Autumn Cruise 2017 day 8 onwards

We left Levington yesterday morning expecting to motor back to the Crouch

As it turned out, we had the sails up as soon as we cleared the entrance channel and the engine off shortly thereafter

We had a fairly gentle sail to and through Harwich then the breeze picked up as we cleared the river and we settled down just nicely laying the course to clear the Naze close hauled



We held that course all the way to the Gunfleet, tacked back across to Clacton pier and then we were able to lay the course for the Spitway on the next tack!

Beating the length of the Wallet in three boards, outstanding!

We continued to beat down the channel into the Couch to the North of the Swallowtail but by the time we approached the end of the channel the tide had turned foul

Because I'd expected to be motoring, we hadn't left Levington as early as we should have and now we paid the price. It was fairly slow going under motor against a surprisingly stiff ebb tide

We'd all but made up our minds to anchor for the night in the Brankfleet as the wind had dropped from the F5 we'd had most of the day to a more gentle F3 and the sun was out

But as we approached the Branklet buoy that marks the entrance to the Roach, a very nasty black cloud with heavy rain below it was coming our way and ahead of it the wind blew up to F6 so we decided to can that idea and head into Burnham Yacht Harbour instead

By happy chance, that led to an encounter with our friends Neal and Joscelyn who were out charging the batteries on their Westerly Falcon. We arranged to meet up for beers later

Once alongside in the marina, which went quite smoothly (we're starting to get the hang of this lark!), I sorted out on deck whilst Jane heated up a quick meal of tinned beef stew

Then it was off to the pub for beers :)

Today, as forecast, the yachtsman's gale (an F7) has arrived and it's set to stay very breezy tomorrow. If conditions are not too bad we'll run up to Fambridge and try to get back on our berth tomorrow afternoon. Otherwise it'll be Tuesday.

Either way, this cruise is effectively at an end.

It's been very enjoyable and we've managed to get some good sailing in. I'm pleased that I feel I'm beginning to get Pagan sailing properly as I've been struggling at times. Practice makes perfect and whilst perfection is still a long way off we're getting there

Autumn Cruise 2017 days 6 & 7

The importance of engine checks...

I confess, I've been less than religious about doing daily engine checks for a while. I decided at the start of this cruise to rectify that and it's a good job I did



The water was fine, the oil was OK and everything looked good until I checked the belts. And as you can see, the water pump drive belt was hanging on by the skin of its teeth

It might have lasted the day, it might not but I wasn't risking it so it was out with the spanners to replace it with the spare (good job we had a spare!)

With that sorted, we got ready and waited for enough tide to get over the cill out of the marina

There's not much to say about the run down to Harwich. It was, unavoidably, a foul tide all the way and, as forecast, F5 gusting 6 at times, bang on the nose

We cracked on under motor giving it some welly to keep the speed over the ground respectable. The Deben Bar wasn't as rough as I thought it might be and nor were the conditions particularly troublesome

We were, never the less, happy to get alongside in Suffolk Yacht Harbour.

With the conditions forecast for overnight and into yesterday, we decided to stay put for two nights and yesterday we had a lazy day on board. The decision to hole up was a good one as it rained virtually all day

The glass is falling and there's a gale forecast to arrive by tomorrow afternoon with strong winds continuing through Monday so we're heading back to the Crouch today

We're going to go hide in Burnham Yacht Harbour until Tuesday as it's unlikely we'd get on the inside of the pontoon back at Fambridge today and in any case we haven't had a night out as such this cruise so we've booked a table at our favourite eating establishment for Sunday evening

Trying to figure out a cunning plan ...

Inshore Waters Forecast to 12 miles offshore
for the period 0600 UTC Thursday 7 September to 0600 UTC Friday 8 September 2017

General situation
A new area of low pressure will track northeastwards between Iceland and Scotland, bringing with it strong winds, rain and showers to all areas over the next 48 hours.

Gibraltar Point to North Foreland - Strong winds are forecast

24 hour forecast: Westerly 3 or 4, backing southwesterly 4 or 5, increasing 6 at times later. Smooth or slight, becoming moderate later. Rain or showers later. Good, occasionally poor later.

Outlook for the following 24 hours: Southwesterly, veering westerly later, 4 or 5, occasionally 6 at first, then becoming variable 3 for a time in north. Moderate, becoming slight. Rain or showers. Moderate or good, occasionally poor.

On the basis of the inshore waters forecast, today and tomorrow, whilst brisk, are in definite "go" territory with the caveat that we probably want to be somewhere well sheltered overnight tonight.

Unusually, MeteoConsult's forecast is slightly worse than the Met Office forecast. The GFS forecast is better! Meteoconsult are predicting SW F6 gusting F7 overnight until around 09:00 to 10:00 tomorrow morning. The GFS is predicting Westerly F4 through the same period

Looking ahead, Meteoconsult (my favoured forecasting service) is still predicting a fresh gale on Sunday evening and a moderate gale on Monday but the GFS disagrees forecasting more of the same F4 / F5 Sou'westerly or Westerly conditions we've been getting all week

We still have 6 days of this cruise to go and I'm left with a bit of a dilemma. If Sunday / Monday is as Meteoconsult forecast, we realistically need to head back to the Crouch by Saturday evening, curtailing this trip. If the GFS is right, we don't need to head back until Monday / Tuesday.

Either way, our only option for today is to get out of the Deben this afternoon (we can't get out of Tidemill Yacht Harbour until about an hour and a half before high water and we need to get over the Deben Bar as soon after high water as we can manage) and position ourselves somewhere sheltered for the night.

I would have opted to anchor in Hamford Water tonight but I'm not sure that would be the smartest move. F6 plus from the Sou'west is likely to make for an uncomfortable night. Ha'penny Pier is likely to be a bit bouncy too. So it looks like it's going to have to be one of the Orwell marinas (to my slight irritation as I wanted to avoid marinas as much as possible on this cruise and it ain't working out!). After due consideration we're going to head for Suffolk Yacht Harbour at Levington on the basis that it's nicely sheltered and it's somewhere Jane hasn't been before

Then we'll think about options for Friday onwards this evening

So the passage plan for today is ..

HW Deben Bar 12:11UT

Dep Woodbridge approx 11:30UT towards SYH Levington eta 16:00UT
Note: Make best speed eta Deben Bar (eta app. 1hr after HW)

Autumn Cruise 2017 days 4 & 5

We were off the berth at Shotley shortly before nine and out of the lock by just after. 

It looked a good day for a sail so as soon as the departing ferry had cleared ahead of us, we set about hoisting the sails and turning off the noise machine.

We had a cracking sail out of Harwich and up the coast, although I was glad to be sailing rather than motoring as it was an absolute minefield of badly marked fishing pots, many of them with two or three metres of trailing rope just waiting to catch the unwary boater out. They really are an absolute menace and there's no excuse for it (pots should be properly marked with a buoy and a flag, not a couple of old oil cans or milk bottles, and they shouldn't have ropes trailing off them)

We even overtook another boat and kept pace with several more! We did get overtaken by one chap despite him being reefed down and I can't quite figure out how he did it (I'm pretty certain he wasn't cheating by using his engine). It's rather satisfying that we're no longer one of the slowest boats out there!

We sailed in over the fearsome Deben Bar which was in a fairly benign mood this day and continued on upriver under sail. The wind started to get somewhat gusty at times and I still had full sail up so on several occasions I had to dump the mainsheet to keep things under control. 

