Concerto
Well-known member
Cannot believe it is already day 16. Them pesky northerlies have certainly delayed me slightly. Yesterday I had a good look round Amble and enjoyed the lobster hatchery, details will be in the next video. It was too breezy yesterday during the day to fly the drone, but did manage some when the wind eased at about 6pm. For those who have not yet seen, the first video is now loaded on YouTube.
https://youtu.be/7kR_gBC_lvc
The shipping forecast at 6am looked good with S to SW 4 to 6. I left at about 9.30 from Amble and initially started with full main and genoa. Concerto started tramping along at about 6 to 6½ knots on a broad reach. Off Alnmouth the wind dropped and I slowed to 4½ knots. Approaching Boulmer, I passed another singlehanded sailor who was heavily reefed. He had left about ¾ hour before me and he commented as he left he expected me to pass him quickly, and I certainly did. He was headed for Seahouses.
Off Craster the wind filled in nicely again and I got a good view of Dunstanburgh Castle whilst doing over 6 knots again. However as I approached Seahouses the wind increased further and Concerto was becoming a handful so I hand steered and had a peak speed of 8.45 knots, so I dropped a reef in the main. As I made a course change to pass between Seahouses and the Farne Islands, the wind was now coming on the beam. Prudence said I should reef the genoa and I was still making 7+ knots. Not much later I added another reef to both sails. Still doing over 7 knots, but with plenty of white horses and wind lanes despite being only a mile offshore with an offshore wind. Then I headed to the offshore side of the Holy Island, fairly close to Lindisfarne Castle. The wind was still gusting very strongly and occassionally the autopilot decided to go on strike. Grrr. Basically I was over canvased. I tried working closer to the shore and easing it right out, but it made no difference.
Then came the "Oh Sh*t" moment. I was paasing to windward to a pair of linked large fishing floats when the autopilot decided to bear off. Too late to do anything I sailed between them. To my surprise the linking rope was large and heavy with lots of growth and I sailed right over it with disturbing either buoy. Phew, that was very lucky. The wind started moving further forward and was 60 to 70 degrees off the bow. Lots of gusts were now causing Concerto to round up, so the only thing I could do was drop the mainsail. Even under double reefed genoat I still doing 6¼ to 6½ knots. It was certinly a bit more than the Force 6 forecast and was now about westerly as well. So the final 5 miles were made under headsail alone.
Close to the entrance to Eyemouth I started the engine and furled the rest of the genoa away. I had all the fenders and warps ready in the cockpit, but it was too rough to attempt fix them, so I decided it would have to wait until I was inside the harbour. I used the VHF to advise I was entering and the harbourmaster responded that there was no traffic at present. He said I would have to berth alongside a motorboat, not a problem for me or so I thought. The entrance to the harbour is just 33m wide, it sounds a lot when you are only 3.33m, but it is narrow. What I had not expected was how short the run in to the visitor pontoon was. The harbourmaster was waiting to take my lines except nothing was tied on and the wind was gusting down the harbour like a funnel. I quickly fitted the lines, but luckily the motorboat had a row of massive fenders. It was not a modern planing hull but a heavy displacement trawler type boat. The approach was OK but the motorboat had weird cleats. They were stainless steel holes through the gunnel with the cleat on the inside of the opening. Almost impossible to use when not on the boat and the harbourmaster was at the stern as there was no side deck to walk along to the bow. I had to run forward to fix a spring, only to find the fenders had been fitted through the mooring holes. What a pain, I thought I was going to break my fingers due to the strain caused by the wind tunnel effect. I managed to get some lines in place, but I was about 8 ft too far aft for my liking. I used another mooring line to winch Concerto forward and constantly adjusting the lines. Then I had to rig shore lines which are taking most of the loading. This must have taken close to an hour to sort out to my satisfaction.
Now all I had to do was go and pay for the berth. I had planned to leave tomorrow but with high winds forecast for the weekend, so I am leaving on Monday like the other 3 visitor boats who did not arrive today. Chatting with the harbourmaster, he said ther had been getting 40+ knot gusts all afternoon. So the forecast was definitely poor as that means it was a Force 8, not Force 6. If I had known, I doubt I would have left Amble. Even with all the problems, it was a cracking sail that was mainly in sunshine.
