2023 16th August, Day 10 Portscatho to Newlyn

A pleasant trip to Newlyn albeit with light winds under the cruising chute until just short of The Lizard when I motored for an hour before sailing on a reach to Newlyn.

Rounding the Lizard, in calm conditions at the turn of the tide 
I went close in.

 

The NE wind died approaching The Lizard and the sea was dead calm (see still pic above) then a SW set in at 8 knots and in minutes the wind against tide made the going quite bumpy for a while (watch to the end).

34 miles in 10.5 hours.

Click here for weather bound in Newlyn.

2023 15th August, Day 9 Sand Acre Bay to Portscatho

I left just before six in a dead calm and made quick progress down the Hamoaze on the first of the ebb side.

Leaving the Hamoaze heading west of Drakes Island.

"The Gate", a narrow short cut to the west of Drake's Island.

I ran into fog just past Drake's Island, fortunately it was isolated banks.

 Plymouth breakwater just after dawn.

I had hoped to anchor for the night on the east side of the Lizard peninsula, somewhere between The Helford and Coverack but with a moderate and rather variable head wind that proved too far so I went to Portscathow, a good fair weather anchorage, not as protected from swell as St Mawes but much closer and only a couple of miles more to the Lizard the next morning when I would have lots of time  before the tide turned favourable,

Looking east from the anchorage, The Dodman on the right,
the Portscatho National Coast Watch lookout on the left.

Portscatho is a popular destination for boats day sailing
from the Fal, only two of us stayed overnight.

44 miles over the ground in nine and a half hours.

Click here for Newlyn

2023 11th August, Days 5 - 8 Cawsand to Sand Acre Bay, St Germans.

Friday the 11th was spent recovering from the early starts of the previous few days and waiting for Roger to arrive in his Dehler 41 "Blue Magic" with Ron as Crew (but driving in the video), they arrived just before seven in the evening after a very quick passage from The Helford.

I went aboard for a chin wag after they had eaten dinner and to decide what to do next day when some strong winds were expected. Roger, who knows the area well decided on Sand Acre Bay, so on Saturday we set off at 10:00 on the flood tide.

Sancerre off Cawsand, pic by Ron Dustow.

Roger hoisted a jib shortly after weighing but I stayed under motor not wanting to short tack single handed on the turn past drakes Island.

Drakes Island from the North.

In the blustery wind that reached 30 knots as we anchored, I set the double reefed head sail passing to the North of Drakes Island but kept the engine engaged to clear the West Vanguard buoy, then started to sail but kept the engine running but out of gear "just in case" until I was past South Yard when I shook out one reef for the reach up the Harmoaze.

 

Sailing away from the 41 footer which on this occasion
was handicapped by her small jib.

One of Brunel's finest as we turned into the Saint Germans or
Lynher River to anchor at Sand Acre Bay on the north shore.

We could be here for a while, at the time of writing (Sunday a.m.) the forecast is for southerly winds F5 - 7 (Gusting F8 in places) lasting into tomorrow.  

Tides and wind had the boat all over the place but in calm water
and excellent holding for the anchor it was not a problem.

Lighter winds arrive Tuesday but on the nose making the Fal a very long trip, Fowey is out as its Regatta week and even with the poor weather is likely to be packed, so the only likely option is to anchor in St Austal Bay or off  Goran Haven but both may be very uncomfortable, even untenable if as is likely there is a heavy sea still running. From Wednesday on winds are likely to be light and variable before becoming strong from the East at the end of the week. We shall see.

8 miles in 2 hours.

Click here for the trip to Portscatho.

2023 10th August Day 4 To Cawsand Bay, Plymouth

The gate through the Portland inshore route opened at 05:34 but some daylight is needed for the approach as there is usually a lot of pot buoys to avoid, civil twilight started at  05:12 so 06:00 at the Bill was more realistic. As is often the case I was awake before the alarm so had some coffee whilst waiting for the planed start of 04:30, in the event it being a dark night I waited a bit longer for the light to improve enough to see unlit boats and markers, with a nice clean hull I caught up the time, even against a 12 knot wind and a light chop.

Turning to go round at 05:58

A rather rocky video, it was a little bumpy and I was paying more attention to where I was going than taking the video. Rocks, almost awash at HW neaps extend out from the obelisk on the left.  

Leaving the Bill at 06:01

With the benign conditions I had the sails up within a few minutes of rounding, the next decision was which way to head, the wind was easterly as apposed to the forecast of south or south-east making the normal route close to a dead run. The forecast also said that the wind would veer to the South or South West, the shipping forecast did not give a time for that but the 20:00 download the previous night showed that happening shortly after lunch, to head directly to Start Point could leave me down wind and down tide of it. I therefore headed further south and eventually ended up 5 miles south of the "normal" route.