As we approached the moorings downstream of Woodbridge I decided that enough was enough and circled around whilst I dropped the sails

We motored the last mile or so trying to raise Tidemill Yacht Harbour on the VHF and by mobile phone but getting no answer. Hanging around was not an option so in we went and banged Pagan, rather too literally, into the first available berth.

We, frankly, made a bit of a hash of it as we, or to be honest I, underestimated the effect of the stiff cross-wind aloft. I keep getting caught out, when we get into marinas, by the difference between the wind on deck and the wind aloft where the rig is more exposed. 

I'll learn but it's not doing the hull paintwork a lot of good and on this occasion the pontoon edges were particularly paint, and I'm afraid gelcoat, unfriendly. I'll sort it out when we get back but I am getting rather annoyed with myself at the amount of touching up I'm having to do

Anyway, when all's said and done it was a cracking sail of about four and a half hours with the engine off for virtually the whole trip. It doesn't get a lot better than that

We checked in and sorted out and then settled down to do not a lot!

Yestereday morning, we set off on foot to walk the two and half miles or so to Sutton Hoo

I've wanted to visit the site for ages and it was well worth the hike. We took in the woodland walks as well as the burial mounds and very good exhibition hall. Lunch was not bad either and they do a very decent cup of coffee

Wodbridge inc. the Tide Mill from the woodland walk at Sutton Hoo

By the time we got back to Woodbridge, we just had time to catch the shops before the butchers and greengrocers shut. There's something different and somehow more satisfying to going into the butchers and picking some meat for a meal and then going to the greengrocers and buying the veg to go with it. We did, perforce, then go into the Co-op supermarket for milk and bread though!

By the time we got back on board neither of us felt like cooking so we settled down to watch the rest of Season 2 of Game of Thrones on DVD and heated up a couple of tins of Beef Ravioli for sustenance.

Autumn Cruise 2017 days 2 &3

We left Brightlingsea just before eleven on Sunday morning and bashed our way out of the Colne and past the Colne Bar into the teeth of a fairly stiff Southerly (just as forecast)

Not surprisingly it was a bit lumpy and Jane got a bit queasy. It took an hour to cover the four and a quarter miles to the Colne Bar buoy under motor. We could probably have taken a short cut across the shallows, as indeed one or two others did ahead of us, but after the previous day's multiple groundings I wasn't taking any chances!

I hoisted the sails on the approach to the buoy and we were soon romping away on a reach. I'd decided to hoist the main with the first reef in and roll away a couple of turns on the genoa to keep things fairly gentle in the 16 to 18 knot breeze but even so we were making good speed.

Jane couldn't get rid of the queasy feeling so went below to put her head down for a while and I enjoyed a fast romp up the Wallet

We covered the 12.5 miles to the Naze Ledge in an hour and three quarters which is the fastest we've ever sailed the length of the Wallet!

We slowed somewhat when we turned onto a near run up towards Harwich and I shook out the reefs to gain a bit more speed.

Jane felt much better when I woke her as we approached the harbour and we decided to head into Shotley for a couple of nights.

We were alongside by half past three after a cracking and very satisfying sail (for me at least). Jane regretted not taking a Kwells before we left though

We had a quiet night aboard and a lazy day in port yesterday. Lunch ashore, a simple meal in the evening and a drink with a fellow East Coast Forum member and not much else to report!

Today we're heading for the Deben, probably all the way to Woodbridge. The forecast over next weekend looks a bit iffy so we're keeping an eye on that and considering our options

Autumn Cruise 2017 day 1

We'd made no firm plans and, unusually, didn't even have a passage plan (cos we had no idea where we'd end up!)

It was a lovely day, high water was late morning and so we didn't rush to get away. After nipping out for some fresh supplies we let go late morning and headed downriver

The forecast Northerly F3/4 turned out to be an Easterly F2 or less so with the tide helping us along we motored down past Burnham

We had considered anchoring in the Roach but as Jane said, it was too nice a day to waste so we headed on out. A bit more breeze with just enough angle on it enticed me into hoisting all plain sail and killing the engine

That nearly led to "disaster" as I tried to sneak over a shoal rather than put in a tack and, inevitably, ran us aground! It took every one of the forty two horses our venerable Merc could deliver to get us off but we got away with it :)

I decided to stop playing silly buggers and rolled away the genoa. We cracked on under motor, crossed the Spitway and headed into the Blackwater

The crew vote was to see if there was a bouy free or room to anchor in the Pyefleet so we headed that way. Along the way I dropped and stowed the main and mizzen as there was no point in having them up

Entering the Pyefleet we ran around again! Unlike the hard sand off Holliwell Point though this was soft mud so we just powered through it.

The Pyefleet, as we half expected, was full so we extricated ourselves and headed over to Brightlingsea. Now I'd swear I was in the middle of the channel (I will check the track later) when, to my utter disgust, we found ourselves on the putty for the third time! This was getting beyond a joke

Once again we were able to power through the soft mud into (relatively) deeper water although no matter where I put Pagan there was no more than a foot or two of water under the keel

(As I said, I will check but it seemed to me that we dragged the keel through a bit of a bar of soft mud in the approach to Brightlingsea Creek)

Once alongside the (rather expensive) river pontoon Jane set about heating up a meal whilst I did some engine checks. We'd caught a couple of whiffs of exhaust fumes which we thought had probably emanated from nearby fishing boats but I wanted to make sure. All seemed well anyway

We caught the water taxi ashore to meet up with our friends Jim and Lynn and forced ourselves to consume several alcoholic drinks (it's a hard life) and made the water taxi back to the pontoon with minutes to spare

A very pleasant day all in all but we'd both prefer to avoid any more running aground this trip!

Sojourn to the Solent - Conclusions

The view from the cockpit at Bucklers Hard, Beaulieu River

This was our first major cruise aboard Pagan and also our longest cruise we've undertaken.Overall, it worked out very well indeed despite some fairly rubbish weather.

Crewing

The crewing arrangements worked quite well. The extra privacy afforded by the aft cabin is good for both crew and owners.

The first leg was a toughie and poor old Glen didn't enjoy it much at all beyond Dover. It was a a bit of an endurance test even for me and I had the incentive of a fortnight in the Solent to look forward to. For Glen, with a dodgy back, it was purgatory and I doubt he'll take issue with my conclusion that it pretty much rules him out of the reckoning as passage crew in future.

At the other end of the trip, in future I'll try to avoid overlapping crew changes or if it can't be avoided keep the overlap to a minimum. Whilst not a massive problem, it was inconvenient for the incoming crew to have to doss down in the saloon for a couple of nights and equally inconvenient for me as an early riser to have someone sleeping in the saloon. If it must be so, so be it but if it can be avoided all the better.

Life on board

Pagan proved the class reputation for being one of the best cruising boats ever built. Solid, safe, seaworthy, comfortable ... all the qualities you could desire of a boat built to cruise

The only snag, if it can be called that, was that with three crew on board the heads holding tank wasn't up to several days in port at a time. It was never intended or expected to be (the installation was designed and specified as a buffer tank) and more discipline in the use of the heads in port will be required in future

Sailing

We did far too little sailing for my liking! I'd been really looking forward to this cruise as an opportunity to get to grips with fine tuning the rig. I know I'm not yet getting the best Pagan has to give under sail as I've occasionally accidentally got it just right. However, the weather had other ideas.

Even so, the sailing we managed to do was very satisfactory. We twice put in good beats to windward and the couple of occasions when we went for the lazy sailor's option of leaving the main on the boom and sailing under reefed genoa and mizzen demonstrated just why the ketch rig should never, in my opinion, have gone out of fashion.

