IOW trip 2

Lazy sail across to Newtown Creek, all against the tide so took some 6 hours but we weren't in a rush.  The sun kept shining most of the day with the odd spot of rain every now and again.

It's not often you see an Avro Vulcan, let alone flying

The french are invading? Looks like the chap at the back is feeling the swell!

Finally a bit of fishing before turning in for the night.

New Start - Hopefully

Well August was busy wasn't it.

The carnivals over, the red arrows have done their fly past. 

No more fireworks for a bit.

Swanage became a highly populated place with most of the visitors doing their best to get run over.   Strange how folks suddenly forget the highway code, walk everywhere at 1 mph and look everywhere except where they're going. It's not only the pedestrians either,   There must be 500 cars a day do a three point turn on the bit of road in front of the pier. It's only thirty yards and there's a couple of gates - dead end.  Maybe they are all budding 007's and are going to fly off the end of the pier and turn into submarines.

Then there's Shore Road we've had a whole summer getting used to walking in the road, very shortly the sound of screeching tyres will be heard as drivers try to avoid those who've become used to pedestrianisation and wandered into the road without looking first. 
Hey -ho and probably nonny nonny too. Septembers here and  it's time for the hankies, face paints and donning of bells  - it's folk week - Morris men and women, witches, and other strange sights.  Still it's only a week

July 20th Cherbourg

We have been thinking about a Cherbourg trip for a little while now and as we were "on holiday" and the winds were right we made a snap decision to go. I asked Greg if he would like to come, on monday he said ok. Then I told him we were leaving 4:30 the next day, he wasn't so pleased about that!

Apart from going all the way in thick fog it was a reasonably uneventful journey,  we didn't see any other boats but the radar was on all the way though.

Grabbed some wine inthe supermarket then dinner in "The Regency restuarant" in the evening.  Early to bed as another early start in the morning.

Nice sail back with the odd period of motorsail to keep the average speed up to 6.5 knots.  Again we had the target of getting Lou back for dialysis.  Came past peveril bouy doing 10.5 knots   whoohoo!

Spent the next week recovering from the 10 days of sailing.

IOW Trip The last day

By 10am the next morning all the PYRA boats had left for their return race to poole. Leaving us high and dry on the pontoon.  I had little stomach for beating into wind and tide so we waited until the afternoon for the tide to change and then began our journey back home.  It seemed a better option than having to fight the elements on Monday morning to ensure Lou was back in time for Dialysis that afternoon.

We managed to sail most of the way back but as the evening drew on the wind died and we had to motor from Ballard to the mooring.

IOW Trip Saturday

We had arranged to meet up with Graham and Wendy in Yarmouth. PYRA had a race to there on the Saturday morning.   The tides from Cowes to Yarmouth were foul in the morning but we had to go come what may. We tried sailing as there was a decent amount of wind but tidal flow kept putting us back in the same place.  Eventually we gave up and motored in order to get there on time. 

At Yarmouth I blagged my way into the middle of the PYRA fleet as they moored up and was soon recognised by a few of the boat owners.  I'll have to join next year before they realise I'm not a member.  Went to a barbeque in the evening at the local sailing club.  The PYRA crews drank the place dry, but they were happy with the revenue.

Isle of Wight Trip Friday.

With another bout of dialysis looming in the afternoon we spent the morning leisurely strolling round the town and had a coffee in the craft centre by the quay.   Whilst Lou was off at the hospital I toured the Boat museum and planned our exit from Newport on the falling tide.  I reckoned we had to be gone by 7:30pm at the latest.  As it was we had lots of time to spare (and water) for the short trip back to the Folly Inn where we stopped for the night. It was Quite windy even up there in the river making it a little difficult to come alongside the pontoon.

Isle of Wight Trip Thursday

With lots of strong wind forecast for today and Friday morning we decided to stay in Newport and do a tour of the island by bus. we settled for one of the eastern bus tours .  Arreton craft village being the first stop. This farmers market was obviously too much of a temptation for Lou and we did take away quite a lot of goodies.
Next was the Garllic farm, again with food products we were getting quite loaded up.   Learnt a new word, well 2 actually   - "Alliophile and alliophobe"  Lovers and haters of garlic.
Back on the bus and off to a vineyard.  for some free wine tasting. 
We even maaged to get to Bembridge which was a bit of nothing, and finally arrived back at the boat by 7:30 in the evening.

No Pictures today.

