Anwen
Member
We came back last night from a very pleasant overnight stop in Tenby. This was our first weekend away on the boat this year (due to work and weather) and gave us a number of firsts.
We left Swansea early on Saturday morning, making the 9:00am Tawe Lock, which we have never done before, and made good progress along the Gower coast in spite of a foul tide. At this point we were motoring, as there was no wind to speak of. Past Worms Head, we couldn't see the Pembrokeshire coast across Cardigan Bay, which seemed a bit strange, but by now there was a decent wind from the west, so the sails went up and the engine went off. About 1/3 of the way across, we hit the fog. The visibility wasn't too bad: at worst 50 metres and most of the time 100m. We put on life jackets, put the grab bag in the cockpit and deployed the fog horn. This was our first time in fog, and I'm glad it wasn't at night. I stood in the bow keeping lookout and Vicky helmed. We were sailing at about 5 knots. About 45 mins into it, a Sadler 29 or 26 passed about 50 metres off going the other way, and we exchanged waves.
Approx 2 miles out from Tenby, the fog lifted and we got our first look at the town from the sea. Motoring into the small craft moorings in Tenby Roads, there was no sign of the visitors buoys - the red buoys with the upright steel rings were labelled RNLI, and were very close to the bottom of the new lifeboat slip, so we decided not to chance it. Instead we dropped the anchor, making sure that we had plenty of scope. Made it!
In the evening we took the dinghy across to the harbour and had dinner in Qube restaurant, which was quite nice, but not fantastic, and then back before dark to the boat which hadn't moved at all according to the GPS. Gave me confidence to sleep through the night, although the wind got up a bit and was blowing 11-12kts before we turned in.
Sunday dawned to a beautiful day, although the boat was a bit rolly, which made SWMBO a bit queasy. We agreed to go back to the town for breakfast, as we didn't have to leave until low water. By the time we got back to the dinghy, the tide had gone out a long way, and we had to carry the dinghy to the water's edge for launching, which was a bit wet!
We set off just before noon and had a good sail in 10 - 15kt N wind to Worms Head, at which point the wind died completely. We motored to Oxwich and dropped the hook for a bit while we got the dinghy in and rolled it up, as it had been too bouncy to do this at Tenby. We finally made it back to Swansea just after high water at 6:15pm, which meant Tawe lock was on free flow, but the marina was locking in, as the Tawe level was higher than the marina!
So, a great trip, with a first time sailing in fog, a first night at anchor, first time through Tawe lock on freeflow. The only downside was my Raymarine 435 chart plotter started to play up on Sunday, periodically rebooting itself for no apparent reason. I've searched the forums to see if this is a known problem, but no posts apparently. I'm going to try upgrading the software this week as I'm sure thats what Raymarine will suggest as a first step...
Anyway, here are some pics:-
This was a very nice Starlight 38. Didn't get the name, and they left first thing on Sunday morning, so would probably have been going west.
Here we are at anchor, left hand boat.
We left Swansea early on Saturday morning, making the 9:00am Tawe Lock, which we have never done before, and made good progress along the Gower coast in spite of a foul tide. At this point we were motoring, as there was no wind to speak of. Past Worms Head, we couldn't see the Pembrokeshire coast across Cardigan Bay, which seemed a bit strange, but by now there was a decent wind from the west, so the sails went up and the engine went off. About 1/3 of the way across, we hit the fog. The visibility wasn't too bad: at worst 50 metres and most of the time 100m. We put on life jackets, put the grab bag in the cockpit and deployed the fog horn. This was our first time in fog, and I'm glad it wasn't at night. I stood in the bow keeping lookout and Vicky helmed. We were sailing at about 5 knots. About 45 mins into it, a Sadler 29 or 26 passed about 50 metres off going the other way, and we exchanged waves.
Approx 2 miles out from Tenby, the fog lifted and we got our first look at the town from the sea. Motoring into the small craft moorings in Tenby Roads, there was no sign of the visitors buoys - the red buoys with the upright steel rings were labelled RNLI, and were very close to the bottom of the new lifeboat slip, so we decided not to chance it. Instead we dropped the anchor, making sure that we had plenty of scope. Made it!
In the evening we took the dinghy across to the harbour and had dinner in Qube restaurant, which was quite nice, but not fantastic, and then back before dark to the boat which hadn't moved at all according to the GPS. Gave me confidence to sleep through the night, although the wind got up a bit and was blowing 11-12kts before we turned in.
Sunday dawned to a beautiful day, although the boat was a bit rolly, which made SWMBO a bit queasy. We agreed to go back to the town for breakfast, as we didn't have to leave until low water. By the time we got back to the dinghy, the tide had gone out a long way, and we had to carry the dinghy to the water's edge for launching, which was a bit wet!
We set off just before noon and had a good sail in 10 - 15kt N wind to Worms Head, at which point the wind died completely. We motored to Oxwich and dropped the hook for a bit while we got the dinghy in and rolled it up, as it had been too bouncy to do this at Tenby. We finally made it back to Swansea just after high water at 6:15pm, which meant Tawe lock was on free flow, but the marina was locking in, as the Tawe level was higher than the marina!
So, a great trip, with a first time sailing in fog, a first night at anchor, first time through Tawe lock on freeflow. The only downside was my Raymarine 435 chart plotter started to play up on Sunday, periodically rebooting itself for no apparent reason. I've searched the forums to see if this is a known problem, but no posts apparently. I'm going to try upgrading the software this week as I'm sure thats what Raymarine will suggest as a first step...
Anyway, here are some pics:-
This was a very nice Starlight 38. Didn't get the name, and they left first thing on Sunday morning, so would probably have been going west.
Here we are at anchor, left hand boat.
