2023 May 1st, Day 17 Carnsore to Wicklow

10 hours of very good sailing reaching in F3-4 occasionally 5, then the W - NW wind died and switched to the east so on went the iron topsail c 6 miles short of Wicklow head fighting 1.7 knots of tide.

The north side of  Wicklow Head.

Wicklow and the Harbour.

Not so attractive in the other direction.

52 miles in 12 hours and 450 miles from the Hamble.

Click here for an unplanned visit to Howth.

2023 April 30th, Day 16 Milford to Carnsore

I left at 0515, an hour late as the alarm did not sound - my new iPad had sound for the alarm turned off by default which is a bit strange. The visibility was very variable and mainly between 2 and 5 cables, I motored for a couple of hours into a nasty sea until I was clear of the entrance and Skokholm Island and except for one burst of engine to avoid a ship I was able to sail until reaching the offing for St Margret's bay, Carnsore point, most of it in dank misty weather in F3 winds increasing to F4-5  by mid afternoon.

At the north end of the "Off Smalls" TSS. The blue blob over
the ship WSW of me is the radar return from a big ship at 3.5 NM.

The ship Sanskip Endeavour was coming up the north bound lane of the TSS at 16.5 knts and according to AIS would be very close in fog, at the same time Elizabeth K?? was coming south IIRC at 7 knts also projected to be close. Although making better than 5 knts under sail I put the engine on for a while making better than 7 knots which is over the theoretical max hull speed. Naturally as soon as I had cleared her projected path Sanskip slowed to 9 knots, I assume when entering the fog, and I cleared her by miles then went behind Elizabeth, seeing neither except on AIS and on Radar.

The last  2 or 3 hours was excellent sailing in warm sun and good visibility.

Carnsore Point is low lying and difficult to see and in the days
before GPS it would be very easy to get down tide and end up
fighting a couple of knots of tide. Apart from GPS the wind
turbines make a good radar target and are easier to see.
 (click on the pic to see for yourself).

Getting close.

Milford to St Margret's Bay, Carnsore Pt.

61 miles in twelve and a quarter hours.

Click here for Carnsore to Wicklow.

2023 April 28th, Day 14 & 15 Newlyn to Milford Haven

A bumpy start motoring directly into wind and waves to the Runnel Stone, ideally I would have left at about 02:00 for the best tide around Lands End but I compromised to get more sleep and left at 04:45 which would allow me to clear Cape Cornwall before the tide turned and would also allow a bit more time for the wind and waves to moderate.

With contradictory forecasts from different models, I left not knowing if I would be heading direct to Ireland, to Milford Haven, to St Ives or further up the Cornish or Devon coast, that was resolved when I downloaded multiple models at 08:40, had the inshore and shipping forecast from the UK Met office and the forecast from Met Eireann. St Ives would likely be too exposed to waves and a poor starting point going NW, Carnsore was a long way off in light winds and would require much more motoring so I decided on Milford.

A few large sets where coming through as I passed The Longships
but now it was reasonably comfortable as I was not bashing directly
into the waves.

The engine went off at 08:00 and I was sailing on a reach in a WNW Force 3 - 4, after 3 hours the wind backed to WSW at 3 - 5 knots and the engine went on for a couple of hours until the wind had backed further to SW and increased back to F3 - 4 so at 13:30 the engine went off and I was making good progress with the cruising chute.

From mid afternoon mist turned to fog and by late afternoon visibility was some times down to less than a quarter of a mile. The engine had to go on again at 18:18 when the wind had dropped to 4 - 7 knots and stayed that way for the rest of the night. 

Sailing in fog is always tense, even with radar and AIS to help.
Here the Irish fishing boat went right around me unseen as I went
N making 5.5 Knts through the water, 4 over the ground.
 The first “Range Ring" is half a mile from the boat.

The fog got gradually worse and by Turbot Bank, 3 miles short of  the entrance to Milford Haven, the visibility was down to well less than a cable (200 yards) and I was navigating with 2 independent GPS systems and charts (the plotter and an iPad with Admiralty charts) and Radar. 

Milford Haven VTS (Vessel Traffic Service) called at that time with traffic information, a request for current visibility at my location and to ask for my intentions as a ferry was outbound, fortunately using the west channel whilst I was using the east but it was another thing to keep an eye on with Radar and AIS.

I was spending a lot of time watching the radar, and paying the price with a "crick" in the neck as I could pick up the buoys at a mile or more on radar but only at 1 and later 2 cables visually - and these are big well lit buoys to help the big tankers going in and out.

I anchored on Dale Shelf at 04:15 for a few hours sleep and a rest day before heading for Ireland.

Dale

The big French catamaran on the right left Newlyn 8 hours after
me but despite having a foul tide around Lands End arrived
only 1.5 hours after me.  

A quick passage with a lot of engine and some quick sailing, 119 nautical miles in 23.5 hours.

Canadian yacht White Cloud, we would meet again, more than once.

Click here for Milford to Ireland.

