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
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
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
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
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
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
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)
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