We take a trip ashore in Falmouth which is all too brief but treat ourselves to a cooked breakfast and a trip round Tesco…this is living…

We slip the mooring at 11.30 and the wind is kind to us. There are some races going on in the outer reaches of the estuary and we pick our way between them to avoid getting shouted at. Heydays is flying in a W F4 and our course to Newlyn is effectively two big tacks. One out past the Lizard and then one back in to Mounts Bay and Newlyn.  We have phoned ahead to be told that we are good for a berth, but when we get closer we call again to be told that there may be a problem. In the event we nose up and down among the fishing boats until the harbour master spots us and directs us to a pontoon on the shallow side of the harbour. We hold our breath but squeeze in over the mud and are soon tied up next to a small (7m) German boat. Newlyn is like an old friend and it feels good to be back for a while.

We have a car booked to take us all home to do various domestic chores tomorrow. We have a drink in the Swordfish first and get talking to Tammy’s best friend. Tammy is mentioned in our blog from September last year and was a real start in helping us find various bits and pieces. We are sorry to hear that she is in hospital and send our best wishes. The Swordfish is an old style pub and probably gets ‘lively’ at times. It has a great juke box and we have a bit of a nostalgia trip to the general approval of some old guys and the barman…presumably we are old too!

Dinner in the Cinema and then maybe some rum on board.

Wednesday sees us lunching in the Seafood Bar which does a fantastic range of fishy tapas/tasting dishes before collecting the car and heading home.

 

The clouds have lifted and the wind is OK (ish) with a decent F4 from WSW. We cast off from the marina at a reasonable hour (8.30) and push out down the river, slipping through the Drake passage piles and on to the western end of the breakwater. We start to dry off some gear which has got a bit damp over the previous sail from Salcombe and during a very wet stay in Plymouth. Heydays has a certain Twankyish charm???

We take the opportunity of some calm water to get some sails up and for the first time for a while, we have full main and genny and we get to enjoy the peace of water rushing past without the accompaniment of the engine rumbling in the background. The sail is glorious and we round the magnificent St Anthony Head light, which guards the less than delightful Shag Rock…

…and then John decides to kill himself. This may be overstating the case, but about 2 hours out of Falmouth he dives below and starts crashing about with pots and pans. Soon the smell of garlic and onions is wafting up and we can hear chopping and boiling and light braising as we close the entrance. He puts a pasta bake into the oven as we start to take our sails down and motor in to the estuary. John is complaining of a headache and the harbour is busy as usual and there don’t seem to be many visitors mooring buoys around. We are trundling up and down when a rather urgent alarm sounds. Depth is OK. Engine temperature is OK. Oil pressure is OK. We are concerned that it may be gas and turn the oven off and open the hatches…all while we are trying to pick up the one vacant buoy. By the time we have tied ourselves on, the culprit is found…the CO alarm. It all starts to become clear…the oven burners were blocked by the tray of pasta hence the CO and hence John’s headache. Much longer below…and he would have stayed there!

As the suns sets on the harbour (and not, thankfully John himself), we dine in the cockpit on a wonderful pasta washed down with some Prosecco and another lesson learned.

The wind and sea have died down and so we decide to make the shortish hop along the coast to Plymouth. At 9 we slip the moorings along with our French neighbours (bound for Fowey). We edge cautiously out over the bar and in to the open sea, but with a WSW F3 we have a glorious beam reach across Bigbury Bay.

We start the run into Plymouth as the rain comes and thoughts of sailing up the Tamar to the Ferry Inn (John’s Dad’s old drinking hole) disappear into thoughts of a nice comfy marina for the rest of the day. Once moored we take a taxi to the Ferry inn for lunch and John is greeted by the bar staff as the old friend he is.

In between showers we also find time to marvel at the old Brunel Rail Bridge …and the far shore of Cornwall.

Back on the boat, the wind is now blowing hard up the river and a nasty swell rocks us hard in the marina….but we have a great view of the old navy victualling centre…

We start by doubling the lines and tightening everything hard. However the motion is even more extreme as the pontoon bucks around wildly in the swell. We have alook at how the local have moored and change to much longer lines on spread out cleats and allow the boat to move independently of the pontoons. This seems to work and there is much less stress on deck fittings and warps…and on us. We settle in for a rough night.

The morning brings a much quieter and mostly dry time and consider a sail up the river for lunch at the Ferry Inn. The rain returns so we accept a lift from John’s brother Peter and his wife Wendy. For a small pub the food is great…last night was Kinder cheesecake, today it is Picnic!

There is some movement of big boats in a narrow river and we idly watch other people working…

Sunday afternoon passes as it should and then James is off to the station to meet Yee Tak returning from her ‘fix’ with daughter and granddaughters. Heydays has a full compliment of crew once more.

