Neill – Page 32

A Hundred Miles

The whole of England is covered by a high pressure zone which means sun and blue skies – and no wind except a sea breeze in the afternoons and evenings. So in Gorran Haven we slept late and lifted the anchor at eleven in the morning. The wind was very light so until late afternoon we drifted across the bay but at least we were moving nearly two knots in the correct direction. Later the wind picked up so we decided to continue through the night.

As we approached the Eddystone Lighthouse the sea breeze dropped and the wind swung round from the south to north necessitating much sail adjusting and a jibe just to ensure we didn’t hit the lighthouse (on the only rocks for miles in every direction).

Just before sunset I went for a sleep and left Heidi “in command” for the first time with instructions to call me if she needed any help. At midnight I woke up and asked if all was OK. She had needed to reset the genoa and main sail, adjust the wind steering and run up the AIS system to ensure we were going to miss a monster ship. And this from the lady who is still not sure if she is really a sailor. Continue reading “A Hundred Miles”

Rustler Yachts

In Wales we discovered that the windows leaked. We already knew that the hatches leaked but they seemed to leak more in Wales. We also had a list of smaller jobs that we were going to need some assistance with. Rustler Yachts are based in Falmouth so as we approached we sent them an email saying “we have a 25 year old Rustler and it leaks. Can you help us?” Once management had explained how busy they were, we were passed on to Barney, their refit manager who agreed to meet us the next day. We met on the pontoon and showed him our problems. He thought that everything was doable and told us to be back in the same place the following Monday.

On Monday Gary appeared and set to work on the first hatch. The next three days he was joined by Steve and together they worked their way through our list with Barney supporting them in the workshop. When they removed the heads hatch we discovered that it must have been leaking for a few years as the ceiling was completely rotten. No problem for these guys, they made all the parts new. Continue reading “Rustler Yachts”

Mousehole

Yes there is really a village called Mousehole. It is on the Cornish coast, the location for a great child’s book and last night we anchored just off shore in sun and no wind.

I had always imagined that this village would be a tiny collection of fisherman’s cottages hidden in a small, well sheltered creek. The fisherman’s cottages are there. They are clustered round the beach and now all seem to be holiday homes or artists studios. The streets are tiny and were obviously planned when a boat was much more important than a car. On the surrounding slopes the cottages are now crowded by newer, less picturesque dwellings so that the original character of the place is lost when viewed from the sea.

The beach is completely open to the East so there is a huge harbour wall. This is in no relation to the size of the village or the few boats that were stranded behind it on the beach at low tide. It is the sort of wall that you would expect to find protecting a city from invading hordes. It has a small entrance which can be blocked off against storms. We rowed through in our dinghy before beaching on the sand and setting off to explore. Continue reading “Mousehole”

Cornish summer

We crossed the 80 miles from Wales to England with a following wind. The waves and wind were both behind us and we were sometimes surfing down the front of the waves at eight knots. Once we were across the shipping lane and out of sight of land there was just sea, sky and birds to be seen. We occasionally wondered where a passing plane was heading for but otherwise we were the only people on earth.

We reached the cornish port of Padstow at evening low tide so we gingerly navigated across the “Doom Bar” and up river following the buoyed channel and watching the depth gauge. The sea gates to the inner harbour were closed so we anchored in the river and slept. About Midday the next day it was high tide and the harbourmaster instructed us to proceed into the harbour and tie up on the north wall. We were right in the middle of town and surrounded by hundreds of tourists eating pasties and ice cream. I am still amazed that for twenty pounds you can spend the night in the middle of a town across from the most expensive hotel. A night on the town was followed by a morning of oiling teak and scrubbing decks

Despite the almost complete lack of wind, we managed to sail part of the way to St. Ives where we anchored off the beach and enjoyed the ultimate sunset followed by fireworks on shore. During the trip, we also worked out how to set the whisker pole to pole out the Genoa. Here we were helped by great online tuition from Go’n’Sail via Whatsapp. Continue reading “Cornish summer”

Tidal Streams.

I began writing this entry in the Irish Sea as we worked our way directly in to a force 5 wind coming from exactly where we want edto go and happy about every bit of help we could get.

Most people know that the tide goes up and down. Pictures like the one below of boats sat on their side waiting for the tide to come in are common. But the water doesn’t just appear. It has to flow in to or out of the bay or harbour. Thieseflows are called tidal streams and can be a great help or hindrance depending on how well your planning works.

Today we spent the morning at anchor. We could have gone out but then the tidal stream would have been against us. By waiting until now we have the advantage of a huge “conveyor belt” carrying us in the direction we want to go. It is actually adding 0.7 knots to our speed right now and will continue to increase to 2 knots. This means that every hour we get about one to two extra miles. That may not sound like a lot but with us only making an average of four knots against the wind, we are glad of any help we can get.

A day after starting this blog entry I made a mistake in my calculations as a result of which we found ourselves passing between an island an a headland when the tide was against us. With sails up and the motor on, we were barely moving forwards. Another lesson in the importance of tidal streams

I learned all about tidal streams, calculating their effects and making use of them at sailing school but they are a lot more real when the mean the difference between gliding to your destination or fighting for every mile and anchoring before dark or not.

The Irish Sea – the complete route

After leaving Scotland we crossed to Ireland and then on to the Isle of Man and across to Wales. We have spent the last week tacking against the wind and yesterday we rounded St. David’s Head and finally left the Irish Sea. This segment of the journey we travelled some 360 nautical miles which takes our total to date with Scotland to 1000 nautical miles. Heidi is now a seasoned sailor.