On the short leg from Portsmouth to Cowes, we were sailing very comfortably on a close reach at around 5 knots through the water in 20 to 25 knots of wind (top end of F5 to F6). A 30 odd foot modern sloop slowly overtook us under reefed main and reefed genoa and whilst she was indeed going a little faster, she was heeling right over in the gusts (at one point I could see her keel root!) whilst we were able to leave cups of coffee on the cockpit seats and not have them go walkabout.

The one area where Pagan doesn't sail well is in light airs. She is typical of her generation of British built cruising yachts in that she's canvassed for typical UK wind speeds and she needs at least 10 knots of breeze to get going.

A bigger genoa, the existing one is not generous, would help and I never got the opportunity on this trip to play with the prototype mizzen staysail. Nor did the cruising chute come out of it's bag. So there's as yet unexplored options in the locker. A bigger genoa aside, none of them will do much good when the light breeze is bang on the nose though!

Location, location, location

Given the weather, I don't think we could have picked a better destination than the Solent. There was always something to do on the days we couldn't put to sea and always somewhere reasonably close by to go for a change of scenery without spending long hours at sea in less than ideal conditions.

The highlight of the trip was without doubt Bucklers Hard on the beautiful Beaulieu River. It's a location to die for and it's not ludicrously expensive if your berthed on the river pontoon (which has water and electric) although that does mean a dingy ride to get ashore. We will be back!

Cowes too was an attractive location although we'd have been better berthed in Cowes Yacht Haven or Shepherds Wharf rather than East Cowes. Not that there's anything wrong with East Cowes marina, it's just a bit of a hike to the floating bridge and West Cowes is definitely more attractive than East Cowes. However, due to the upcoming Cowes week, the West Cowes marinas were pretty full.

The Folly upriver on the Medina from Cowes was perfectly acceptable. Cheaper berthing on the (unserviced) river pontoon, reasonable food and beer, etc. Whilst not a highlight of the trip we'd have no hesitation in going back. (Although it should be noted that whilst the water taxi to and from the river pontoon to the pub is reasonably priced, I'm given to understand that the water taxi from Folly reach down to Cowes is rather expensive)

Our feelings about Lymington were a bit mixed. Without a doubt, the facilities at Lymington Yacht Haven are right up there with the best. The showers rival Chichester Marina for the Pagan Best Marina Showers Endorsement. And the town is certainly pretty.

However, the place is eye-wateringly expensive. Happily, as Yacht Havens Group berth holders, we had up to 14 free nights in the haven at Lymington, Berthon next door would have been £42 a night, the Yacht Haven £38.50 a night on weekdays and £40 a night at weekends. Ouch!

And we weren't greatly impressed with the eating and drinking options either. Pricey, no lunchtime light menu or sandwiches in one pub and no smoking area outdoors in another. The bar at the haven proved to be the best option in the end but £10 each for an OK sandwich, compared to £6 each for a superb sandwich at the supposedly expensive Master Builder at Bucklers Hard, didn't impress.

Had it not been for our good friends Andy and Caroline, who live in the locality, twice picking us up and taking us to a good old basic proper pub, the three nights in Lymington would frankly have been a bit of a drag. We'd go back but primarily because free berthing is not to be sniffed at.

Haslar, where we spent an awful lot of time, is what it is. It's well run with good facilities and very convenient for the Gosport ferry. It can get a bit rolly polly due to all the river traffic and it's not, by a long chalk, the cheapest option in Portsmouth. Hardway Sailing Club is inviting provided you can get onto the pontoon (it's both busy and semi-drying) and definitely begs a further visit.

And as far as the "delivery" legs were concerned ...

As already mentioned, Glen would certainly have been happier if he'd jumped ship at Dover. The run down channel is almost always a battle against the prevailing Sou'westerlies unless your unusually lucky and we were the opposite.

Dover lived up to it's surprisingly high esteem in our eyes. The new marina development looks more promising than I originally feared so it's likely Dover will remain our preferred stopover

Sovereign Harbour is a bit of a pain to get in and out of due to the lock and is what it is. Indifferent food and not very good at all beer in the "pub" didn't impress. Eastbourne does at least have the fact that it is not Brighton to it's credit. (Brighton is a dump as far as I'm concerned)

On the other side of the coin, Rik would have liked to spend more time at sea and less time in port at the other end of the trip! The weather again intervened putting paid to my tentative plan to have a blast up the French coast rather than back along the English South coast.

The weather also put paid to tentative plans to try somewhere new along the South Coast. Littlehampton was out due to the tide times, ditto Shoreham. And whilst we could and would have gone for Rye as far as tides were concerned, the predicted F6 plus from the South by late that afternoon dictated otherwise (and arrived bang on time and closer to F8 than F6. The entrance into Rye would have been untenable in those conditions and we'd have had four hours or more to get to the nearest safe haven which would have meant arriving off Dover in the dark in seriously tricky conditions to make an entry. We made the right call to get into Dover early)

Summary

It was a much better cruise than the weather suggested it would be. I found the extra time available very relaxing as I wasn't thinking about the need to get back within days of setting out.

Jane coped with the journey down by train despite constant problems with her ticket and getting lost on the London underground (which, as Maire and I pointed out, both being seasoned underground users, we've ALL done! And she realised her mistake and got herself back on the right track. If the staff on the gate at Waterloo had been helpful instead of pig ignorant she'd have still made her train too). Getting a lift back was much easier though. It was a proof of concept that, for the time being, it is feasible for us to undertake longer duration cruises with Jane joining for part of the trip. Roll on the day when she doesn't need to work full time any more though.

We might, perhaps, have been better off if we'd been a couple of weeks earlier in the season but then it's hard to tell because the weather affected everybody's plans and who knows who would have been where if it had been a decent spell of warm, sunny weather with a nice steady F3 from the North West!

It was a bit of a shame we didn't manage to get beyond the Solent to Poole or Weymouth as originally tentatively planned but we'll get there another year. We'll have to start planning next season shortly as Jane will need to get her holiday bookings in before long. Lots of food for thought there.

In conclusion, for me this was our best cruise yet despite the weather. It was the first time I've felt truly relaxed and completely un-pressured from the beginning to the end of the cruise. And, barring Glen for the reasons already mentioned, everybody seemed to enjoy it. Especially my cousin Maire who I rather think is well on the way to becoming hooked on this sailing lark!

Sojourn to the Solent - Ship's Log

Note: All times are UTC, add 1 hour for BST

Leg 1. North Fambridge to Portsmouth

Tuesday 11th July 2017

Glen arrived on board late afternoon. Forecast for the following day poor. Decision made to delay departure by 24 hours

Day 1; Wednesday 12th July 2017

North Fambridge to Burnham Yacht Harbour
Crew: Bru & Glen

15:03UT Underway (motoring)
15:58UT Alongside Burnham

Total distance 5.25NM
Passage time: 0:55 ave 5.7kts
Engine hrs 0:55

Decided to go into Burnham for the night rather than anchor in the Brankfleet to save time and effort getting underway in the morning

Day 2; Thursday 13th July 2017

Burnham to Dover
Crew: Bru & Glen

04:00UT Underway
12:30UT Alongside Dover

Total distance 56.7NM
Passage time: 8:30 ave 6.7kts
Engine hrs 8:30

There was never enough wind to sail so it was a day of motoring in reasonably pleasant conditions





Day 3; Friday 14th July 2017

In Dover (as planned for a run ashore to visit Dover Castle)

Day 4; Saturday 15th July 2017

Dover to Eastbourne (Sovereign Harbour)
Crew: Bru & Glen

05:30UT Underway
15:50UT Alongside Eastbourne

Total distance 45.5NM
Passage time: 10:20 ave 4.4kts
Engine hrs 10:20

A stiff (F5 gusting 6) West Sou'westerly breeze produced a steep and short chop on top of the usual channel swell making progress slow and life on board somewhat uncomfortable. Despite using maximum cruising revs, approx. 2300 which would normally give around 6.5 knots through the water, our progress was being slowed significantly by the headwind and we were regularly being virtually stopped by the waves hence the relatively poor average speed over the ground.