 

With forecast winds of F4 or 5 in the SW we debate for a while about heading off to Plymouth, but reason that it probably wont be any worse than Thursday and that once round Start point, the wind will take us nicely to Plymouth. We leave at 8 to make the most of the ebb tide heading west and head off into sunny day with clouds scudding ominously rapidly above us. The sea gradually builds and the actual wind we have is WSW F5 with occasional gusts of F6, but we sail gloriously if lumpily with double reefed main and a small genny. Heydays is impeccably behaved even as the headland opens out and the seas build. She rises easily over most waves with only one or two breakers dumping on the crew. Just once or twice we almost come to a halt as a short wave hits, but she gathers herself quickly enough and plugs on. Rain comes intermittently to dampen the spirits but soon dries again in the wind.

 

Photo opportunities are in short supply…

Gradually we leave Dartmouth astern and one or two other boats come scudding the other way…alternately disappearing in the troughs then rising high above us again. We start to think about making a tack back inland to a course near to an approach to Plymouth. With winds now a steady F6/7 and gusts of gale 8, there are increasing breakers and the motion is distinctly uncomfortable. We make the turn and are now almost beam on to the seas. This is much harder work for the helm to make sure that we avoid breakers over the side…and is not always avoided. Once or twice we have a couple of inches in the cockpit, but as always, Heydays shakes herself and plugs steadily on. After an hour of this and with Salcombe now off the starboard bow, we make the decision to run in and have a quieter time for the afternoon. We spot the leading marks over the bar (no room for error this time as we are just at low water) and soon we are in the peace and calm of the inlet

except…the harbour is awash with power boats, paddle boards and sailing dinghies all having fun without actually venturing out.

We are directed to the visitors pontoon some way up river and after having refuelled we are soon rafted up next to a charming French couple who will be in no rush to leave themselves.

Yee Tak has to leave us for the weekend, and so we take the water taxi to town and after some grub, put her in a taxi for Totnes and a train to Bristol.

We wander round the little town for a while (lots of holiday-makers of course) and after an ice-cream in the sun end up snoozing back on the boat. The weather can do its worst now!

Postscript: a more careful reading of the Chanel Pilot reveals that “…the salient butt of land between Start Point in the east and Bolt Tail in the west pokes far enough out into the general run of the Channel to create a notoriously rough stretch of water…”!!!

 

Brixham is another of those places we have never visited and is something we hope will be different from just another marina. There are precious few safe harbours in Lyme Bay and we set off up the east side of Portland with a light NW…looks promising for a reasonable sail across the bay. We debate the passage round Portland. The pilot books and chart warn of the dangers of the race round the Bill and convention for first timers is to go at least 3 miles out before turning west. There is an inside passage very close in (around 50m or so) which is Ok in fine weather and visibility. We have around 6 other boats around us and it almost seems as if we are all waiting to see what the others do and what happens.

In the end we make the decision to take the inside route and follow another yacht and a small fishing boat close inshore, almost within spitting distance of the rocks.

Others follow us! There is certainly heavy breaking water outside us and we are glad for the company. …and soon enough we are round…

Out across the bay and the wind turns once more to the west (of course). In a steady F3 or 4 we make two big tacks across the bay. The red cliffs of Devon shine brightly in the afternoon sun and then disappear. A huge cloud with rain approaches and we can sea the sea being whipped up into frothy peaks.

We hold on tight and then the squall hits. The wind shifts through over 90⁰  and gusts at over 30kt…F7. The boat is over canvassed and we douse the genoa but leave the main alone for now, not wanting to risk a bucking deck.

Almost as quickly as it came….it went! We are back on course for Brixham in sunshine and a wind so light we need the motor. With about a mile to go this time we are ready…another squall hits and we use the motor to take the sting out of the wind by rounding up. On the final approach we drop the main and motor gently into the harbour as if nothing had happened.

Folk are on the prom eating ice creams and wandering about in T-shirts while we are now sweltering in full wet weather gear. We avoid the marina and instead opt for the harbourmaster’s pontoon (at half the price) and moor alongside a lovely old Brixham trawler…and set off to explore the town.

It is a bit like Scarborough in some ways…a bit touristy among a still working fishing port and redolent of earlier times. After a couple of pints in the pub, we wander out to watch the town brass band and a male voice choir doing some passable renditions of old WW1 favourites…and some Queen (the Freddie M type not HRH)!

Due to a spot of bother with diesel bug off Lands End a year ago, we so never made it to the Scillies on the tour round the UK. This year we are trying again and also hope to include a few of the harbours in the South West which we have not been into before.

