2024 April 14th Days 16 - 17, back to Portland Marina and weather bound again.

The weather forecasts are driving me to distraction! As things turned out I could have left Saturday and, with some night sailing and motoring been on the mooring in good weather on Sunday. 

Sunday morning I woke up to no wind and did not check the forecast till past 09:30; the new forecast showed a relatively calm day with strong winds reaching the Hamble after c 04:00 Monday, quick calculations showed if I motored I could be in Hamble by 02:00, tight but possible with Portland Marina a safe fall back, the eco buoys at Studland would not be a sensible option with wind forecast to be F7 occ F8 for Monday.

I was underway within 10 minutes with washing up still to be done and bedding needing to be stored but with calm seas that was soon sorted and I motored across Lyme Bay making better than 6 knots in calm seas.

Typically the wind increased from 8 knots at 15:40 when I was 6 miles off the Bill of Portland with the tide about to turn adverse. By 16:26 it was blowing 16 knots and by 17:26 up to 20 but this time there was less tide and I had the wind and waves behind me and with some gentle surfing was making c 7 knots through the water and quite comfortable.

A rather more direct track eastbound than west bound.

A decision had to be made, Portland or Hamble? According to the met office domestic forecast for Hamble I still had several hours in hand to get to Hamble but it did not feel right, it would mean a couple of expensive nights in the marina but it seemed sensible to go there.

Another decision was to go west or east of the Shambles bank. West is a good deal shorter but would have more adverse tide and goes rather close to the Portland Race. I went east as the safe option but I don’t think it took that much longer because as soon as I turned round the bank I had the tide c30 degrees off the bow rather than dead ahead and I made 6 knots over the ground to the harbour entrance.

Portland from south of the Shambles Bank

Getting onto the pontoon was a big challenge, when I was allocated the berth I was very pleased, I would be almost dead into wind (I had said I was single handed and would not be able to get into a berth down wind) with a slight bias blowing me on to the pontoon, but when the gale arrived I would be blown off. Unfortunately in the 30 minutes it took to rig fenders etc. and to get into the marina the 20 knt wind had veered from SSW - SW to West I was going to be blown off. 

Fortunately the berth master has realised what had happened and came a long way from the office to take my lines; but it was a fraught couple of minutes and two attempts before I was secure.

My route in cutting the corner a bit inside the buoy.

It was a very good decision, by 02:00 the wind was over 20 knots and by 03:00 30 knots, getting onto the mooring in that would at best have been extremely difficult.

The down side is that the forecasts have changed again, on Sunday the gale was to blow through Monday night but as I write on Monday morning winds will keep me here until Thursday 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬!

The gale is also stronger than forecast, the wind gusting to 53 knots at the breakwater at 09:30.

55 nautical miles in nine and a half hours.

Update Monday evening. Perhaps Wednesday?

Selsey Bill to Lyme Regis - Strong wind warning

24 hour forecast: West or northwest 6 to gale 8, decreasing 4 or 5 later. Moderate or rough, becoming slight or moderate. Squally showers, fair for a time. Good, occasionally poor.

Outlook for the following 24 hours: Northwest 3 to 5. Slight or moderate, occasionally smooth in north. Showers. Moderate or good.

Click here for what is hopefully the denouement.

2023 8th September, A dash home, stats for 2023 and what to do in 2024.

I was all geared up for Guernsey on Thursday but the forecast was for very light winds and fog so, as mentioned in the previous post, I stayed put in Hope Cove; then just after 8 pm I got a phone call, The Lady Wife had fallen and broken her hip. 

So after a quick check of the tide atlas to make sure it was sensible to leave immediately, the anchor was weighed in about 10 minutes (when at anchor I keep the boat pretty much ready for sea with the engine ready to start in case of a dragging anchor or other emergency), it was a 20 hour motor back to the Solent. 

I was fortunate that on the neap tide I had an adverse current for only a couple of hours by which time I was almost at Start Point, thanks to the new anti-foul and a calm sea I was motoring easily at better than 6 knots, even with the dinghy in tow. I couldn't get past Portland on one tide but I did have a favourable tide past The Needles and through the Solent to be back on my mooring at 17:00.

The bad news was that most of the way, almost to The Needles Fairway buoy, there was mist and patchy fog, sometimes with visibility down to a cable or so, that meant I was on an intensive radar and visual watch all the way - very tiring.

It was too late to get home that night, even if I had not been exhausted, so after 9 hours kip I left early on Saturday morning with a long trek home by bus, hike, train and an hours walk (actually hobble is a better description) in 30 degrees because there were no taxies for at least that long. Then to cap it all the car had a puncture as I reached the hospital 

Not the end of season sail I had hoped for!