Day 5; Sunday 16th July 2017

Eastbourne (Sovereign Harbour) to Gosport (Haslar Marina)
Crew: Bru & Glen

05:55UT Underway
06:00UT In lock
06:15UT Underway
08:25UT Sea steep short waves - heading into Shoreham
10:30UT 1 plus wait off Shoreham - crew decision to press on
12:12UT Motorsailing - genoa & mizzen
12:39UT Motoring
18:20UT Alongside Haslar

Total distance 63.5NM
Passage time: 12:10 ave 5.2kts
Engine hrs 12:10

Conditions once we rounded Beachy Head were much the same as the previous day. We decided to head inshore and look at getting into Shoreham or perhaps Brighton but it was close to low water and we'd have had to wait some considerable time before getting into shelter so we pressed on

Conditions were better inshore (counter-intuitively) and I made an attempt to gain speed by motor-sailing. This worked on port tack albeit having to head off inshore to gain enough angle on the wind but the overall gain on both tacks was negligible so I gave up. A day to forget frankly.

Day 6; Monday 17th July 2017

In Haslar Marina, Gosport

Glen departed in the morning.

Leg 2. The Solent

Day 7; Tuesday 18th July 2017

Gosport (Haslar Marina) to Portsmouth Harbour
Crew: Bru, Jane & Maire

13:36UT Underway
13:48UT Alongside fuel berth
- £100 diesel
14:02UT Underway
14:11UT Engine stop-
- running on mizzen & genoa
14:25UT Engine start
14:28UT Rafted to Surabaya Girl

Total distance 2.2NM
Passage time: 0:38 ave 3.5kts
Sailing; 0:14 ave 4.6kts
Engine hrs 0:24

Jane and Maire arrived late morning.

We headed up the harbour to spend the night rafted alongside a friend's boat on her mooring in Portsmouth Harbour.

Day 8; Wednesday 19th July 2017

Portsmouth to East Cowes
Crew: Bru, Jane & Maire

11:15UT Underway
12:17UT Engine stop - Wind F5/F6 NW, reaching on mizzen & genoa
13:12UT Engine start
13:54UT Alongside East Cowes

Total distance 11.4NM
Passage time: 2:40 ave 4.3kts
Sailing; 0:55 ave 4.0kts
Engine hrs 1:45

Days 9 & 10; Thursday 20th July 2017 & Friday 21st July 2017

In East Cowes

Day 11; Saturday 22nd July 2017

East Cowes to Folly Point
Crew: Bru, Jane & Maire

09:30UT Underway
09:50UT Alongside Folly Reach

Total distance: 1.14NM
Passage time: 0:20 ave. 3.4kts
Engine hrs: 0:20

Day 12; Sunday 23rd July 2017

Folly Point to Bucklers Hard
Crew: Bru, Jane & Maire


09:37UT Underway
11:27UT Alongside Bucklers Hard

Total distance: 8.4NM
Passage time: 1:50 ave. 4.6kts
Engine hrs: 1:50

Day 13; Monday 24th July 2017

Alongside Bucklers Hard (river pontoon)

Day 14; Tuesday 25th July 2017

Bucklers Hard to Lymington Crew: Bru, Jane & Maire 09:50UT Underway 10:59UT Engine stop 13:19UT Engine start 14:00UT Alongside Lymington YH Total distance 16.5NM Passage time: 4:10 ave 3.9kts Engine hrs: 1:50 Sailing: 2:20 ave.

Nb. We had to circle around off the entrance to Lymington to avoid both inbound and outbound ferries before heading into the wind to drop the sails. I also misjudged the tidal set and should have made the last tack much sooner and been further East before heading up into the wind to avoid being set over a quarter of mile downtide of the harbour entrance. One lives and learns!

Days 15 & 16; Wednesday 26th July 2017 & Thursday 27th July 2017

In Lymington Yacht Haven

Day 17; Friday 28th July 2017

Lymington to Gosport (Haslar Marina)Crew: Bru, Jane, Rik & Maire

Rik joined ship mid-morning

10:40UT Underway
13:40UT Alongside Haslar

Encountered the Nimitz class carrier USS George HW Bush at anchor in the Solent

It was a grey, mizzly and damp day so although we were heading downwind in a stiff breeze we elected to motor and get the trip over and done with

(There had been some discussion about whether to move on at all this day as conditions were not great with quite a stiff F5 to F6 breeze and a gale warning for the Wight sea area. We would, however, have had to shift berth in Lymington Yacht Haven, presuming they could have found another berth for us at all, due to Lymington being booked solid for the weekend as a knock on effect of Cowes week commencing the following day)

Days 18 and 19; Saturday 29th July & Sunday 30th July

In Gosport (Haslar Marina)

Jane & Maire left ship on Sunday

This was an unplanned second visit to Haslar but offered the opportunity to visit the Mary Rose exhibition and other elements of the Royal Navy Dockyard on the Saturday.

Leg 3 Portsmouth to North Fambridge

Day 20; Monday 31st July 2017

Haslar to Hardway Sailing Club (pontoon)
Crew: Rik & Bru

13:28UT Underway
14:31UT Alongside Hardway SC

A second meet up with Surabaya Girl, this time primarily to borrow a spare inflatable dinghy as ours was damaged whilst we were at Bucklers Hard

As we were somewhat early for enough tide to get onto the pontoon, we took a turn around the upper reaches of the harbour





Day 21; Tuesday 1st August 2017

Hardway SC to Eastbourne
Crew: Bru & Rik

07:00UT Underway
08:05UT Engine Stop
18:45UT Engine Start
19:11UT In Lock
19:44UT Underway
19:54UT Alongside Sovereign

Total distance: 62.9NM
Passage Time: 12:22 ave. 5.1kts
Engine hrs: 1:41
Sailing: 10:38 ave. 5.2kts

At last, a decent passage under sail! Apart from the entirely understandable long wait in the lock at Sovereign Harbour, due to the lifeboat being called out to no less than three inbound boats with failed engines, a very successful and satisfying day's sailing

Day 22; Wednesday 2nd August 2017

Eastbourne to Dover
Crew: Bru & Rik

04:45UT Underway
04:55UT In lock
05:05UT Underway
05:23UT Engine Stop
11:25UT Engine Start
12:15UT Alongside Dover

Total distance: 45.4NM
Passage time: 7:20 ave. 6.2kts
Engine hrs: 1:18
Sailing: 6hrs ave. 6.7kts

Running ahead of yet another approaching Atlantic low, we decided to make for Dover rather than sit it out in Eastbourne. A more challenging sail than the previous day with a quartering sea and a stiff breeze which made helming hard work. The autopilot struggled badly for reasons we would discover later. It made for a fast sail though!

We also had problems furling the genoa (due to the spinnaker halyard getting wrapped up in the sail, quite how that happened I do not know) and getting into the West entrance to Dover was a bit of a heart in the mouth exercise as we surfed down some quite big waves as we approached the piers (as you surf down the front of an overtaking wave, the rudder loses it's grip on the water so for a second or two you have little or no control until the wave has passed under the boat and she gains some speed through the water. Interesting to say the least!)