The summer so far has been hot and sunny with plenty of easterlies to drive us westwards. We haven’t been able to go earlier due to a combination of other events including poor family planning by daughters who give both Chris and John as well as Yee Tak and James beautiful granddaughters, as well as previously booked holidays and nephew’s exams etc… Our trip is broadly planned for around the 7^th to 28^th August or so and true to form, the weather finally breaks on the preceding weekend. Wind in the traditional SW and some general nastiness create some initial doubts, but we are made of sterner stuff and have done Orkney so what could go wrong?

Tuesday is leaving day but as we motor down the Lymington river the boat is sluggish and wont go above about 1500 revs compared to the usual max of 2500. We try the usual tricks of going forward and astern to remove what we suppose is a piece of rope or plastic, but without success. We debate the options of drying out to see what the problem is, but end up booking a lift out at the marina as they can squeeze us in and we can hopefully get going the next day. While we are waiting we change the diesel filters just in case the dreaded bug is back, but all seems fine so far….touch wood.

As Heydays is lifted out, the problem is clear…we have some incredibly severe fouling on the propeller.

The yard get as much slime and grunge off Heydays as possible with the power washer, then after that it is scrapers and wire brushes to get the prop shiny and new again. As always there is lots of divided opinion about what to do with props. Some swear by propspeed (as did we) but at £150 a pop (prop!) for a coating that lasts just two years its seems on the excessive side…and no-one locally has it anyway. Others recommend lanolin, but we are fresh out of local greasy sheep and so we opt for the simplest…shine it up and then dry out a couple of times a season to shine again.

Back in the water and £150 worse off, Heydays scoots along at 6 knots with just 1500 revs and a top speed over 7.

Another pub meal (in John and Chris’s local, The Smugglers in Milford on Sea) and we resolve to make an early start in the morning.

Wednesday 8^th August…Lymington to Weymouth

Oddly, given its proximity, none of us has ever sailed into Weymouth. We slip our lines in Lymington to catch the morning tide west and motor off down river into a gloomy sky with a light SW wind. By the time we are abeam of the Shingles bank there is a steady drizzle and we motor sail with just a main to supplement a very flukey wind and to give us a reasonable course in a vaguely westerly direction. By mid-morning however, the sun is out and there is a bit more wind, albeit still on the nose. We tack in towards Swanage and then by midday we have a good stiff F4 or 5. We tack out past Old Harry Rocks and St Albans with a couple of reefs in the main and a reduced genny. We follow the wind shifts past Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove and gradually start to believe once more that the huge lump of Portland really is joined to the mainland!

We close the shore and the fading grandeur of Weymouth and the promenade are left astern and we head for the new Weymouth Eye which sits uncomfortably close to the fine old bandstand…

Weymouth is rammed both on the water and ashore but the harbour crew are incredibly helpful (if slightly disorganised). We moor up next to the funfair on the quay and soon another boat rafts up next to us with a couple of seemingly inexperienced sailors. We get all our lines eventually snug and sorted…and then another boat comes in. It turns out they want to stay for two days, while we will be making an earlyish start and so once more we untie all our lines and dutifully trundle up and down the rive while they get sorted. Eventually the three boats are in the right order of leaving and we settle in for an evening in Weymouth.  Weymouth round the harbour and away from the usual chains in the high street is charming. The old tramway in the road to the old ferry and cargo dock is still there and useable, but with the ferries all gone it is just another sad reminder of what Weymouth once was …or perhaps still could be. The crowds don’t suit us however and John is shouted at for not jumping into the road while two ladies and a man with pushchair take up the whole pavement… Dinner however with our friends Nigel and Sue who have come down to say hello, is lovely at a great fish restaurant called les Enfants Terrible. John gets shouted at again, but this time it is a friend (Connor) who is moored up on a boat a short distance away. After some wine and the odd rum back on board, even the funfair doesn’t stop us sleeping.

At first we weren’t sure whether to continue the blog, but our loyal reader and our failing memories have convinced us to carry on for a bit, even though our sailing this year is likely to be rather more sedate than our voyage round the UK over the last couple of years.

With Heydays back in Lymington we have a chance to create a sort of normality after the last two years of being anywhere except our ‘home’ port. With our previous boats, we had spent happy days trundling around the Solent and Poole with occasional forays across to France and the Chanel Islands. The longer trips in boats with a cruising speed of around 4kts made for some long passages and all too frequently we were crossing busy shipping lanes in fog with no radar. We are looking forward to some slightly more luxurious and relaxed trips around our old haunts with the benefit of being able to see what might be bearing down on us in the fog.

So…nothing spectacular, but hopefully some nice pictures of mud and sunsets. We decided to keep Heydays afloat over winter and try to catch some of the crisp clear winter days with no one else out on the water.

In the event…perhaps inevitably, crisp clear days are few and far between. A pre-Christmas trip over to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight is a foggy windless trip, but at least the crab sandwich lives up to expectations.