2023 April 23rd, Day 7 - 13 St Mawes to Newlyn

After the trip from Fowey this leg was a lot more civilised, a brisk wind was forecast but I was concerned about the sea, I have previously been in the area a day after strong easterlies and it was not pleasant, also the seas and over-falls off of the Lizard are not to be trifled with. I decided to head out to see what it was like with the option of returning to St Mawes or going to the Truro River if things looked grim. 

A 3 knot spring tide and a brisk wind made it advisable to give
the Lizard a wide berth.

Yet again a ship was directly on my planned track.

I was pleasantly surprised to find the sea quite acceptable, again I was under headsail only in the easterly winds but this time with the genoa, initially with one reef but that came out before I got to the Manacles.

Why you need to be careful going onto the berths behind the main
pontoon, at LWS where is barely enough water for me to get in
passing close to the fingers and clearly the port hand marks are
not a safe marker unless there is a couple of meters more water.

35 miles in six and three-quarter hours.

The weather forecast for the next few days is confused, I could be off in a day or two or here for a while.

Visiting day, Falmouth, photo by Ron Dustow by his Hustler 25

Update Wednesday: Hopefully I will be away on Friday, then it’s likely to be light winds through the weekend.

Click here for the trip to Milford Haven.

2023 April 20th, Day 6 Fowey to St Mawes

The forecast was mixed with models not really agreeing in the detail but there looked to be an opportunity to get to St Mawes which would, with the tides, make it much easier to get to Newlyn.

There was virtually no wind in the Fowey river as it is well sheltered from the east so, I started monitoring the local weather stations, many are not well placed to accurately monitor an easterly being themselves sheltered, Prawel Point (Salcombe) consistently was showing a very high number probably because the station is at the National Coast-watch Institutes (NCI) lookout on the top of the high hill. NCI Nare Point, just south of the Helford, was a better bet.

Actual wind speeds displayed in Predict Wind, updated
every 30 minutes, slightly delayed.

As can be seen the wind started to moderate at about 07:30, I would preferably leave between 10:00 and 11:30 to stand a chance of get into the Fal before the tide turned adverse shortly after 15:00 but I wanted to see a continuing trend so I waited for the 12:00 update that showed sustained winds of 13 knots gusting to 20 which would be fine, especially off the wind, so I was quickly away.

Leaving Fowey under the heavy weather jib
the stay would need to be tighter going up
wind, I had not taken is back to a winch.

That was rather a false hope because as I approached Cannis Rock a mile and a half out I was hit with a F6 wind gusting F7, the wind stayed above 20 knots gusting to 30 until about half an hour after I arrived in St Mawes (see the wind plots above). The sea was quite difficult with some very steep waves close together especially either end of Mevagissey Bay.

The heavy sea could lead to the boat surfing, which is fun and quick but potentially dangerous as it can easily lead to a broach - a sharp turn in either direction that that can knock the boat down or in extreme cases roll the boat right over to inverted, inversion was very unlikely to happen with waves I was seeing but a broach is violent and to be avoided.

The best way of doing that is to sail slower than the waves, fortunately I had chosen to use the 12 sq metre heavy weather jib and no mainsail which achieved that but, with the need to keep well off the lea shore and the heavy sea, it did mean the tide changed to about 1 knot adverse when I was a couple of miles short of St Anthony Head that guards the Fal. The sea then became horrendous with very steep 2 metre waves sometimes very close together. Naturally the wind piped up (reinforced by the tide change adding 2 or 3 knots to the apparent wind).

Throw into that a lot of poorly marked lobster pots 3 of which I had to change course to just avoid and I was not happy. As I posted on Facebook, using a favoured terminology of aeroplane pilots:

[The] trip varying from smooth to “sporting” and at times “character forming” but did not reach “brown trousers”

but it was close.

Relatively smooth going at slack tide between Dodman and St Anthony Head, I was far to busy to try and take another in the rough water. 

Getting the anchor down was easy once I had dropped the heavy weather jib, the wind blowing the boat back to set the anchor immediately, then half an hour later the wind was down to about 10 knots and later I was sitting out in the cockpit.

22 GPS miles in four and a half hours.

Click here for on to Newlyn

2023 April 17th Day 3 - 5 to and at Fowey

I had hoped to sail to Fowey so with light easterly winds forecast I left Brixham at 04:00 with no wind and a foul tide so as to reach Start Point as the tide turned to the west at 08:00, unfortunately the wind never got above 4 or 5 knots over the ground (2.5 – 4 knots over the deck with the tide behind me) and frequently less so I ended up motoring in chilly and damp conditions all the way arriving to almost empty moorings and pontoons at 14:00.

I’ll be here a while, I could have got to St Mawes on Tuesday but I needed some rest and the weather does not look good through at least Thursday.

If you expand this to full screen you can just see a building
above the blue car ferry. That is apparently worth £4.5m and
together with £100k and a car is in a raffle being pushed on
Facebook and elsewhere. Hopefully the winner will not mind
the noise of the ferry working all day or the view of the china
clay works up channel iirc none of that is in the advert.

58 miles in 10 hours.

Click here for the leg to St Mawes.