We just beat the bad weather, getting alongside and erecting the cockpit tent in the nick of time

Days 23 & 24; Thursday 3rd August & Friday 4th August

Weatherbound in Dover

There are worse places to be weatherbound!

Whilst in port, we investigated the problems with the steering and autopilot. The helm had become very stiff which was solved by lubricating the steering cables and slackening them off slightly. This greatly improved matters. We also found that the front pair of screws fixing the bracket for my Heath Robinson wheelpilot locking pin contraption onto the binnacle had pulled out so these were replaced by bolts. Finally, I filed down the threads on the stud that I used to secure the wheelpilot from simply rotating around with the wheel where it engages with the wheelpilot casing as the thread had been catching on the plastic housing as the wheel rotated. The whole arrangement is a bit rough and ready but subsequently on the next leg worked very well again.

Day 25; Saturday 5th August

Dover to Burnham
Crew: Bru & Rik

07:00UT Underway
07:35UT Engine stop
13:00UT Engine Start
20:00UT Alongside Burnham

Total distance 62Nm
Passage Time: 13:00 ave. 4.8kts
Engine hrs: 7:35 ave. 5.3kts
Sailing: 5:25 ave. 4.1kts

The day started off well enough with a decent beat from Dover to North Foreland. Then the wind died completely in advance of a bunch of thunderstorms moving in. We luckily dodged the worst of them.

Day 26; Sunday 6th August

In Burnham Yacht Harbour

Rik departed the ship first thing in the morning.

Nb. I decided to spend a couple of nights in Burnham to wind down after the cruise as I wouldn't be able to get Pagan onto her berth before Monday at the earliest and the river pontoon at Fambridge was full of boats.

Day 27; Monday 7th August

Burnham to Fambridge Yacht Station
Crew: Bru

10:27UT Underway
11:42UT Alongside Fambridge (pontoon)

Total distance 5.3NM
Passage time: 1:15 ave 4.25kts
Engine hrs 1:15

The tide, predicted at 5.1m which theoretically is sufficient to get onto and off our mud berth, didn't make enough by getting on for a foot. It also turned getting on for half an hour earlier than predicted.

Day 28; Tuesday 8th August

Onto berth at high water, settled straight in nice and level

Costs

The cruise was not as expensive as we anticpated. We were about £3 a day over our increased daily cruising budget of £60 a day before crew contributions to berthing, food and diesel costs.

A significant factor in this was the high diesel consumption on the two days from Dover to Portsmouth as we had to thrash the engine fairly hard to make any real progress.

We also didn't make any real effort to economise. We berthed where we wanted to be for convenience regardless of cost (for example, whilst Haslar is the most convenient marina for the Gosport ferry, Royal Clarence a mile or so upriver would have been half the cost per night)

Nor did we spend any time at anchor, due to the weather.

We could easily have reduced the cost to below our normal £50 a day budget even without contributions from the crew albeit at the cost of some minor inconvenience

Summary

Total distance logged: 409 nautical miles (NM)
Time spent at sea: 79 hours 33 minutes
Overall average speed over the ground: 4.8 knots (nautical miles per hour)

Engine hours: 54 hours 2 minutes at an average speed of 4.6 knots

We sailed for 132.5 miles in 25 hours 31 minutes at an average speed of 4.8 knots

Of the 27 days away from our home berth, we were "at sea" (albeit on several occasions for a very short hop from one location to another within the same harbour) for 15 days and spend 12 days in harbour. We managed to sail at least part of a "passage" on just 6 of the 15 days underway

(Further discussion will follow in the cruise conclusions post)

Sojourn to the Solent - the final days

We left Dover at 8am as planned and had a fairly decent sail as far as the North Foreland. Then the wind died away to next to nothing. In hindsight, we then spent too long waiting for wind and should have give up and started the engine sooner

We motored northwards with the genoa rolled away and the main and mizzen pinned in hard but soon we could see thunderstorms building all around us so I dropped the main rather than get caught in a squall with the sail up.

A horrible lump of wet and nasty weather passed astern of us which we just caught the edge of getting only slightly damp. If we'd been caught in the middle of it we'd have got a soaking! We managed, more by luck than judgement, to dodge the rest of the nasty weather

Coming down the Whitaker channel into the Crouch, the wind picked back up to a fairly stiff Westerly which cut our speed somewhat but we got in before the wind over tide built up too much of a chop (it can get quite rough in the approaches to the Crouch in those conditions)

Rik cooked dinner underway and we put a harbour stow on as we motored into the Crouch so that we could make a made dash to the pub as soon as we got alongside at about 9pm. A couple of pints in the Olde White Hart were very welcome

Come Sunday morning, Rik made a dash for the train early doors and I settled down to have a day of R&R in Burnham Yacht Harbour. Given that the tide wouldn't be high enough to get on our berth and, being the weekend, the river pontoon was full, I decided to delay heading up to home for another day.

I left Burnham about 11:30am Monday morning and arrived at Fambridge just over an hour later. It would still be another couple of hours before high water so I rafted to a boat on the pontoon, which was still full, to wait for the tide. A 5.1m tide is only just enough if it makes as predicted so I needed to check the depth before trying to get onto the berth.

As it happened, a combination of a moderate Westerly breeze and a moderately high atmospheric pressure meant the tide didn't quite make high enough so I shifted onto a now vacant berth on the inside of the pontoon for the night.

And on Tuesday the tide made as predicted and I was able to shift Pagan back onto her berth where she settled straight back into her hole in the mud nicely upright.

And that was that. The logs and conclusions will follow later

Passage Plan - Sat 5 Aug 2017

Inshore waters and strong winds

Issued at 0600 UTC on Saturday 5 August 2017; 24 hour forecast:

North Foreland to Selsey Bill, Strong winds are forecast

Wind; Westerly or southwesterly 4 or 5, occasionally 6 for a time. Sea state; Slight or moderate. Weather; Showers for a time inshore. Visibility; Good.

Gibraltar Point to North Foreland; Strong winds are forecast

Wind; Variable, mainly westerly or northwesterly 3 or 4, occasionally 5 in north, increasing 6 for a time. Sea state; Smooth or slight, occasionally moderate offshore in northeast. Weather; Showers, squally and thundery for a time, fair later. Visibility; Mainly good.

Meteoconsult weather indicates a brief period of gusting F6 mid-afternoon, otherwise F4 or F. Sea state 0.2 to 0.3 metres

Departing Dover around 07:00UT to 07:30UT towards Burnham Yacht Harbour eta 19:00UT

Alternate Ramsgate

Two days in Dover

Just a briefy

The weather was definitely no go. Lovely sunny days but blowing hard on Thursday and only slightly moderated yesterday

We spent Thursday pottering about on board, mainly addressing the steering issues. The helm had become rather heavy again (a known W33 trait) which is probably why the autohelm had struggled.

We dined ashore 

Lubricating the bearings and cables helped some but the solution appears to have been to put a bit of slack in the steering cables. It feels much better now and we'll see how George copes

Yesterday was spent tinkering with an electronics project using a Raspberry Pi as a data logger interrupted by a wander down to the Dover museum and a late lunch / early dinner in Cullins Yard

Sojourn to the Solent - Day 23 (Wed)

As planned, we took the 06:00 locking out of Sovereign Harbour and shortly after departure the sails were set and the engine off

It was a fair start to the day with a brisk F4 Southerly breeze and the quartering waves weren't too bad.