Now we are on a river mooring without the benefit of walk-ashore pontoons, we treat ourselves to a new tender together with an electric outboard motor. Hopefully we can get to Heydays with mostly dry feet. This is the price we pay for not paying Lymington marina prices…we have certainly been spoilt around the rest of the country (with a few exceptions) where sailing is not solely the preserve of corporate tax breaks and well-heeled county types.

January and February pass with less than a handful of trips to Heydays just to make sure she is alright. This is not quite what we had in mind. Our first venture out is just a ‘shake-down’ to blow the cobwebs away and consists of just a few tacks up the Solent and back. Still, its nice to be back on the water. John and I manage a night away in Newtown Creek just to check that the anchor is still working…and that the New Inn is still there. A boat is aground in the entrance to the creek having misjudged the sand, there but for the grace of god etc.

The pub is doing a steak night for two, but sadly John is with a veggie. The promise to take the extra one home turns out to mean in his tummy. On the way back in the dark in the tender, the outboard decides that it can no longer run on just fumes and gives up the ghost. By the time we have refuelled (without a proper spout) we are i) liberally doused in petrol and ii) completely at a loss as to where the boat is, even with a couple of good torches. John has a compass in his watch and we feel our way slowly back. This is a salutary lesson on how easy a casual trip back from the pub can turn into a potentially dangerous situation on an ebb tide with little chance of rowing against it.

The morning brings a glassy stillness to the creek and we enjoy the solitude before the summer hordes arrive in their own bits of expensive floating plastic…

An oystercatcher and a few seals lazing on the mash look completely disinterested as we practice a few tight manoeuvres going round in circles backwards.

We slip away mid morning and leave the seals to their peace and quiet. All this just a stone’s throw from Lymington and Southampton…

Our next mini cruise takes us up to The Folley Inn which is halfway up the river from Cowes to Newport. There are only a few boats out at this stage of the season and unusually we have a pick of the river moorings and pontoons. The Folley usually gets very crowded and in the high season it all becomes a bit of a boat scrum…best avoided. It has special memories for John as we hired a boat plus skipper for his stag weekend and after some brisk sailing we fetched up at the inn on a Saturday night in August…along with quite a lot of other boatsful. The evening ends with most of the women in the pub plus John dancing on the tables. This is a regular occurrence it seems as there are several notices disclaiming responsibility for people falling off…and very many stiletto marks on the table tops. John refrains from dancing this time. No (cheap) pictures exist of this moment…

The morning is brisk and bright and clear and we have a lovely early-morning sail down to Lymington to pick up Chris. There are a few early bait diggers out …

…and we are reminded that Cowes was once a half decent ship-building town…

 

Yee Tak pretends to be gazing steely-eyed into the ocean, but in reality she is only thinking of food…

With a light easterly wind we have a very gentle run over to Poole in company with a few other boats and then debate with ourselves whether to attempt the inshore passage, the East Looe channel or the more cautious option of the main channel past Studland.

Caution wins out…and the other boats follow us on the same track. We wonder if they would have followed us wherever, on the assumption that we were locals. It reminds us of the maybe mythical stories of sailors following the wrong ferries over to France and then wondering why St Malo looks uncannily like Cherbourg.

On a falling tide we inch our way to a convenient mooring buoy near to the Shell Bay Restaurant. In double quick time we are in the dinghy and heading towards some fine seafood and the odd glass of wine…just to be sociable.

The sunset is glorious over the harbour and slips down behind Furzey Island in a wonderful final blaze of oranges and fiery reds. The famous green flash does not appear this time.

As the final light goes Chris and Yee Tak are singing merrily in the dinghy back to Heydays. Only the clanking of the chain ferry disturbs the perfect peace…and the odd clanking of rum bottles.

As adventures go this is relatively tame, but that doesn’t detract from the sheer joy of waking up in such beautiful surroundings. As the first of the tourist boats around Brownsea get under way, we breakfast and decide to just meander around the western areas of the harbour. The depths are shallow but one of the joys of a bilge keeler is that we don’t especially fear grounding…just the embarrassment of getting it wrong….or pretending that it was always our intention to scrub her bottom in the middle of the harbour. Yee Tak points us to an old anchoring haunt in South Deep just south of Green Island and we slowly sail along the meandering channel and anchor with a couple of others for lunch.

After a nap in the sun we decide to complete the grand circumnavigation (of Brownsea!) and return to South Deep for an even quieter night at anchor. The depths seem to be less than the charts suggest and we hold our breath trying to make Heydays lighter as we search for the relative deep of the Wych Channel. The oil wells on Furzey are completely hidden and the casual observer would not know that anything special was going on there apart from a few service boats making for the little jetty. The channel north and east of Brownsea is busy and crowded, but soon we are smugly leaving the tourist boats behind once more and heading for our anchorage.

