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.
Right then, where do I begin. Well since my last blog we have been quite busy.
Lady Cindy was lifted out of the water so that John and I could do some work on the bottom of the boat.
Working on Lady Cindy.
We went for a walk on Aberystwyth pier head and decided to take some pictures. There were quite a few takes but these were the best ones 🙂
The house move is slowly getting closer, my room is fully packed and ready to go. Sleeping on a mattress on the floor isn’t too bad.
We’ve had some guests aboard which has been lovely because it has allowed me to spend time with my friends and we have also had good times with friends ashore having barbecues and going bowling.
It has been lovely to be ashore for sometime spending time with family and friends.
While all of this and more has been going on, I’ve been doing some planning and thinking about the surprise.
For a while I’ve been debating whether or not to carry on with John on his journey and I’ve had a lot to think about like my family, friends and my animals.
With John mentioning more and more often about finding crew, I decided to give it a go before I lost the opportunity.
So yes, I have been aboard Lady Cindy with John and Dotty for a while now and we’ve found out that I can get over my seasickness by sleeping. For everyone who knows me, they know I really like my sleep and I’m really good at it. Haha 😂
I still don’t know how far I’ll get but we’re taking it day by day and we’ll just see how it goes.
My brother, sister in law and their children came over to my parents house to see John and myself before we left for Southampton and we had a Chinese takeaway and some drinks which was a lovely time.
I needed to go back home for a bit due to needing to find a new home for my boa constrictor but I’m happy to say that I have found him a new home with someone experienced with big snakes.
I also needed to go back to see my dog who has been unwell recently but he is doing good and is still happy and comfortable 🙂
This is only some of the things that’s been going on recently so I might write another blog with more of the things that’s been happening but that’s all for now 🙂
Yesterday morning we slipped the mooring lines and set sail for the South and warm weather. This has been after two years of planning and preparation.
The sailing was almost perfect for the wind strength and direction but the sea swell did build throughout the day so I decided to stop at Fishguard overnight rather than chance adverse currents around St David’s Head at night. The anchorage has been a bit rolly overnight but is improving slowly. I will stay here another night because winds will drop to near zero later this evening.
All systems on the boat worked well, I need to secure a few things better that fell over during the sail and a few other minor and easy jobs.
The last few weeks have been spent doing the last few jobs getting ready to head South for the summer, it’s not all work though, we have done fun stuff as well; I have finished working at Tescos. At the moment I am waiting for a few storms to blow through before sailing to Southampton and then on to the Mediterranean.
Test sail to New Quay
The original plan was to leave the marina, sail to New Quay to anchor a day or two and then sail down to Southampton. Strong Northerly winds put paid to that so we changed it to a day sail with Carys and Ffion to New Quay and back. The trip down was done under motor in mist and no wind but by the afternoon the winds arrived giving a great sail. It was a good test of systems not used for a few months and gave me a few jobs to work on the following couple of days.
At the moment, it’s looking like the weather will improve toward the end of this week. If it does give a few days window, I will get to Milford Haven via Fishguard.