As the hours passed, the breeze veered more and more Westerly and picked up to an F5. Moreover, the waves became steeper and steering became harder to the point where the autopilot began to struggle

By the time we were approaching Dover, after a pretty fast passage, the sea conditions were really starting to build even though the wind was barely above an F5 occasionally gusting 6

We dropped the main outside and tried to furl the genoa but only three quarters of it rolled away before the furler jammed

That was enough to enter harbour which was a pretty wild ride. We surfed down waves with the rudder stalling several times during the approach and I was very pleased to make it into the calmer waters of the outer harbour unscathed

We soon sorted out the jam on the genoa furling. Somehow the spinnaker halyard had got caught up in the sail. Easily sorted, just unfurl the sail, get the line secured out of the way and refurl it again.

Then we dropped the mizzen and headed into the marina. By now it was starting to rain as expected but we made fast and had the cockpit tent up before the really heavy rain arrived

A quiet evening on board was the order of the day as it continued to bucket down outside accompanied by very windy conditions

Passage Plan Wed 2 Aug 2017

Weather...

North Foreland to Selsey Bill

24 hour forecast: Southerly veering southwesterly later, 3 or 4, increasing 5 or 6, occasionally 7 later. Slight becoming moderate, then occasionally rough later. Fair then rain. Good becoming moderate or poor.

Departing Sovereign Harbour 05:00UT towards Dover eta 14:00UTC

Days ... umm, whenever to today!

My apologies dear reader, I have been awfully remiss when it comes to updating the blog!

So here's a potted update ...

Lymington was fine and we enjoyed two trips out to eat and drink, and on the second occasion join in a folk sing around courtesy of our old friends from our canal boating days Andy and Caroline. On the second night we also had the pleasure of meeting up with another old friend and festival colleague Guy.

Lymington was fully booked from the weekend onwards and although they'd have tried to squeeze us in somewhere we'd have had to vacate the berth we were in so we decided to make tracks for Portsmouth where we'd have more to do over the weekend.

Rik joined the crew shortly before departure and no sooner had he settled in, we were off

It was a dank, blustery and rolly polly sort of day so we just got the hammer down and motored to Haslar. On the way, we passed the USS George HW Bush, the newest and last Nimitz class nuclear aircraft carrier.

She wasn't. we all agreed, quite as impressive as we anticipated and, like every US warship we saw over the weekend, surprisingly rusty too!

The next day, a visit to the Mary Rose followed by a wander around the traditional boat building display and HMS Warrior took up the day

In the evening, we tried to find somewhere to eat in Gosport but the Castle was wall to wall reserved signs and full of crew from the Clipper fleet. We didn't fancy anywhere else so we caught the ferry back over the river. The Ship Anson had dreadful and loud karaoke , the next couple of pubs had boom boom music blaring out but we hit paydirt with The Old Custom House and had a fabulous meal and excellent beer in a lovely venue

Sunday was taken up with Jane and Maire departing homewards followed by a few beers in the evening at The Castle.

Yesterday morning, Rik and I visited the Submarine Museum, which was very interesting, and then in the afternoon we moved upriver to the Hardway Sailing Club pontoon.

This is a popular spot as it's only £10 a night but thanks to some assistance we secured a good berth alongside.

The purpose of our visit was to borrow a dinghy from my friend David who was also alongside the pontoon. We had a test run with the temporary replacement flubber and it's a very good dinghy indeed.

We departed Hardway this morning whilst there was still enough water to get off (the keel was in the mud overnight) and motored out of Portsmouth Harbour. We had to keep over on the Western side of the channel and somewhat too close winded to the Southerly breeze until we were almost down to Horse Sands Fort due to the departure of the two US Navy frigates from the carrier battle group that had been alongside Portsmouth Naval Base for a few days

We were determined to make the most of the best sailing weather we're likely to get - an F3/4 Southerly that backed more and more Westerly as the day went on.

I had a strop on with a dredger that emerged from Langstone Harbour and made off to pass around the outside of the Owers which totally failed to obey Colregs forcing me to take evasive action. There was no response from the ship on the VHF so I reported the incident to the Coastguard

We had a cracking sail and even debated pushing on through to Dover but discretion being the better part of valour decided we were both a little too tired to go through the night.


After passing by Beachy Head, we shaped up for Sovereign Harbour, Eastbourne.

A meal, a hot drink and an early night (shortly!) was welcome

Tomorrow, we need to make haste ahead of yet another low pressure system moving in and wherever we are tomorrow we're likely to be staying until Saturday. We'd have liked to visit Rye but as it will be either a 3am departure to get in to Rye in the morning or a delayed departure to get in around 6pm tomorrow evening it isn't a practical proposition. By tomorrow evening, the wind will be strengthening and may well have a significant Southerly component making an entry into a drying harbour by no means a sure fire proposition

So it's a dash for Dover leaving before 6am in the morning

Passage Plan - Tue 1 Aug 2017

Weather..

SW or SSW 3 to 4 gusting 4 or 5, slight, fair, good

Departing Hardway YC pontoon, Portsmouth 07:00UT towards Shoreham eta app 15:00UT. Alternate Brighton

May press on to Sovereign Harbour if making good time

Passage Plan - Fri 28 Jul 2017

Departing Lymington Yacht Haven app. 10:30UT towards Haslar Marina, Portsmouth eta app. 14:00UT

Alternate(s) - Southampton (various marinas)

Inshore Forecast 5 to 7 occ. 8, moderate or rough, showers, good or moderate

Moderate gale warning for Wight

Would normally be a "no go" however weather actuals are top end of F4 gusting 5 to 6, sea conditions appear acceptable and the passage is short and in relatively sheltered waters

P.O.B. 4 (Skipper - Bru, Rik, Jane and Maire)

Something for the weekend Sir?

I'd like a Nor'easterly F3 please

Fat chance

Forecast for the next few days is more of the bloody same. Strong winds from the South West and more low pressure systems with fronts all over the shop marching in from the Atlantic

We've got a berth booked in Poole for the weekend but with tomorrow's forecast being for WSW or SW 5 gusting 6 or 7, following days of strong Sou'westerlies, I suspect that the sea state from here (Lymington) to Poole would be decidedly unpleasant

My current thinking, in consultation with the crew, is to head back to Portsmouth tomorrow (ideally, we'd stay put here in Lymington for the weekend but it's full booked in advance and the forecast isn't bad enough for me to refuse to leave!). Haslar, whilst not cheap, is convenient for crew changes - Rik arrives sometime tomorrow and the ladies are being picked up on Sunday - and there's stuff I'd like to do that I didn't get around to doing (the Mary Rose for one, and the submarine museum etc.)

It'll still be a fairly enthusiastic 18 mile blast but it'll be downwind, down tide and down sea and pleasant or otherwise will be done and dusted in less than three hours!

The advance forecast suggests conditions will improve next week but I'm not counting on it. I'm not sure what Rik and I will do - I had been contemplating a cruise up the French coast but that's looking much less attractive at the moment. We've got, or at least planned to have, until a week on Tuesday for a bit of serious sailing but with the winds, albeit more moderate, staying largely Sou'westerly I'm disinclined to head further West and if we had back to the East we'll be back home before the end of the week! I shall ponder upon it

Passage Plan Tue 25/7/2017

Forecast SW, give or take, F3 to F4, smooth or slight, fair, good.

