Concerto
Well-known member
I thought you might like a report of my latest sail. Hope you enjoy it, despite some of the problems I encountered and my solutions.
After the boat show closed on Sunday I had to sail Concerto back singlehanded to Chatham, with a stop after 115 miles at Dover. After checking the tides, I decided to leave near to 5am Monday. Finally slipped the berth in Ocean Village at 5.20. Well things did not go completely to plan.
There was little wind going down Southampton Water and turning east in the Solent, I had to motor through to the Looe Channel. In fact I arrived just before the tide turned and had a little tide to punch, but then had tide then for the next 6 hours or so. The sea was quite lumpy after the strong winds of Sunday, so strong that no boats were allowed out from the inner berths in the boat show.
Whilst sailing I thought it would be a good time to try flying my drone. Trying to take off from the cockpit, the drone hit the backstay and bounced onto the narrow deck on the port quarter and luckily did not drop overboard. Once airbourne launching from the sprayhood, I found it much more difficult to keep the drone pointing at the boat due to the speed I was doing. After taking some shots of the starboard quarter and beam, I stopped the video. I then flew forward to take some shots as I sailed by. Then came the fun part, trying to land. This was a lot more difficult than I expected due to the boat motion. after nearly hitting the backstay, I decided to land on the coachroof. In came the drone and was difficult to keep the speed matching the boat and bring over the boat. Disaster, I hit the lower shroud and the drone bounced off the coachroof on to the deck - and stayed put. No damage to the drone. I left the boat sailing on autopilot and transfered the two video files to my laptop. Then I found the second video was corrupted. The first video has a slight problem in clarity as the camera lens must have pointed towards the sun and this creates a hazy bloom. These are some screen shots from the video.
After this drone flight, I think I need a lot more practice in drone flying on land and then choose a day with lighter winds and smoother water.
Everything was going smoothly until about 10 miles past Beachy Head, the wind dropped and about half an hour later I ran out of diesel. I cannot believe I had used a full tank of fuel since leaving Chatham. What to do now? Firstly I had to keep sailing, but I was in no danger so I ruled out calling the Coastguard. There was a small fishing boat nearby that I tried to contact on VHF using their registration number, but no reply. The nearest place I could get some diesel would be in Dover, which would involve a chargeable tow in, the same applied to Ramsgate. After informing my wife and daughter of my problem, I then noticed a yacht had caught me up but by now was about half a mile off my beam and no idea of the boat details as they did not have AIS, so could not contact them.
Thinking further, I decided the best thing would be to anchor close inshore just past Dungerness. The speed had dropped to 2 knots with a little tide left with me and it was still about 15 miles away. After cooking a meal, I checked all round the boat and I could no longer see any other boats. As Concerto was moving slowly, it would be safe to get some sleep as it was now dark. I set the alarm for 1½ hours, which should see me about an hour away from Dungerness. Once the alarm woke me, I quickly checked my position and for any boats nearby. The wind had picked up slightly and the speed had reached 3 knots, so I was closer to Dungerness than I expected. Ahead was a boat by about a mile and a half, which by its lights I knew it was trawling. Just past Dungerness were 2 more small boats trawling, then nothing.
As I had slept reasonably well I decided to keep sailing with a new plan. I would continue to keep sailing and grab some more sleep, 2 hours followed by an hour and a half making a total of 5 hours. It was now just after 5am and there was a crack of light on the eastern horizon. The wind now slowly backed from SW to SE and increased and the speed lifted to about 6 knots once off Dover. The plan was refined and now I decided to sail to Gillingham Marina as their fuel berth was on the river - provided I could arrive before it closed. If I was too late, I would sail alongside and wait until the morning. The sunrise was spectacular.
As I passed Dover, I notified Dover Harbour Control I was passing about a mile and half off the the harbour, they noted and advised to keep listening watch until clear of the harbour. This proved interesting when the Dover Lifeboat called in for permission to enter the western entrance. An enquiry was made for the number of guests on board, 55 was the reply. Once I cracked sheets to round South Foreland and head north, the speed dropped again as the wind came behind the beam but the tide was assisting by about a knot and a half.