Our route since arriving in Ireland can be viewed at GPSies.

Porthmadog

We were assigned the only mooring deep enough to hold us and twice a day we could watch the surrounding boats coming to rest on the mud and sand around us. Most of the yachts in the harbour were bilge keelers specially designed to stay upright while sat on the bottom.

The first day we rowed across to the harbour wall and walked the hundred meters to the Ffestiniog Railway. This is a narrow gauge railway that heads up in to the hills and ultimately to the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog. The trains are driven by steam engines and the route very scenic. This was Heidi’s chance to see something else of Wales than sandy beaches and holiday homes. Blaenau used to be a center for slate production so we headed into the hills to look at the post industrial landscape above town and explore a bit. The town itself is doing its best to become a tourist location but there is only so much you can do with piles of grey slate and 200 days rain a year. We broke the return journey half way to take a walk through a Welsh rainforest.

On the second day we caught another more conventional train to Harlech and visited Harlech Castle. Since Neill’s last visit thirty years ago they have built a visitor center which explained the building and history of the castle. A quick course in British history for Heidi. Norman conquest, War of the Roses and English civil war all in 15 minutes.

The next morning we planned on leaving but revised our schedule because of Storm Hector. With gale force nine forecast we stayed hidden in Porthmadog. Even so we saw over 20 knots on the anemometer so we were both glad to still be in harbour. The dinghy ride from the yacht club to the boat was exciting.

The next day we left on the high tide to continue our journey south.

Lleyn Peninsula

From Holyhead we headed south and anchored off Porth Dinllaen. This is a long beach and a village all owned by the National Trust. When you visit Dinllaen with a car you have to stop at a car park (and pay for it) then walk across a golf course and down to the beach carrying everything you need. In the evening you pack up and do it all in reverse. In a boat, you sail into the bay and then anchor in about four meters of water and enjoy the view. The pub is only a dinghy ride away.

All the weather forecasts agreed that there would be no wind for another 24 hours so we left the boat at anchor and walked up the nearby hill Garn Boduan. It is only 250 meters high but stands alone and we would have had amazing views if there hadn’t have been such a heat haze. As it was we could still see Artemis at anchor some five kilometers away. On the summit there are the remains of an iron age fortified settlement. We used one of the hut remains to shelter from the breeze.

In the night the wind came up as expected which soon built up a decent swell but made for great sailing the next day. We motored out of the bay and then sailed all the way round the peninsula to the buoy off Porthmadog. Downwind we were averaging seven knots and then back up wind still managing five. Great sailing with Chiara the wind monitor doing the work.

It became obvious that we were easily going to reach Portmadog before the high tide so we contacted the harbour master who was kind enough to assign us a mooring and send us the most up to date sketch of the entrance channel including a list of corrections. We felt very adventurous as we navigated from buoy to buoy watching bearings and depths and with as little as 40cm below our keel.

A dinghy motor

When we bought the boat, it came with an Avon inflatable dinghy. Unless we overnight at a marina pontoon, the dinghy is our connection to land. It came with two paddles which are fine when there is little wind, little current and not too far to the beach. A few times we have stayed on board because we haven’t been sure we will reach land and in Plockton we were stuck on land unable to reach the boat. Luckily the crew of a training yacht saved us with their tender.

On arriving in Wales we found the largest Chandlery we had seen since Ardfern and they had a small outboard motor just like we had been searching for. Out came the Visa card and on to the dinghy went the motor. We tested it in the harbour and today used it to for the half mile to the pub at Porth Dinllaen. At about 3 knots we are now much faster than with “Neill power”.

We have been going to marinas when we need diesel, water, electricity or a shower. For diesel and water we now have canisters which we can take with us when we take the dinghy to land. We are going to become expert at begging tap water. Electricity mostly comes from our wind generator and solar panel. So now we just need it to get warm enough to shower on deck 🙂

TT Races – Isle of Man

We had finally had enough of feeling our way from port to port in thick fog so in the morning we got up early, switched on the motor and all the gadgets and set off for the Isle of Man. We navigated briskly across the busy entrance to Belfast Lough and then gingerly through the Donagadee Channel using radar to avoid buoys and unseen boats. Next we set a course of 125 degrees magnetic and spent the next four hours watching the radar. At least Neill did. Heidi baked onion bread and cleaned the metalwork.

A few times we saw crossing or approaching boats on the radar but in the mist we only saw one for real. Finally, only six miles from the Isle of Man, we came out of the mist and in to sunshine and cloudless blue skies. We radioed ahead to Peel Harbour asking for a berth and he sounded very stressed and busy. He said to call again when we reached the outer harbour and we could have a berth if some one left.

On reaching Peel we were called in to the inner harbour and were stunned to be greeted by thousands of people, a live band and a huge street party. Every berth in the harbour was full and on the walls, boats were rafted four deep. And on every boat there was a party. We asked if every Sunday was like this and were told that today was “mad sunday” at the start of the TT races. One week a year and we had hit it on the nose.

The next day we caught a bus to the race course and were given a tip by a local about a great view point through a farmyard and across two fields. Here we watched amazingly crazy motorcyclists racing down closed roads just missing the stone walls on each side. The speed was unbelievable and the noise unbearable. Neither the photos or videos we took do the craziness of this event justice.

We walked back to the village, ate a monster ice cream and then took the bus back to town, visted the castle and went shopping – all the time with the sound of one of the thousands of motorbikes here on holiday in the background.

Slowly a pattern is emerging. This is the third time we have arrived for “the big once a year event”. Tobermory, Rathlin and now Peel. If we actually had a plan, it would be a good one.