Departing Beaulieu River late morning towards Lymington Yacht Haven

ETA flexible as intend to have a sailing day if conditions are favourable rather than head direct to Lymington

A brief update

Very poor Internet at the moment so a quick update with a more detailed post to follow hopefully tomorrow

After three nights in East Cowes, we moved upriver to Folly Point for a final night on the Medina

A decent meal, decent beer and some music followed that evening. All very acceptable

Yesterday, we motored across a very breezy Solent and up to the river pontoon at Bucklers Hard on the Beaulieu River

It's a spectacular mooring.

Today we dinghied ashore for a wander round the museum and lunch (and beer!). It was a lovely day with sunshine and warmth at last

We had a problem with the dinghy coming back (a split in the bow chamber which is probably beyond repair) but the harbour master came to our assistance to get back on board. No great drama, just a nuisance

Tomorrow we're planning to move on to Lymington for a couple of days.

Sojourn to the Solent - Day 10 (Thursday)

What was expected to be an unexciting day turned out to be anything but, for the wrong reasons

We idled through the morning with a leisurely breakfast and eventually got around to making ready to pop into town to explore

The yacht opposite us were exiting their berth when a sudden gust blew them into the yacht astern of us. Unfortunately, the lady on deck got her hand caught up on something on the collision resulting in a badly lacerated, crushed and broken middle finger

There was an instant reaction from the surrounding boats to assist them back alongside.

Maire dialled 999 and got an ambulance on its way whilst Jane grabbed anything that might be needed as at first we thought the injury, bad enough though it was, was more serious.

As it turned out, there wasn't much to be done by way of first aid other than keep the injured hand raised. The injured lady had already applied pressure to the base of her finger which was keeping the bleeding down and the badly broken finger was far too painful to apply a dressing to

The ambulance arrived impressively quickly and I was mightily relieved to hand over to the professionals

The couple were soon off to hospital and everyone went back to what they'd been doing. The speedy reaction of the boat crews, marina staff and emergency services was commendable as was the control and calm way the couple themselves handled the situation

The Pagan crew decided to set to with buckets of cold water and our deck scrubber to clean up the blood in their cockpit before we resumed our expedition ashore. We didn't know how long it would be before they were back aboard and we figured it would be easy to clean up the fresh blood and a nightmare to remove it once it had dried. It did indeed only take a few minutes

Finally, off we went for a bit of an explore around East Cowes, a cup of coffee and to do some shopping.



The weather wasn't great, fully justifying our decision to stay put for a few days

Back aboard, we dined on sausage and maah with baked beans and had a drink or two before retiring fairly early

Sojourn to the Solent - Day 9 (Wednesday)

We all slept well and awoke to a breezy, drizzly grey morning. After a leisurely breakfast, copious mugs of coffee and a brief discussion we decided to head for Cowes despite the conditions

Once out of Portsmouth and across the swashway, we had just enough angle across the stiff breeze to make sail

With 18 to 20 knots of wind over the deck, I again chose to set the mizzen and genoa without the main.

And to my considerable delight Pagan sailed beautifully, even with a reef in the genoa, making over five knots through the water and pointing up well

We were slowly overhauled by a sloop of similar size carrying reefed main and genoa who was pointing up no better than us and having a much wilder time of things. At times, as we sat in comfort with the boat virtually upright, we were able to inspect his bottom almost to the keel root!

The ketch rig really is the business for the cruising sailor! I've christened this mode of progression as "Lazy man's sailing" and I thoroughly recommend it!

Although I regretted not donning my foulies and relying on my lightweight showerproof jacket, otherwise it was a surprisingly enjoyable sail

We arrived, slightly soggy but deeply satisfied, in Cowes after about three hours. Berthing in East Cowes Marina nearly went awry when the spring line came off the centre cleat (we need to improve the arrangement thereof) but timely assistance from fellow yachtsmen on the pontoon saved the day

After a crew conference about the weather forecast for the next couple of days, we unanimously agreed to stay put here until Saturday so I duly booked us in for three nights

(Friday looks a bit brisk to say the least with up to F8 forecast in the gusts)

So it was on with the covers and up with the cockpit tent



We decided to eat ashore and enjoyed an excellent meal and decent beer (for me anyway, the girls were on lager and cider)

We'll now relax and explore Cowes before deciding on our next move. (We almost certainly won't head back East to Chichester Harbour now, where I'd provisionally planned to spend the weekend)

Sojourn to the Solent - Day 8 (Tuesday)

This crew change business can be stressful!

Jane had been somewhat nervous in advance about getting across London from St. Pancras to Waterloo as she's never had to find her way around the underground system on her own.

And her concerns were justified as it turned out. We're not sure exactly where she took a wrong turn but she seemed up on the wrong line heading in the wrong direction!

Matters were not helped by her ticket not being recognised by the underground ticket barriers (I've also had this happen with advance rail tickets). The underground staff were most helpful though

Credit where it's due, she didn't panic and got back on track but the delay meant she arrived at the platform at Waterloo with barely a minute to spare to find the barrier already closed.

The barrier guardian was totally unhelpful but eventually Jane persuaded the ticket office to stamp her ticket as valid for a later service.

Fortunately, there are frequent services from Waterloo to Portsmouth and I was able to relax once she was on her way.

Meanwhile, my cousin Maire was on the train Jane should have been on! My cunning plan to meet one train and two crew had failed. Oh well :)

I caught the ferry over from Gosport in good time and met the girls off their trains in turn. Then we caught the ferry back!

Once we'd settled down on board, we sorted out Maire with a lifejacket and ran through a safety briefing. Then it was time to get underway.

Our first port of call was the self service fuel berth at Gosport Marina next door where £100 of diesel went into the tank and cans. And that didn't quite fill the cans to the brim either.

I haven't worked out the exact fuel consumption from the log yet but it's close to 3l per hour I think. I'd hoped for better but we were flogging our way into a stiff headwind and steep sort sea for two long days so it's not that surprisingly really.

Now refuelled, we headed on deeper into the harbour.

We had a following breeze and a fair tide so I hoisted the mizzen, unfurled the genoa and, joy of joys, stopped the engine for the first time all cruise. We were, to put it another way, sailing at last!

It was a brief sail as we were soon sailing past my friend David's boat and putting the sails away to raft up alongside

This was my first opportunity to meet Lindsay, a fellow folk musician and former canal boater with whom I've been corresponding via the Internet for some time

Much coffee was consumed as we chatted and then we decided, with David's agreement, to stay rafted for the night.

We invited David and Lindsay aboard Pagan for dinner and drinks (dinner was Morrisons own brand tinned beef stew and dumplings which I heartily recommend). Beer was drunk, music was played, the rum was broached and the evening ended with one of the most active thunderstorms I've ever seen!

The storm went on into the early hours of the morning and it was quite something to see the Spinnaker Tower take a direct lightening strike!

Eventually it died down enough to retire to bed and get some sleep



Despite using the timeshift feature of the phone camera, I failed to get a single good picture of the thunderstorm. This is the best I got as the lightening lit up the night sky

Sojourn to the Solent - Days 6 & 7

Frankly, the less said about yesterday the better!

We left Eastbourne early in some hope of having a reasonable day after I'd walked down to the seafront to find a gentle breeze and an equally gentle swell on the sea

By the time we'd got going and through the lock, the wind had picked up and so had the sea state.