Waves, sometimes breaking, over the Shingles Bank although
there were no significant waves outside. A good reason to take
care in adverse conditions,

 

As happened on my final day of my sailing last year as I went up the Solent I was greeted by the Waverley paddle steamer (also seen in Milford Haven on my first cruise this year) and a Spitfire. 

The Paddle Steamer "Waverley" 

No mistaking the shape (or sound) of a Spitfire.

My track till midnight.

And the rest of the way to the Hamble

114 miles over the ground in 20.5 hours.

Stats for 2023

2023	Days	Hours at Sea	GPS N Miles	GPS S Miles	Days Sailing	Places Visited	Weather Bound	Marina or Buoy	At anchor
St Kilda	76	421	1,890	2,175	52	54	11	31	41
Summer	34	139	580	667	21	23	7	14	17
Total	110	561	2,470	2,842	73	77	18	45	58

33 places visited for the first time.

Stats for previous years and explanations here or from the top bar.

2024

I do like to have a "mission" or goal when I sail, next years I think will either be round Ireland or more likely Shetland by a route that will be decided depending on the weather but probably west about so as not to arrive in Orkney and Shetland too early in the year. Wind permitting Sancerre will be dried out for a scrub on March 15th and I'll leave soon thereafter.

Stage one of my July trip, Hamble to Plymouth

Like the season, this trip started late, this time delayed from Saturday by the weather with gales and severe gales in the channel, I eventually got away on Monday, but even that was delayed as the best time to leave was at the end of the high tide "stand" on the Hamble at 03:00 to take the last of the ebb down the Solent, but it was still quite windy so I left it until 08:00, the still brisk wind would enable me to make reasonable progress against the adverse 2 – 3 knot tide by keeping to the shallows and not having to tack to arrive at Hurst as the tide turned favourable. This almost went to plan, I almost made it on one tack from Calshot to Hurst but, a little help was needed from the engine for 10 or 15 minutes to clear "Sconce" buoy without tacking.

 

I passed the Needles at about 13:00 and after avoiding the southern part of the Shambles bank headed for a point well off Portland to avoid the race and almost certain rough seas closer in, especially with the wind against tide.

A big modern Schooner overtaking me approaching the Needles.

With the ebbing spring tide quick progress was made on a very close fetch until just east of the Bill when the tide turned reducing the apparent wind over the sea from 15 to 11 knots or less and it was very slow progress for 6 hours with the wind shifting and dropping at times and coming from the west, just the direction I was trying to sail.

As someone said on Flickr "Looks like Piccadilly Circus
out there so not a lot of sleep tonight :-)"

Then we were off again with the wind strengthening but variable in direction between west and north west until 15 miles short of Start Point when it almost disappeared and I missed the tidal gate. Again fighting an adverse tide with little wind on the nose it took about 8 hours to get the 15 miles to south of the point, helped for the last couple of hours by a rapidly increasing wind which made the passage past Salcombe, Bolt Head and particularly Bolt Tail very uncomfortable with a strong wind against the tide.

 

My track approaching Start Point

The final section from there, past The Mew Stone guarding the approach to Plymouth to anchor in Cawsand bay was very hard work with winds well over 20 Knots (F6) at times and a difficult sea  fortunately Sancerre is pretty good at getting over the waves under autopilot or wind vane steering without the need for manual intervention.

Cawsand Bay

Another single handed sailor anchoring in Cawsand bay, one 

of few boats in this favoured anchorage, I guess its the weather

and boats not yet in the water due to the virus lock down.

 I sailed 145 nautical miles over the ground in 35 hours. 

 

Almost the whole trip from the Shambles bank was done with wind vane doing the steering rather than autopilot which was good news as the wind sensor used by the autopilot when sailing kept cutting out, I finally figured out the immediate reason – lots of canned food in the next locker to the radio link transceiver that connects the network to the sensor at the top of the mast. They were not in line between the 2 points but clearly affected the radio link, after I re-stowed the tins the link only failed once, hopefully moving some tools from the same locker as the unit will fully solve the problem. [Unfortunately things got worse later in the cruise and the wind sensor failed altogether coming down the east coast].

 

If the forecast, which shows poor visibility and adverse winds up to Force 6 tomorrow, holds the plan is to move on, probably to St Mawes, on Friday when the wind will be favourable, meet up with some fellow Achilles boat owners on Saturday when the winds are due to be very light or non-existent and push on from there on Sunday. If the weather is a little better than forecast tomorrow I might take advantage of any window to stage through Fowey.

Slide show all of my pictures from Hamble to Plymouth. Page through by clicking the arrows or click in the centre of the pic to view from Flickr in a new window or full screen:

Stage 2 Plymouth to St Mawes.

July Cruise

I left Gosport at 13:00 on Wednesday 24th freshly power washed on the SeaLift, arriving Hallsand immediately behind Start Point on Thursday 16:30 after a varied trip down ending in several hours in fog that ended just inside Start Point and a few hundred yards from the anchorage.

