Cardiff to Sharpness trip - advice please

[lukecsmith]

Hi all, am planning a trip from Cardiff Bay to Sharpness Dock on Sunday (5th June 16). Would appreciate info from anyone who knows the tides in the channel on how best to tackle this. My yacht has a draft of 1.7m. The high tide times don't seem particularly helpful (I want to do this trip in daylight) at 8am and 8pm thereabouts (at Cardiff). I need to get to Sharpness within an hour of high water to use the lock. If I give an estimated cruising speed of 5kn, the trip estimates at 7.5 hrs. That would require leaving Cardiff before low water which would not be ideal at all. 5kn is what I can do without assistance though, and I should be getting upto 5kn of that at full stream, right? So the trip shouldnt take anything like 7.5 hrs hopefully. Has anyone who has done this trip give me a better idea of how long it might take on a slow yacht like mine? Any other tips for the trip would be much appreciated. Im actually wondering if I need to do this in two stages to be safer and make life easier- stop at Portishead for eg the day before. Thanks, Luke

 

[bitbaltic]

Without looking at it in great detail (and without having been further up the channel than Avonmouth), it is roughly a three hour trip from Cardiff to Portishead, leaving on the flood half ride and achieving 5kn STW. As it's about another 16 Nm on to Sharpness, assuming 5kn STW and at least 2kn tide you might just about get there within the hour before HW if you leave Cardiff at LW. However with your 1.7m draft you may struggle to get out of the barrage at LW, meaning going out earlier anyway- so you might as well put the iron topsail on and punch the last of the ebb anyway.

Personally, and to increase the margin of error at a fairly unforgiving destination, I'd stop in Portishead the night before. Many more options that way.

 

[SteveSarabande]

go via Portishead

 

[trapezeartist]

I do Portishead to Lydney at least a couple of times per year. The timing would be just about the same for Sharpness. My boat also does a typical 5 knots through the water.

The most important thing is to not be late at Lydney/Sharpness, orh else you'll just have to go all the way back to Portishead again. So I always write a detailed passage plan with timings. It's much easier to recover some time if you know you're a few minutes late at the Second Crossing rather than discovering it when you get to Berkeley. I just thumbed back through my passage plan book and found this:
Portishead 0915
Second Crossing 0958
Severn Bridge 1027
Slime Road 1 1035
Slime Road 2 1057
Oldbury 1110
Black Rock 1138
Lydney arrive 1145
Lydney HW 1205

You've got a bit of extra time on the way up because HW Sharpness is about 40 minutes after HW Avonmouth. You've got to get a shift on on the way back (especially if going into Portishead) because that is then working against you.

 

[Graham_Wright]

I once did the trip from St Pierre Pill without an engine and a failing wind from the east.

Try as I might, I could not make the dock entrance and dropped the hook about 50 yds upstream. The anchor chain was like a bar of iron!

I've seen coasters rattling the rivets out trying to make an entrance.

High water is your friend.

 

[TOKOLOSHI]

Drop in to St Perre to over tide! See CDYC web site for pilotage!

 

[bitbaltic]

Did the OP complete the trip I wonder?