IOW trip Wednesday

We were debating how best to get Lou to and from dialysis, when a Prout 45 owner who was leaving the pontoon behind us on the way to Newport needed a hand pushing off.  A quick chat with him allayed my fears about drying out at Newport, assuring me of a soft mud bottom.  So a quick look at the tides, a quick phone call to the Newport harbour master who also said no problem, and we were off.  The quay is only about a mile or so from the unit at St Mary's so taxi cost would be low. With a SW f5/6 blowing just the jib up was enough to do 7Kts + another 3 on the tide - we were at Cowes in an hour.  This made us a bit early for the tide so it was a gentle crawl up to Newport with the Depth gauge often reading under a metre. Lots of pontoon space so we aimed for the nearest spot and just got there as we kissed the bottom..

We had arrived with nearly an hour to spare.  Lou ordered a taxi and went to see the Harbour master. He was really surprised to see us, He didn't think we had enough water to get there. It does go a long way out though.

IOW Trip Tuesday

Tide and wind dictated where we were going today so back down the Solent to Alum Bay we went. Forecast was not great but it stayed dry most of the time.  It was surprising that although we were sat at anchor in an almost flat bit of sea that there were large breakers along the shoreline. After a spot of lunch we went ashore, not an easy task as we had to time our landing so as to get in between the breakers on the shore.

Once ashore we used the cable car to get to the top then the bus to get to the old and new Battery's (National Trust) for a bit of sight seeing. Good view of the needles from here.

Back to Yarmouth in evening for a meal ashore.

IOW Trip. Monday

An early start today as we have to get as close to St Mary's Hospital in Newport as we can in order for Lou to get to Dialysis.   We planned on getting to the Folly Inn and then by taxi to the Hospital.  Plan worked but cost of the cab was a bit high £12 each way.

Folly Inn on the Medina river.

While Lou was dialysing I went walkabout and found the Quay at Newport which had a surprising number of yachts in it.  So I made a few enquiries and found that it's perfectly feasable to get to Newport as long as the tide is right.

Isle of Wight Trip Sunday

The tides were about right for us to make the trip from Swanage after racing on the Sunday afternoon. A lovely day for it with a nice following wind. We left about 3pm and got to Newtown Creek around 7pm sailing all but the last few hundred yards.  Here we stopped for the night.

More means less ?

I have not updated the blog for a month now, mainly because I have been so busy. We have been to the Isle of Wight for a week, crossed the channel to Cherbourg for a couple of days, been to London for a day and spent a week enjoying the Swanage Carnival.  During that time I have been busy snapping away with the camera, unfortunately the tendancy with digital is to take lots of shots (MORE) instead of thinking about the composition.  This has led to over a thosand photo's, 95% of which I have since deleted. but it all the editing takes time which means (LESS) blog time. 

The next few entries will try to correct that.

Red Sky At Night....

I was just settling down for a night in front of the telly when the view, looking south, out of the window went quite red coloured.  This was something of a surprise as it had been mainly overcast for most of the evening.  I grabbed the camera and went for a stroll down to the bridge over the railway in Northbrook Road.  What a sunset! but only for a few minutes and it was gone again.

Wow! July already

After the excitement of Round the Island race,  things are back to normal and as such have not been taking much in the way of photos.  I guess after the spectacle of the race it's hard to "top" them.  The past weekend was eventful,  Was 3rd in the McDonna Cup,  quite pleased with that especially as the tiny course was more suited for mono sailors. 

Jazz boat jaunt in the evening was a great success,  thanks to the weather holding out and a beautiful rising Moon.   (No photo unfortunately)

Been busy repairing the trampoline on the Dart this week only stabbed myself with the needle about a dozen times.

Round the Island Race

Up at 0400 hrs to travel down from the "Folly" for the start at 0510, I was grateful to be in an early start as there are far less boats on the start line.

Once again it was a great spectacle, clear sky's, a light wind to begin with and 100's and 100's of yachts, all seemingly wanting to be in the same bit of water you are in . You have to be very focused at this point, with eyes in the back of your head and a crew you're very confident with. 

 

A light NE wind blew, barely enough to fight the tide that was pushing us down toward the start line. We got it just right and we managed to start bang on time. 

The wind gradually increased all  way down to the needles and was about 7/8 knots as we rounded them.

 

After a brief period of wind shadow(we went too near the cliffs the wind kicked in to about 15 knots with the odd gust of 20 or so as we sped towards St Catherines point. 