We bounced our way around Beachy Head after which the conditions worsened to the point where I'd frankly had enough. I think Glen had too although he was prepared to carry on if I wanted to

I decided to close the coast at Shoreham and see if we'd be able to get in (Brighton and Newhaven were out, Newhaven because they've no room for visitors and Brighton because it was too close to low water)

Calling up Shoreham harbour, I ascertained we'd have to wait at least an hour if not longer for enough water to get in. Given that we'd found the conditions were a little better inshore we agreed to press on

I flirted with motor sailing with the Mizzen and genoa which worked well on one tack, giving us significantly more speed, but we lost everything gained on the other tack so I gave up and accepted it would be another day of motoring

Suffice it to say that all things come to an end and we made it into Haslar early evening.

Glen knocked up some dinner and we had a couple of beers before retiring early

This morning, Glen headed off to catch the train and I set about tidying up on board. I had intended to go over to the Navy Yard and visit the Mary Rose exhibition but I decided a relaxing day on board was a more attractive proposition

I did take a walk up to the pier to wave to inbound friends heading upriver though. Hopefully I'll catch up with them later

The weather has been glorious today, by the way! I hope it stays that way now

PS There's no photos cos I was too busy to take any. Sorry!

Passage Plan - Sun 16/7/2017

Coastal weather forecast: Westerly F3/4 becoming F4/5, Slight, Mainly Fair, Moderate or Good

Inshore forecast similar but more variable with sea breeze in the afternoon

After much discussion and considering, the plan is as follows ...

Depart Sovereign Harbour by 07:00UT towards Haslar, Gosport e.t.a. 18:30UT @ 5kts

If unable to maintain 5kts or conditions dictate, divert into Brighton e.t.a. 11:40UT (LW+2)

Alternate Shoreham (however, would prefer to avoid further locking and no diesel at Shoreham)

Crew: 2 (Bruce & Glen Peckett)

Sojourn to the Solent - Day 5

In the words of the Bosun ...

Not the best day's boating ever today, in fact apart from the fact it didn't really rain there was nothing to recommend it. The wind behaved exactly as forecast, right on the nose, and the sea conditions were very lumpy-bumpy. As a result our speed was less than we'd have liked and it was a tiring, uncomfortable time.

We did make Eastbourne in the end though, and for the second time running were given incorrect berthing information. This time we found another boat in the berth we were given. We found another empty space but it caused a bit of hassle shifting lines to the other side. 

As we didn't feel like cooking we went over to the Harvester in the nearby Waterfront development. In hindsight we should have found the Fish and Chip shop instead. It was OK but that's as far as I'm prepared to go. We didn't stop long.

The likelihood is we'll be going in to Brighton tomorrow unless conditions have improved considerably. We did walk out and have a look this evening and it was a bit better so we'll have to see. The lifeboat went out on a shout while we were out there.

 Glen

In the words of the Skipper ...

That was not a fun day. It was simply a case of job done although I'd hoped to get further.

The sea state was the main problem with a short steep sea that took all of Pagan's get up and go to get through.

We used a lot of diesel today and it was annoying to find we couldn't top up at Sovereign due to technical issues with their fuel berth. We have enough for tomorrow but I'd have liked to set off with a full tank and full cans.

Passage plan to follow ...

Bruce

15/7/2017 Passage Plan

Forecast F5 or F5 gusting 6 at times SSW

HW Dover 02:19UT

Last exit Granville Dock app. 06:40UT

Departing Dover by 06:00UT towards Eastbourne eta 18:00UT

Alternates Brighton and Shoreham

Sojourn to the Solent - Day 4

A day in Dover



It's a bit of an uphill struggle to Dover Castle but well worth the effort. I'd been before as the reader may recall from our Brigantia days but Glen hadn't

We enjoyed a good look round and hit the jackpot getting onto both tunnel tours without much of a wait

The steps up to the top of the keep nearly killed both of us but the view was worth it



The last time I took that photo, you couldn't see a thing as we were basically inside a cloud at the time!

Our mid afternoon ramble back to the marina was interrupted by the temptations of another fine pint of Adnams Broadside at Cullins Yard. That was followed by a snack and another pint. A third inevitably followed before common sense prevailed and we made our escape

We made a small diversion onto the beach to take on the sights.





The piling work for the new marina had ended for the day but there were various workboats and construction vessels maneuvering around

Having looked at the works and the final plans, I think through new marina might actually be an improvement

Back aboard, we didn't feel inclined towards anything ambitious dinner wise so Glen heated up some beef ravioli

Preparations were then made for an early ish start in the morning and an early night declared

(passage plan for tomorrow follows)

Sojourn to the Solent - Day 3 (Thursday)

We were up and doing not so bright and early at 04:30BST and underway as planned at 05:00

The early morning mist was a bit of a nuisance given our lack of radar but it soon burnt off and for the rest of the day vis was as clear as I can recall seeing

The wind was as forecast. Very light and from the wrong direction (regardless of our heading!). We hoisted the sails for the sake of it but they weren't doing much and it was a day off motoring

The benefits of the clean bottom and the repitched prop soon made themselves evident. We romped along with the engine lazily burbling at around 1800 to 1900 RPM and our speed over the ground rarely dropped below 7 knots.

We were probably making around five and a half knots through the water although the log was showing a knot slower. I had a feeling it was under reading and today confirmed it

At times it was a bit rolly and when the sun went in a bit chilly too but it was a pretty decent passage by any measure.

We made the run from Burnham to Dover in exactly 8 hours at an average speed of 7.125 knots! Awesome :) (and looking at the level in the tank, I reckon we used around 21l of diesel which is much better than before I repitched the prop)

That was largely due to keeping up with the tide. In fact, we only had a foul tide for about half an hour or so down the Barrow and that was only because we were getting on for two hours ahead on the passage plan at that stage

Our arrival in Dover was rather interesting due to the amount of leisure traffic trying to get in and out of the marina. But as usual port control were handling the almost continuous VHF traffic with considerable professionalism and courtesy

A minor error in berthing instructions caused a bit of grief (we were told the berth was port side to, it was starboard so all the lines and fenders had to be reset) and the allocated berth was a bit tight but we got in without any great drama.

We'd had breakfast underway and scoffed some snacks so lunch went by the board. We toddled off to Sharp and Enright to purchase a new outboard kill cord (damned if I know where the old one went) and then somehow ended up in Cullins Yard for a couple of beers

Back on board, a bit of sorting out and sitting around passed the time until it was beer-o-clock and then it was back to Cullins for more beer and grub

Tomorrow we're "doing" Dover Castle

Passage Plan - Thu 13/7/2017

Depart Burnham Yacht Harbour 04:00UT towards Dover eta 16:40UT @ 4.5kts

Alternate Ramsgate

Sojourn to the Solent - Day 2 (Wed)

Our decision to delay departure by 24 hours was entirely vindicated. Even though the forecast wind dropped a notch overnight, becoming a do-able if rather brisk Northerly F6 (which would certainly have made for a fast passage!), it was raining hard all night and into the morning.

We'd have had a miserable time of it for the first few hours at least and it's supposed to be fun!

The delay meant we could sort out a few things at our leisure and the time soon passed by. Once the tide turned, we let go from North Fambridge and made a brisk run down to Burnham Yacht Harbour

I think we set a record of 1 hour dead dock to dock! The ebb tide was running unusually hard and with a lazy 1600 RPM on the donk we were at times making over 7 knots over the ground!

We decided to splash out on a night in Burnham Yacht Harbour rather than anchor in the Brankfleet because the overnight forecast was a bit brisk and I felt it might be a bit uncomfortable at anchor. As I write, at just gone 9pm, there's about 4 knots of wind from the West so we probably could have anchored after all but never mind.

We decided to eschew the delights of Burnham town and dine aboard followed by a beer or two

I'll post our passage plan for tomorrow shortly