Fog clearing from Start Point Light, half a mile east of here the visibility was
about 100 yards - I was within 0.2 miles of 4 boats, visible on AIS and/ or
radar but did not see any of them.

After a good nights sleep I left at 07:00 in rough seas, especially around the Start and past Pawle Point, Bolt Head and Bolt Tail, with light winds the engine was used quite often until a fresh breeze set in as I passed the Eddystone and I had to stop trying to film dolphins to set the Genoa. With the wind changing frequently it was a toss up between going to Fowey or St Mawes but I ended up at the latter.

Arriving St Mawes Friday
Pic by Ron D

Sancerre and on the right a 100 year old working boat coming into
St Mawes after a race

On Saturday there was a local trip with Roger and Ron on Rogers 41 foot Blue Magic but with gales forecast I gave up on thoughts of going further west in Sancerre and made a dash for Fowey and for the 2nd time this year I spent 3 nights there to shelter from gales

Sunday evening, the lull before the storm.

I spent a little time before the gales hit the day after arrival motoring up the river in the tender but at low tide could not get very far even with a draft of less than a foot.

Motoring up the river with the china clay handling wharfs behind.

Then home again in pictures:

Night 1, Start Point and Hallsand (anchorage centre, remaining beach right)
 without the fog.

Dartmouth for Fuel

Exmouth, the moorings were in over 3 knots of turbulent current just an hour
before high water, it looked uncomfortable and difficult to get on to single
handed (but would have been easy with a crew) so on to anchor behind
Beer head for night 2.

Leaving Beer, very early in the morning and on to Lyme Regis for fresh food
and a shower at the sailing club..

Lyme Regis, relatively new pontoons at the end of the Cob.

Lyme Regis Harbour. I joined the sailing club here over 50 years ago
but have not sailed from here for about 45. Much has changed but it
is still Lyme.

Sailing at Lyme in the late 60's, Albacore "El Avispa" (The Wasp)
I sold her shortly after to get an old 505.

Golden Cap, an Iconic land mark between Lyme Regis and Portland.

Approaching the Bill on the inshore route minutes before the change
of tide but still with 4 knots of current behind me.

Off of the Bill

Quarry workings just north of the Bill on the east side. Its amazing
how they worked barges etc. into here 200 years ago. On to anchor in the
harbour for night 3.

Track from Beer to Portland Harbour via Lyme Regis.

HMS Defender a type 45 Frigate off Portland.

Anvil Point, nice to have the Lulworth range shut for the month.

Track from Portland Harbour to Osbourne Bay

Cheating the tide up the Solent

I got from Portland to Hurst Narrows in less than 6 hours then took more
than that to beat up the Solent against the tide and the Fastnet fleet to short
of Cowes when, with it getting late, I put the engine on to motor to Osborne
bay to anchor for the night before moving to Haslar next morning.

Slide show:

Jester Baltimore Challenge 2019 – The Return.

North of Wolf Rock Lighthouse when I had a few hours
peace and quiet whilst sailing.

Again the wind forecast was a big issue, strong on Sunday with very strong winds forecast mid week so there was not enough time to safely head direct for Gosport and time at anchor in the Isles of Scilly could be a bit bouncy. Also winds were forecast to be very light on Monday and Tuesday and probably easterly.

I did not want to be stuck in Ireland for a week and then perhaps find the wind still to be a problem so, having plenty of fuel, I left at 04:30 on Monday and suffered noisy motoring most of the way to Fowey arriving at 22:00 on Tuesday.

Lots of Dolphins on the way back:

Dolphins in the Celtic Sea (it starts a bit slow but quickly gets better) 

unfortunately the high resolution original was too big for Blogger 

but this is reasonable full screen on a medium laptop or iPad.

 
The promised stiff easterly winds came in on Wednesday morning peaking with very strong winds (F8 & F9s being reported) on Thursday and Friday so it was 3 days sitting out the weather on a mooring in Fowey, with some boat maintenance and these blog postings passing the time.

Mooring buoys in Fowey are very close together!
And in high season boats are rafted up!!!

I left Fowey early on Saturday with a decent wind... which lasted less than an hour and I was motoring again well into Lyme Bay, a F4 then came in from the west and I sailed into the Solent, the sea got nasty surprisingly quickly even allowing for the wind being against the tide so it was another tiring trip. I arrived at Gosport about 10:30 having sailed (and motored 😒 ) 835 nautical miles.

Slide show of all my pictures of the trip home, page through by clicking the arrows or click in the centre of the pic to view from Flickr in a new window or full screen:

Last section https://mbnb5.blogspot.com/2019/06/jester-balitimore-challenge-2019-issues.html