After St Catherines we then had to start beating, something Watanga doesn't do very well, and we had to watch half the fleet sail past, heading much higher than us.

A brief panic at Ryde Sands when the Catamaran in front of us ran aground and we hastily detoured which involved crossing the main fleet on port. An added complication was the main sheet cam cleats fell off. Luckily Mark was strong enough to hold it until we jury rigged a fix.

This  lasted us till the finish about an hour later. Time..a few seconds less than 10 hours.

A few heart stopping moments but we scraped through unscathed.

For lots of pictures of the race go to my Facebook

Volcano in Swanage

I was on my way to the Isle of Wight on friday, by sea, and was about 3 miles out when I first spotted the smoke rising from Ballard Down.  It soon got quite thick and was obviously not a garden bonfire so I took some snaps.  The day was a little hazy and at the distance not the greatest of photographs. It didn't register at the time and was only when reviewing the snaps later I realised I had taken a photo that makes Ballard Down look like a Volcano.  Probably best not to add that to the tourist information

Last week a Tornado

The train arriving at platform 2 will be the 1:35 from London Victoria, was the announcement at Swanage Railway station, and in steamed "Tornado" the first main line steam train to be built in this country for 50 years.  It was a fine site, very impressive and if you are into steam trains then obviously very exciting.  However I was somewhat bemused when the crowds started clapping.  It arrived on time, that's probably good reason to clap but it's a lump of metal, I thought, it can't hear your applause. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking it, it just struck  me as odd at the time.

Tims Wedding

After a week of fairly mixed weather with a few days of rain it was an added bonus to have a beautiful sunny day for Tims Wedding.  The service was a little off the conventional,  but was well thought out and put together which added a refreshing uniqueness to it.   Well done to all involved in the planning, and thanks to all who came along and helping make this such a memorable day for Tim and Katie.

Bank Holiday weekend

It was the 75th Anniversary of the Swanage Sailing Club this weekend,  I was on Safety duty for the Cup race on the Saturday.  A wet and windy day with only 8 sailors taking part, and out of that only 4 finishers.  Good day to put the safety boat training into practice and happy to say everything went OK.  1 assisted righting and 1 stand by. 

BBQ in the evening was a success despite the cool wind, with over 80 persons attending.

Sunday we went off on Watanga for a jaunt.  After heading for Durlston for half an hour we decided that the anchorage at Lulworth would probably not be comfortable to stay in so headed for Poole instead making over 10 knots occassionally, with 2 reefs in.

Anchored up for the night just off Brownsea .

Monday was almost windless so motored up to Poole Quay, to take on water.  The T.S, Pelican was leaving as we arrived.  This is the only Main Mast Brigatine in the world. If you understand what that means!  Then down to the fuel barge for some diesel.   Caught a single Pollack on the way back home to Swanage.  It seems everyone is catching loads of fish but I can't find them.

May's flying by

Catch up time,   Following the Scilly Isles trip was the Dart15 Nationals that  Swanage Sailing Club hosted this year. A total of 24 Darts competed for the title with 7 races over 3 days.  It was quite an effort and

involved 50+ people to organise for 24 competitors.

There has been a 125th celebration of the railway coming to Swanage. Victorian Swanage has been the theme of the week.  It's quite funny watching folks dressed in victorian attire using I-phones and wielding compact camera's. although this chap looked like he was going to a wedding.

The Sea Cadets flagship TS Royalist was in the bay this week and moored up on pier for a while. 

This weekend Lou took the plunge and although the water is a bit warmer than it has been, I'm not sure she will be taking another swim until later in the season.

The journey back

The Journey back started early on Monday morniing in a freshening NW wind.  We had to go regardless of conditions and were glad they weren't any worse. The Prime objective was to get Louise back to Penzance for dialysis as early in the afternoon as possible.  With the Irish Sea emptying southwards and the wind from the NW at about 20/25 knots it wasn't comfortable,  We had a huge amount of leeway and progress in the 2/3 metre waves was down to about 4knots average.  The journey eventually took 8 hrs to Penzance where we ferried Louise ashore (the wet harbour was closed as it was low tide).  After dropping her off we transferred te boat to Newlyn where we got a nice pontoon berth.  for £18 the night.