I started off on a broad reach under all plain sail; most of the time I could have used the cruising chute but the wind was 11 - 12 knots and on a reach 14 knots is the limit and it had been gusting that earlier. Finally I gave in and put the chute up at 9 o'clock and made very quick progress for a couple of hours when I sensed the wind increasing and I got it down just before 16 knots of wind arrived. It didn't last long and stayed a steady easterly at 11 knots until 12:00 when it dropped a little and started veering to southerly by 12:30 and 200 degrees by 16:00. I started to alter course for Start Point at 12:00 and was hard on the wind by 13:00.

My actual track (red) and predicted track at 4 knots with a course to Steer
of 246 degrees allowing for tide (dotted line) and rhumb line (Blue)

It was tight but I made it to my waypoint off  "The Start" without tacking; boats that had tried to go direct were now in trouble way to leeward and with a very adverse tide to get to and past Start Point, a 45 foot boat that was behind me at "The Bill" was now even further behind, VERY satisfying 😀

After a very pleasant sail, much with a warm sun, there was still a challenge to be faced, fog. From about 6 mile short of Start Point the visibility quickly reduced.

The above was taken just after entering the fog, by the time I was south of Start Point visibility was down to 50 - 100 yards and, with a number of boats about without Automatic Identification System (AIS) things were a little tense, even with Radar - I may have a rant later about boats without radar reflectors!

A close encounter with a fishing boat, never seen. As I approached
Salcombe VHF became busy as people checked in with boats in the
vicinity, some of which were not on AIS. At least one boat without an
AIS receiver was using Marinetraffic.com to track those with a
transceiver but would probably have lost that at some point as I have
always lost mobile signals at some point along this coast (O2, Vodafone
and Smarty).

I did not see any land until the fog started to lift when past Bolt Head, unfortunately it then started to rain and it was a miserable trip on to Cawsands Bay and a difficult approach on a dark night with some remaining fog and light rain. With several old gaffers in the anchorage I went well to the north where there was lots of space but moved south next day for better shelter.

Having got below just after 22:00 for very delayed sundowners, I was not happy when HMS Protector, anchored a few hundred yards away started sounding her very loud fog horn, why that was not sounding in worse visibility when I was struggling to see her as I came in I don't know. Fortunately the noise stopped at about midnight and I could get some much needed sleep.

83 nautical miles over the ground in a little under 18 hours.

Click here for the short trip to Sand Acre Bay and waiting for better weather.

2023 9th August, Day 3 Studland to Portland.

An excellent sail in around 8 knots of wind even though the tide made for an early start at 04:45 and it was a beat from Swanage on but I almost made it in one tide and was at anchor by 11:45.

Above: Heading in towards Weymouth before tacking to the harbour entrance

I have mentioned the number of fishermen  seen around
the harbour entrance, this one probably takes the biscuit.

30 miles over the ground in less than 7 hours.

Click here for rounding the Bill and accross Lyme Bay to Plymouth.

2023 7th August, Days 1 + 2 To Studland

Off again! A reasonable trip to Bursledon by train and when I arrived the boat was already in the water and had been moved to a marina berth and, providing I waited for the flood tide to ease, saving me any serious problems getting out,

The weather was good and bad, initially there was a very light wind so I was able to get the headsail hoisted and furled on the berth and although fresher the wind was not an issue when I left  a little before 4 o'clock. Things changed big time as I left the Hamble and the wind blew up until it was 22 - 25 knots gusting a little, with the SW wind blowing straight up the western Solent for 10 miles into over 2 knots of tide the seas were pretty evil for the Solent and it was very wet trip as I motored down to Hurst for a quite night.

The Hurst anchorage, the new bank left of centre caused by work
on the castle to stabilise it. The anchorage appears to be a little
deeper than previously and the tide stronger.

17 miles in 3 hours.

Tuesday

The forecast for today was not good with rain and drizzle predicted to set in mid to late morning with a F4-5 south westerly, the models downloaded on Monday evening showed gusts to about 24 knots. But there was a window early morning when the wind would be F3, as this corresponded to a favourable tide out of the Solent and to points west I weighed anchor at 04:15 for a quick dash before breakfast the 16 miles to Studland where there is less tide than at Hurst and which, with a reasonable forecast for Wednesday, should enable me to sail to Portland in one tide even if I have to beat part of the way.

16 miles in two and three-quarters of an hour.

Click here for Portland