As the tide recedes, Heydays settles snuggly into the mud and we dine with just some walking gulls and the odd oyster catcher for company. It is odd how such beauty and tranquillity is on our doorstep and yet we are often drawn to seek adventure in further flung places.

We need an earlyish start in the morning on the last of the tide to get a favourable stream out of the harbour and to make the tide gate through Hurst Narrows. At 6.30 we calculate we have about an hour left of acceptable depth. Sadly we have picked a rather shallower spot to anchor and Heydays is firmly aground already. We are forced to go back to bed to wait for the tide returning… By 8.30 we are afloat and we motor out against the incoming stream. Less than ideal but once we are out of the harbour we should be able to find some decent stream to help us on our way home. In glorious sunshine we sail within a biscuit throw of the beaches and huts of Sandbanks and Branksome and the wind fills in from the north to give us a superb reach past Bournemouth, Boscombe and Christchurch. Dozens of small fishing boats are anchored off the Shingles bank and we thread our way in along the north channel entering the narrows with about 45 minutes of the flood tide to spare.

 

Sailing to the city…

Our next mini-cruise takes us east with John having an appointment at the hospital in Southampton. The day is overcast and breezy and we are wrapped up against the chill of spring in Hampshire. A good south westerly combined with a favourable tide gets us to the entrance to Southampton Water in less than two hours and Heydays is making 6 kts through the water with just a reefed genoa. The water itself is full of commercial boats…the fast cats out of Cowes take no prisoners and the ferries themselves have to give way to the enormous (and hugely ugly) bulk car transporters which pick their way carefully round the Bramble Bank with the attendant pilot boats keeping everyone else at a respectful 100m distance. Pictures here are just grey on grey…

Even with the wind just forward of the beam, Heydays still makes great progress under just the genoa. The winds are gusting up to 23 kts, but Heydays as always is beautifully balanced and reassuring. We opt to try for Ocean Village Marina on the basis that it is probably more sheltered in a SW breeze and we turn up the Itchen glimpsing the ‘theatre of nightmares’ which is what St Mary’s Stadium has become this season.

A brief nap and we are off to the Harbour Lights Cinema for some nosh and a movie. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society turns out to be a real gem in a classically understated Film 4 way. This is a bit of a luxury, being able to pick up some decent grub and a movie less than 100m from our bed. No-one will accuse Ocean Village of being pretty or even charming, but occasional stays in the heart of a city can be invigorating. With John back on board we set off to visit Bembridge ahead of our joining the Moody Owners Rally there in a week’s time. We want to appear at least halfway competent and we have heard tales of embarrassing encounters with the mud inside the harbour. We would rather not do this with a dozen other boats looking on…we are as shallow at the harbour.

The wind stays in the SW but the predicted 5 occasional 6 turns out to be  a steady 6 with gusts of 7 as we get out of the city and into the open waters. We are creaming down Southampton Water as the rain comes in and the visibility reduces to less than 100m. We stay right on the edge of the channel safe in the knowledge that the big stuff will be well out of our way. Now we are going too fast. We can’t get into Bembridge until 3 hours before high water and at this rate we will be an hour too early, leaving us to chuff around (technical nautical term) in the sea waiting for the tide. We ease the sheets to reduce speed and as the rain clears away we start to catch glimpses of the island through the murk. The pilot book suggests that there is a tide gauge outside the entrance to the harbour, which shows the actual depth across the bar. The old 1867 Palmerston fort of No Man’s Land stands as a grim testament to the days when we apparently didn’t trust the French. Today it is apparently a ‘luxury’ 4 room hotel having got rid of the legionella which closed it in 2005. Leaving it behind, we begin a cautious approach across the Ryde sands being careful not to get in the way of the hovercraft which still ply from Southsea…noisy in the extreme and presumably quick but expensive.

St Helen’s Fort guides us in and we make out the beacon which we presume is the tide gauge. A complete circuit of this rather forlorn stump provides no useful information and we ponder whether to edge our way across the bar to the narrow channel into the harbour. With sails down we inch forward and the depth sounder begins its steady descent. It evens out at 1.7m giving us just 30cm below our keels. Luckily, with a SW wind the sea has not built up any swell so close inshore and gradually the depth rises to a luxurious 2.2m. The channel banks are so steep and the markers so close to the beach that we could have a chat to dog walkers without raising our voices…if any were out in what has become a drizzly and blustery late afternoon. We have our pick of the spaces on the pontoon with just us and two other boats in for the night. The young lad is very helpful but tells us sadly that there is no electricity that day and that the electrician has just gone home.

We settle in for the night and dine on pasta, salad and perhaps a glass of wine or two. Of Bembridge we see nothing, before finally tucking up in bed with the wind now howling through the rigging.

The next day is bright and sunny as we sail out of the harbour on the early morning tide.