For those wanting to read from the start of this series of posts, this is the thread. Round Britian day 1
https://youtu.be/7kR_gBC_lvc
The shipping forecast at 6am looked good with S to SW 4 to 6. I left at about 9.30 from Amble and initially started with full main and genoa. Concerto started tramping along at about 6 to 6½ knots on a broad reach. Off Alnmouth the wind dropped and I slowed to 4½ knots. Approaching Boulmer, I passed another singlehanded sailor who was heavily reefed. He had left about ¾ hour before me and he commented as he left he expected me to pass him quickly, and I certainly did. He was headed for Seahouses.
Off Craster the wind filled in nicely again and I got a good view of Dunstanburgh Castle whilst doing over 6 knots again. However as I approached Seahouses the wind increased further and Concerto was becoming a handful so I hand steered and had a peak speed of 8.45 knots, so I dropped a reef in the main. As I made a course change to pass between Seahouses and the Farne Islands, the wind was now coming on the beam. Prudence said I should reef the genoa and I was still making 7+ knots. Not much later I added another reef to both sails. Still doing over 7 knots, but with plenty of white horses and wind lanes despite being only a mile offshore with an offshore wind. Then I headed to the offshore side of the Holy Island, fairly close to Lindisfarne Castle. The wind was still gusting very strongly and occassionally the autopilot decided to go on strike. Grrr. Basically I was over canvased. I tried working closer to the shore and easing it right out, but it made no difference.
Then came the "Oh Sh*t" moment. I was paasing to windward to a pair of linked large fishing floats when the autopilot decided to bear off. Too late to do anything I sailed between them. To my surprise the linking rope was large and heavy with lots of growth and I sailed right over it with disturbing either buoy. Phew, that was very lucky. The wind started moving further forward and was 60 to 70 degrees off the bow. Lots of gusts were now causing Concerto to round up, so the only thing I could do was drop the mainsail. Even under double reefed genoat I still doing 6¼ to 6½ knots. It was certinly a bit more than the Force 6 forecast and was now about westerly as well. So the final 5 miles were made under headsail alone.
Close to the entrance to Eyemouth I started the engine and furled the rest of the genoa away. I had all the fenders and warps ready in the cockpit, but it was too rough to attempt fix them, so I decided it would have to wait until I was inside the harbour. I used the VHF to advise I was entering and the harbourmaster responded that there was no traffic at present. He said I would have to berth alongside a motorboat, not a problem for me or so I thought. The entrance to the harbour is just 33m wide, it sounds a lot when you are only 3.33m, but it is narrow. What I had not expected was how short the run in to the visitor pontoon was. The harbourmaster was waiting to take my lines except nothing was tied on and the wind was gusting down the harbour like a funnel. I quickly fitted the lines, but luckily the motorboat had a row of massive fenders. It was not a modern planing hull but a heavy displacement trawler type boat. The approach was OK but the motorboat had weird cleats. They were stainless steel holes through the gunnel with the cleat on the inside of the opening. Almost impossible to use when not on the boat and the harbourmaster was at the stern as there was no side deck to walk along to the bow. I had to run forward to fix a spring, only to find the fenders had been fitted through the mooring holes. What a pain, I thought I was going to break my fingers due to the strain caused by the wind tunnel effect. I managed to get some lines in place, but I was about 8 ft too far aft for my liking. I used another mooring line to winch Concerto forward and constantly adjusting the lines. Then I had to rig shore lines which are taking most of the loading. This must have taken close to an hour to sort out to my satisfaction.
Now all I had to do was go and pay for the berth. I had planned to leave tomorrow but with high winds forecast for the weekend, so I am leaving on Monday like the other 3 visitor boats who did not arrive today. Chatting with the harbourmaster, he said ther had been getting 40+ knot gusts all afternoon. So the forecast was definitely poor as that means it was a Force 8, not Force 6. If I had known, I doubt I would have left Amble. Even with all the problems, it was a cracking sail that was mainly in sunshine.
For those wanting to read from the start of this series of posts, this is the thread. Round Britian day 1