After rounding North Foreland, I headed west taking the inshore passage along the North Kent coast. This brought the wind almost close hauled and an increase in strength, resulting in having to drop a reef into both sails. Off Herne Bay I had to ease sheets slightly as I needed to sail to the north of the Isle of Sheppy. Now the wind started to ease, so I shook out the reefs. Half way along the island, I had to harden up to approach the mouth of the Medway. On the horizon were several white specks, or in my language, yachts to chase down. I managed to sail very close to Garrison Point and then cross the entrance and ended just upstream of Grain Fort and tacking when I had just 5m under the keel as the shore rises steeply. After several pairs of tacks I had already caught the first yacht which was about 25ft and had poorly set sails that were flapping in the breeze rather than driving the boat. After the next pair of tacks I was able to lay the length of Grain Reach and to windward was a Fulmar sailing just under genoa and a slightly ahead was a Dragonfly 28. The wind was at the limit of full sail again, which made each tack quite hard work as I was hand steering. The further up river I sailed, the wind started to ease. Luckily I could point slightly higher than the Dragonfly and this saved me several pairs of tacks, allowing me to slowly close the distance. Time was running out and I could not get to Gillingham Marina before they closed.
Then I had a brain wave. If I sailed to my home marina at Chatham, I could sail alongside their riverside holding pontoon, walk ashore with a fuel can and drive my car to a local fuel station. This gave more drive to catch and pass the Dragonfly, which I finally did about half a mile before the marina - job done. For the final approach to the pontoon I decided to furl the genoa and gently coast over the tide and the breeze would blow me on to the pontoon. With plenty of fenders alongside, I had rigged a line to drop over a cleat to brake the boat so I could step on the pontoon and tie the lines. It took less than a minute and then I went aboard to drop the mainsail.
Home at last at 6pm Tuesday. The journey from Ocean Village had taken 36 hours and 40 minutes and I had broken my record for a singlehanded journey. It had been 120 miles for some years and I had just smashed it by covering 174 miles according to the chart plotter. It was certainly an impressive journey that I never intended to make, but everything turned out well by using my experience to solve the problems.
After the boat show closed on Sunday I had to sail Concerto back singlehanded to Chatham, with a stop after 115 miles at Dover. After checking the tides, I decided to leave near to 5am Monday. Finally slipped the berth in Ocean Village at 5.20. Well things did not go completely to plan.
There was little wind going down Southampton Water and turning east in the Solent, I had to motor through to the Looe Channel. In fact I arrived just before the tide turned and had a little tide to punch, but then had tide then for the next 6 hours or so. The sea was quite lumpy after the strong winds of Sunday, so strong that no boats were allowed out from the inner berths in the boat show.
Whilst sailing I thought it would be a good time to try flying my drone. Trying to take off from the cockpit, the drone hit the backstay and bounced onto the narrow deck on the port quarter and luckily did not drop overboard. Once airbourne launching from the sprayhood, I found it much more difficult to keep the drone pointing at the boat due to the speed I was doing. After taking some shots of the starboard quarter and beam, I stopped the video. I then flew forward to take some shots as I sailed by. Then came the fun part, trying to land. This was a lot more difficult than I expected due to the boat motion. after nearly hitting the backstay, I decided to land on the coachroof. In came the drone and was difficult to keep the speed matching the boat and bring over the boat. Disaster, I hit the lower shroud and the drone bounced off the coachroof on to the deck - and stayed put. No damage to the drone. I left the boat sailing on autopilot and transfered the two video files to my laptop. Then I found the second video was corrupted. The first video has a slight problem in clarity as the camera lens must have pointed towards the sun and this creates a hazy bloom. These are some screen shots from the video.
After this drone flight, I think I need a lot more practice in drone flying on land and then choose a day with lighter winds and smoother water.