The afternoon is promising a return of some gale force winds and rain and so with a couple of reefs in the main we have a wonderful sail past Seaview, Ryde…

…and a few of Queen Vic’s residences (one) plus Cowes…

We have a glorious beat  down the western arm of the Solent making the most of the ebb to get us safely home to Lymington.Our track on the chart shows us pleasingly tacking through just 90 degrees…but we are helped by a good 1.5 kts of tide! By 10.30 we are back on our mooring and breakfasting smugly having had a great sail before some people are even up.

Having ‘sussed’ Bembridge previously we spend a happy few days polishing and buffing (the boat) before our first outing with the MOA. We leave slightly later than planned due to some urgent domestic stuff and motor sail east once more in light winds and glorious sunshine. While most boats will be arriving on Saturday, we take advantage of being able to get in early on the Friday. In the event, the marina is already crowded with two rallies plus the usual crowds expected for a sunny bank holiday weekend. The harbour takes on a completely different form in sunshine and the contrast with a week previously could not be more stark. We raft up next to Dave and Jenny in their immaculate Moody 36 and are glad that we applied a bit of spit, polish and pressure wash to Heydays…she has scrubbed up reasonably well. With a dozen hands taking lines we are soon moored and enjoying not only the very warm welcome from everyone including Sue and Ian who have organised the rally, but also have some gin and tonic with a twist of lemon before our evening meal on board of tapasy stuff.

Saturday sees us breakfasting at the little marina café where an enterprising couple have set up fresh coffee and bacon and egg baps in an ex shipping container. It’s a tough life. it is also fascinating to see Bembridge with no water…

We take the opportunity of a free day (no organised activities until the evening!!!) to look around Bembridge itself and having chatted to a few other owners, we take ourselves off on the little ferry which drops us on the beach.

The little village is very pretty although busy with cars and cyclists (there is really only one main road around the island). On the way back we get the ferry to drop us at the Crab House for lunch while a fleet of brightly coloured sails drift slowly past on the tide…wonderful.

By the time we get back to Heydays, we are in the middle of a gigantic floating raft of plastic. With two inside and three outside including both in front and behind we couldn’t get out if we wanted to. Not sure about all this intimacy. We like the sun but kind of preferred it when we had the place to ourselves.

The evening consists of a BBQ which turns out to be a bit of a free for all as we bring our own food to cook, but we have brought plenty of booze so time passes until the quiz. We don’t come last is the best we can say, but failed miserably in our knowledge of the Isle of Wight. We sit out in the cockpit for the rest of the evening with the merry clink of glasses chiming with the retiring seagulls.

Sunday is a stroll around the harbour with everyone else for lunch at the sailing club…we are on our best behaviour and manage to scrub up OK. This is not really our ‘thing’ but pleasant enough. On the way back we explore a bit more of the dunes and beaches…would be great to bring the grandchildren here one sunny day.

Some boats leave on Sunday but we stay to catch the Monday afternoon tide. Lunch in the pub is good enough but James is trying hard not to look at the football on the big screen….Saints are rubbish this season and we need a win away at Everton to avoid relegation…mustn’t let it spoil the weekend…

The sail back has light winds from the East and we get our cruising chute out for the very first time. After a lot of fiddling and playing with bits of string, we get it flying. Heydays responds as always….with gentle puffs sending us surging along past Cowes and back up ‘our’ bit of the Solent.

We are chased up the Lymington river by the returning fleet of scows but manage to get safely moored before several dozen boats all try to use the slip at once!

A trawl through our log over the last couple of years as we made our way round the UK has thrown up some interesting and also surprising (at least to us) pointers about the nature of our trip…

If anyone reading this wants any more information from our limited perspective, we would be very happy to bore for England talk…

Navigation

We used a combination of navigation aids…

• charts of course… Imray packs seemed to be the most cost effective way of buying, but together with admiralty tide tables and paper almanacs, we spent over £500 on paper charts.
• Raymarine cmap…Heydays has a reasonably old (8 years) Raymarine chart plotter and radar system. The cmap charts for this are not at all cheap and UK coverage with yearly updates cost over £600 for the 2 years. Our blog for October 2015 shows our coming together with a sandbank in the Thames estuary as a result of a 6 month old cmap and 8 month old chart. This resulted in us adding…
• Navionics on both James’ Samsung 7″ tablet and John’s ipad. These have the advantage of being  cheap (approx £30 per year) and updateable wherever we have wifi. This would WITHOUT DOUBT have enabled us to avoid the sandbank which had moved in a winter storm. The small Samsung tablet proved very useful to have directly at the wheel, although the display is at times dull especially in sunlight. The ipad display is ideal, but seemed power hungry and needed an external GPS. The combination of both worked well for us until we have saved enough pennies to renew our old Raymarine.
• We also made use of Reeds of course both on-line and paper, The Cruising Association Almanac (this tended to be rather more cautious and anxiety causing than the others) and several pilot books. East Coast Pilot, the Clyde Cruising Club books (all of them) and the Irish Sea book were all excellent and we made full use of them both for passage planning through races and past headlands as well as entering new harbours.

