no local safe harbours accessible at low tide, especially in that swell. There was no choice, we had to move and as we had decided Ffion would go home, Milford was the best option .
To make things worse, the anchor snagged, I shredded the skin on my thumb trying to free it and the anchor bent in the process; It’s still usable though (anchor and thumb). While raising the sails in the now 20 knot winds, the genoa (the front sail) was flogging in the wind for a while and that has shown weaknesses in its sacrificial strip (also known as a UV strip because it is exposes to sunlight when the sail is furled) it has shredded in a few places.
As it was 9pm and it was a 24 hour sail against a North East wind back to Milford, we sailed North West into the Celtic Sea away from land during the night and tacked back North East the next day. It took 26 hours in the end so we were exhausted and more or less went straight to sleep.
This morning I had a good look at the genoa and it looks sound except the sacrificial strip which has done its job by absorbing uv sunrays and become brittle. I have spoken to a sailmaker in nearby Neyland who has given a rough price of £350 to replace this strip so tomorrow I hope to get a taxi over with the sail. He may not be able to work on it till later next week so I will be here at least a week.
Ffion will stay here with me, at least for a few days and will then go home, alas she is not a good sailor due to seasickness. I will then cross the Bristol Channel (again) and continue in to Southmpton arriving a little later than planned.
I will be looking for a crew member to help with the sail from Southampton to the Mediterranean if anyone is interested and can spare a couple of months.
The sail from Fishguard past St David’s head outside Ramsey went very well with good winds and tides. After Ramsey the wind meant a more Southerly tack than I would have liked but we had plenty of time before a storm was due that night…. Mother nature had other ideas though.
The winds picked up while we were a little over and hour away from safe anchorage at Dale in Milford Haven and within 10 minutes I had to take down the already reefed sails and switch to motor due to strong headwinds from the direction we needed to go. Speed over ground dropped to a couple of knots and what was due to take an hour, took three.
I was shivering and soaked after dropping anchor and the anchorage was bumpy for the next 24 hours. But we were safe and best of all, crew were not sick… CREW?!! I hear you ask? Well, I guess it’s time to tell you Ffion has been with me since we left Aberystwyth 😃.
About 4 weeks ago, Ffion asked if she could come with me if she could overcome her seasickness, at least until Southampton. She was ill for most of the Aberystwyth to Fishguard leg but recovered quickly and was only sick once on the next leg during the storm. This is a very good sign that although she will get sick, she can also get over it quickly.
We have spent just under a week at Milford Haven marina for reasons Ffion will explain in her blog. Yesterday we sailed to Lundy in the middle of the Bristol Channel and today we are going as far as we can toward Cornwall.