Everything was going smoothly until about 10 miles past Beachy Head, the wind dropped and about half an hour later I ran out of diesel. I cannot believe I had used a full tank of fuel since leaving Chatham. What to do now? Firstly I had to keep sailing, but I was in no danger so I ruled out calling the Coastguard. There was a small fishing boat nearby that I tried to contact on VHF using their registration number, but no reply. The nearest place I could get some diesel would be in Dover, which would involve a chargeable tow in, the same applied to Ramsgate. After informing my wife and daughter of my problem, I then noticed a yacht had caught me up but by now was about half a mile off my beam and no idea of the boat details as they did not have AIS, so could not contact them.
Thinking further, I decided the best thing would be to anchor close inshore just past Dungerness. The speed had dropped to 2 knots with a little tide left with me and it was still about 15 miles away. After cooking a meal, I checked all round the boat and I could no longer see any other boats. As Concerto was moving slowly, it would be safe to get some sleep as it was now dark. I set the alarm for 1½ hours, which should see me about an hour away from Dungerness. Once the alarm woke me, I quickly checked my position and for any boats nearby. The wind had picked up slightly and the speed had reached 3 knots, so I was closer to Dungerness than I expected. Ahead was a boat by about a mile and a half, which by its lights I knew it was trawling. Just past Dungerness were 2 more small boats trawling, then nothing.
As I had slept reasonably well I decided to keep sailing with a new plan. I would continue to keep sailing and grab some more sleep, 2 hours followed by an hour and a half making a total of 5 hours. It was now just after 5am and there was a crack of light on the eastern horizon. The wind now slowly backed from SW to SE and increased and the speed lifted to about 6 knots once off Dover. The plan was refined and now I decided to sail to Gillingham Marina as their fuel berth was on the river - provided I could arrive before it closed. If I was too late, I would sail alongside and wait until the morning. The sunrise was spectacular.
As I passed Dover, I notified Dover Harbour Control I was passing about a mile and half off the the harbour, they noted and advised to keep listening watch until clear of the harbour. This proved interesting when the Dover Lifeboat called in for permission to enter the western entrance. An enquiry was made for the number of guests on board, 55 was the reply. Once I cracked sheets to round South Foreland and head north, the speed dropped again as the wind came behind the beam but the tide was assisting by about a knot and a half.
After rounding North Foreland, I headed west taking the inshore passage along the North Kent coast. This brought the wind almost close hauled and an increase in strength, resulting in having to drop a reef into both sails. Off Herne Bay I had to ease sheets slightly as I needed to sail to the north of the Isle of Sheppy. Now the wind started to ease, so I shook out the reefs. Half way along the island, I had to harden up to approach the mouth of the Medway. On the horizon were several white specks, or in my language, yachts to chase down. I managed to sail very close to Garrison Point and then cross the entrance and ended just upstream of Grain Fort and tacking when I had just 5m under the keel as the shore rises steeply. After several pairs of tacks I had already caught the first yacht which was about 25ft and had poorly set sails that were flapping in the breeze rather than driving the boat. After the next pair of tacks I was able to lay the length of Grain Reach and to windward was a Fulmar sailing just under genoa and a slightly ahead was a Dragonfly 28. The wind was at the limit of full sail again, which made each tack quite hard work as I was hand steering. The further up river I sailed, the wind started to ease. Luckily I could point slightly higher than the Dragonfly and this saved me several pairs of tacks, allowing me to slowly close the distance. Time was running out and I could not get to Gillingham Marina before they closed.
Then I had a brain wave. If I sailed to my home marina at Chatham, I could sail alongside their riverside holding pontoon, walk ashore with a fuel can and drive my car to a local fuel station. This gave more drive to catch and pass the Dragonfly, which I finally did about half a mile before the marina - job done. For the final approach to the pontoon I decided to furl the genoa and gently coast over the tide and the breeze would blow me on to the pontoon. With plenty of fenders alongside, I had rigged a line to drop over a cleat to brake the boat so I could step on the pontoon and tie the lines. It took less than a minute and then I went aboard to drop the mainsail.
Home at last at 6pm Tuesday. The journey from Ocean Village had taken 36 hours and 40 minutes and I had broken my record for a singlehanded journey. It had been 120 miles for some years and I had just smashed it by covering 174 miles according to the chart plotter. It was certainly an impressive journey that I never intended to make, but everything turned out well by using my experience to solve the problems.