Distances and times…

We completed a total of  1944 miles over the ground (although some local cruising on the way round took it over 2000!).

We did 45 separate days sailing with a total of 360 hours at sea. Surprisingly, we had the engine running for just over 75% of the time although much of this was motor sailing. At first we were disappointed with such a high ratio, however this included a canal transit and we also made decisions to use the motor to support overall boat speed, to make tide gates and harbour entrances on occasions. We realise (although purists and Joshua Slocum will disagree) that passage making, often with a time pressure, is a very different kind of sailing than we have been used to previously.  Now back home, we will be burning a lot less diesel. Overall we used about 700l of diesel on the trip round.

Also slightly disappointing, was the fact that we only did around 36 hours of sailing in darkness. Some of this is accounted for by the remarkably short (almost non existent at times) ‘nights’ we encountered for much of the time we spent in Scotland and Orkney.

Of the 45 day sails, we spent the majority (35) in marinas, with just 10 nights at anchor or on swinging moorings. On another occasion we would certainly wish to do more anchoring and it is not for the want of information, as Brian and Anne provided us with an amazing array of great anchorages, of which we sadly used only a small fraction. In our defence m’lud, the east coast provided little in the way of safe anchorages with the exception of the Essex and Suffolk rivers in which we anchored on several occasions, but separately from this trip. We made most use of swinging moorings and anchorages in Scotland and the islands, but weather on occasions helped us to decide for more sheltered berths…OK, OK, pubs and restaurants also played a part! As did friends and family wanting to visit, as well as our need to travel back south for various reasons.

Communications…

We carried our main VHF set (mast aerial) as well as two back-up hand held sets. The hand-helds proved to be more useful in close approaches for contact with harbourmasters re moorings, pontoons etc. as we don’t (yet) have a microphone for the main set in the cockpit.

We carried phones between us with three different networks. In general ‘3’ proved very good even for 4G up the East Coast and in Orkney, while Vodafone and O2 were less comprehensive. In West Scotland Vodafone was slightly better although all were fairly poor with 3G at best. We got used to sitting in pubs….just for the wifi!!!

The shipping forecast…

If possible, read this bit of the blog with Sailing By playing in the background…

We used three main sources of weather information;

• the shipping forecast of course. We used the BBC broadcasts as well as listening for coastguard updates, but we found the Marineweather App to be very helpful both for the sea areas and the inshore forecast.
• Navtex. This was OK, but in truth the display is less helpful (to our old git eyes) than the apps. We did not find any occasion where Navtex was the only option.
• Windy App. This we used a lot and is very helpful in tracking fronts and depressions as well as for the direct estimates of wind strength, wave height etc. It is also more useful than the shipping forecast in some respects, as it can zoom in to smaller areas as well as providing some guide for up to 7 days in advance. HOWEVER, our experience showed that it tends to under-estimate the general wind strength. This was not consistent sadly and we became used to continual cross-checking with the shipping forecast. Wind direction seemed to us to be more accurate even at quite local levels.

The I-spy book of shipping forecasts showed that we covered in order…

• Wight, Dover, Thames, Humber, Tyne, Forth, Cromarty, Fair Isle, Hebrides, Malin, Irish Sea, Lundy, Plymouth and Portland. We also used close by areas of Dogger, Forties, Sole and Fitzroy.
• Lyme Regis, Selsey Bill, North Foreland, Gibraltar Point, Whitby, Berwick upon Tweed, Rattray Head, Cape Wrath, Ardnamurchan Point, Mull of Kintyre, Mull of Galloway, Carlingford Loch, Great Orme Head, St Davids Head and Lands End

We’ll never again lie awake at night listening to the sonorous voices reeling off the headlands without still wishing we were there, watching them slip silently past…..

And finally, the link below should take you to a word table of places, times, distances and main events if you are still reading….

UK tour summary

A 5am alarm call… on a Sunday!!!

…and a check of the forecast…

…this has us thinking seriously about moving at all. The 24 hour inshore forecast is suggesting S or SW 4 or 5 occasionally 6 later. That bit is OK and should see us in Poole quite nicely before anything heavier but…the outlook for the following 24 hours is now suggesting that ex hurricane Ophelia may make her presence felt with gales suggested. Our concern is that things change quite quickly and sometimes the forecast winds arrive sooner than expected. A review of the options….stay put in Dartmouth, although this would be wasting the opportunity for a good 12 hours of easting, or head out with some bolt holes available. Lyme Bay has nothing to offer by way of shelter, but once round Portland Bill, Weymouth is a good safe harbour in a blow and Poole itself is also good. Both are down wind to ease any pressure on us and the gear.