Tuesday 4th

After a hearty breakfast,  we said goodbye to Lou and set off about 11.00 A good north wind meant we could make good speed under sail, our destination Falmouth with a proviso of getting as far as we could with the favourable wind.  By 15:30 we were going well and sited Fusion heading for Falmouth, we had decided to press on knowing that tommorrow was a no wind day.   By 20;00 we were only 5 miles from Plymouth and decided that we would be better off going for Newton Ferrers At 21:30 we had a close encounter of the warship kind when 2 frigates crossed our bow at a range of 300 yds and speed of 20+knots  bit scary!

At 22:10 we picked up a mooring bouy in Newton Ferrers had a quick meal and crashed into our beds.

Wednesday 5th

0700  Slip the mooring and head out under motor The sea hardly stirring in the morning sunlight.  By 1100 we had rounded Start Point encountering 3 yachts going in the opposite direction.  They were the last sailing boats we saw that day. 

We took turns to stand watch as we decided that we would try to make Swanage in the one passage.

Sleep was relatively easy on the smooth sea. 

As we passed Portland Bill the wind filled in and we had a broad reach to Durlston.  Moored up at about 23:50.  We left tidying up the boat for the next day. 

A long and tiring adventure.

The Scilly Isles

Lou dialysed on the Friday afternoon which gave her more time to recover ready for te trip across to St Mary's the next day. We left as soon as the gate to the harbour opened ( about 7:00) Wind started about F3 from the SW and gained as the day went on. The Scillonian passed us about 9 o clock.

We decided to go straight to St Agnes as we didn't have a lot of time for sight seeing before having to head back to the mainland.  Who should we find there.....Fusion. and crew.   After a quick saunter around the island we had a quick pint in the local hostelry before heading for St Mary's on the south anchorage.

We had our Evening meal in Blues restuarant which was excellent quality at an attractive price.  Greg's T bone steak was something else, it was huge.

Day 2 Sunday. 

The crew of Fusion joined us for the trip across to Tresco using the shallow draft of the catamaran to take the most direct route,  something that Fusion couldn't do and wouldn't have wanted to go round the "outside" route because of the heavy seas.

Once there we visited the tropical Gardens  Apart from all the plants and trees from all over the world there were lots of pheasants.

The best shot of the whole trip was this ornamental pheasant that let me get within a couple of feet. What a striking bird.  

The  beaches, were white course sand from the local granite rocks, and they were long and empty.

Oh and why were we there,  ah yes the Gig Racing,  watching from one of the beaches, It was an awesome sight with over 100 boats rowing across the bay, (click on the pictures to enlarge). We watched as they assembled to start their race.

The rest of the day was spent searching for shells  and coloured stones before meeting the others for the journey back to St Marys.

Trip to the Scilly Isles.

Not been blogging lately but there's a reason for that.  I've been sailing on Watanga.  We have travelled to the Scilly Isles and back, a total of 350 miles.  Starting Tuesday week ago and getting back at nearly midnight last wednesday. It's the longest stretch I have spent on the boat, in fact on any boat, in one go. The picture is of Greg readying the main sail on the tuesday morning 7 am.

Destination for the first day was Dartmouth and the trip took 12 hours, Dissappointingly we had had to motor all the the way.

Had a meal in "The Royal Castle Hotel", It was curry night and very nice it was too

The Entrance to Dartmouth wasn't quite the same in the morning.  When we left it was thick fog and we took it very slowly down the river expecting to have to wait for the fog to clear. However at the entrace to the river it just stopped and was like emerging through a set of curtains into clear air.  At 10:30 we put the sails up, the first opportunity to actually sail.  Nice and quiet without the motor.  Onward to Falmouth.  On arrival we have a meal on board and then off to meet up with the crew of "Fusion " for a couple of pints in the "Chain Locker". Very nice cosy atmosphere.

Day Three and it's off to Penzance Still not enough wind to sail, but have to reach Penzance to meet up with Louise.   Bit of a frightening moment when the engine stuck in forward gear.   Investigations found that it was the thottle lever mechanism that had partially siezed.  Managed to mend that once we were in the Harbour.  Louise was waiting on the quay all excited.  The Harbour Master was a very nice chap and very accomodating but it's not the easiest of places to stay in.  It's a working fishing harbour so a bit messy and we were put alongside a very big fishing vessel that we had to climb up and over. Fusion went to Newlyn just down the road but we met up in the "Dolphin Tavern" in Penzance for a meal.  It was about 2 miles for them and only 50 Yds away for us.  Result there!