In the end, with enough alternatives should the forecast change, we decide to go. We head out down a dark river with the ebb under us, scanning the gloom for moored boats and for the comfort of the Check Stone and Castle Ledge buoys and the ease of open water at night. With a cautious reef in the main and a couple of rolls in the genoa we spot the southerly cardinal marks taking us safely round (yet another) Mewstone and the charmingly titled Shag rock…great birds. After that it’s 80^o  for the next 8 hours or so to Portland Bill. The tidal lift east stays with us slightly longer than we expected and we are averaging well over 6 knots over the ground. Out across Lyme Bay and the land quickly disappears into the lightening haze. The sea is quite lumpy and this increases and shortens as the tide turns against us and the wind. The autohelm is working hard and we once more think about the benefits of installing wind-vane steering. We opt to run a loose watch system and take turns to catch up on some sleep.

The morning trundles on with Heydays scudding through and sometimes surfing down the front of waves. We disturb a flock of gannets who were spending a peaceful Sunday morning bobbing around until we came along. We pass a couple of cargo boats anchored but other than that not another soul although, presumably, plenty of sole…apologies.

We are around 6 miles from the Bill when we suddenly see the unmistakable dorsal fin and once more we are joined, all too briefly, by a pod of common dolphins.

It really does lift the spirits (not that we were down) to have these wonderful creatures for company. As if encouraged by them, the sun comes out (albeit in a watery kind of way) and we finally get sight of the Bill itself. We feel like we have entered the final countdown now with only St Aldhelms Head and Anvil Point left before home. We round the Bill just on slack water with Heydays still making around 5kt despite some easing of the wind.

With the Bill comes some data connectivity and a forecast update. Ophelia is tracking slightly further east and while Ireland will bear the brunt, Portland and Wight both have gales forecast over the next 24 hours. There is no need to run for Weymouth, but thoughts turn to our final leg from Poole to Lymington. A quick calculation and with a favourable tide east for the next 6 hours and a decent wind, we can make the tide gate at Hurst Narrows before it turns foul at 8.30pm. The lure of our home port ahead of the final sting of Ophelia is attractive and we encourage Heydays with a bit of engine to support a slackening wind which is now just around F3. Oddly it comes round to the SE and this was definitely in no forecast we have seen…

With connectivity comes the curse of knowing what else is happening…Yee Tak has taken Chris to see Saints against Newcastle and James’ phone pings irritatingly (can’t bring myself to turn it off…) as Newcastle score. Heydays is now creaming along at 7 or 8 kts through the water and with a favourable tide we pass St Aldhelms and Anvil Point with indecent haste.

Another ping and Saints are level….followed by another ping within the minute and the ‘Toon army are back in front…. The point of sailing is to get away from the anxiety…as they say, it’s the hope that gets you. Once more we are surrounded by haze and we see no sign of the Isle of Wight or Bournemouth as we cross the Dolphin Sands at speed. A final ping settles matters and Saints get a draw…at least Chris saw a good game for her first ever time at a premier league match. Yee Tak is spitting with frustration….

John plots a course in close to the beach and the north passage, instead of the Needles channel which can get very lumpy. It also goes past his flat up on the cliffs… The final sunset on our journey brings mixed emotions and a curious red sun courtesy of dear old Ophelia dragging Sahara dust and Portuguese wild fire debris in our direction.

…elation at an achievement for a couple of old gits, but also a sadness at the end of a chapter and an adventure. We’ll do a final reflective post later…

The haze finally clears and the Needles light is clear as it steers us clear of the Shingles bank.  We make the North Head buoy with about an hour to spare and can just about make out the line of Hurst Spit. We lose the jenny and take the last of the flood through the narrows and in to the warm embrace of the Solent. We can be cavalier with the channel markers, cutting corners with aplomb (hoping that the mud has not moved in the last 2 years) and watching the lights of Lymington drawing us in. 14 hours after leaving Dartmouth we are tied up on the harbour master’s pontoon and we’ll stay the night there before finding out where they will put us for the winter while they dredge our own mooring. Back on dry land we are still swaying around like a couple of drunken sailors…but that bit will come later. The welcoming party will arrive tomorrow, so after a drink or two we tuck up on Heydays for the final night (on this trip).

Dawn brings confirmation that it was the right decision to come straight to Lymington from Dartmouth and it is amazing to wake up in the familiar surroundings of home.

We motor out down river in increasing gloom thanks to Ophelia and are ‘met’ back on the pontoon by Yee Tak and Chris…

 

…there can be no better excuse for fizzy pop at 11 in the morning.