Chickening out, or prudence?

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Babylon

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Sat, destination Cherbourg, crept out past Hurst and down the Needles Chan in thick fog, hopping from buoy to buoy. Cleared Needles in poor vis (200m), then set course for France. Wind F5 from east, so lovely beam reach and seas moderate, speed 5.5 to 6.0kn.

Two hours later, swilled side-decks where both my crew, not seasoned sailors, had been ill, then emptied barf-buckets from beside their bunks. Vis better at maybe 1mile.

Two hours hence, on edge of first shipping lane, fog thickens again. Vis down to 100m or so. Radar on: several westbound contacts, one or two looking like converging courses with us. No AIS or DSC facilities.

My thoughts were: okay, a couple of hours of this now, then a couple of hours later for the eastbound boys, all spent down below. Windvane steering. Stressful, sickmaking (I couldn't afford to go dry-mouthed, let alone puke). Daft. Willfully putting my crew's lives in danger.

So I turned back. Crew, upon waking, highly critical. Had a great weekend intead in Poole, then Newtown Creek, then up Beauliea, etc.

Chicken or prudent?
 
Prudence IMO. I too was supposed to be crossing to France, on Friday night, over night. The forecast looked good, but on Friday I could not see an opportunity for a return crossing in anything like comfortable condition. I aborted before I even got to the marina.
 
galadriel said:
Prudence IMO. I too was supposed to be crossing to France, on Friday night, over night. The forecast looked good, but on Friday I could not see an opportunity for a return crossing in anything like comfortable condition. I aborted before I even got to the marina.
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Galadriel, that showed good seamanship in my book.
 
Very prudent I think.
The way of sailing is that , at least for me (the worlds most cautious sailor) is that very many sails get called off or truncated.
It's the way things are , particularly at the moment with the totally carp weather.

It's nice in away to know that we all have moments when we give up , you can always wait for another day

Once , halfway to the CI's in an old Centaur , we split the main right across in the rising wind.
Me and one of the crew had taken Stugeron and spent the whole of the next 6 hrs of so asleep whilst the boat motored back to Dartmouth.

My long term fear is seasickness. I'm not too bad these days and have got some Scoperderm patches to try.
The weather is not going to let me try them at the moment.

We are in Mayflower (Plymouth) where the Rally to Portugal has been postponed for about a week. That's why I'm stuck on the boat posting drivel
 
There is only one person who can make the decision and that is you. And there is only one time you can make it, and that is at the time (not several days later).

More often than not the things you regret are the decisions you don't make, rather than the ones you do make.
 
Good call, prudent, its not always easy being the skipper because ultimately you get all the responsibility, and the flack and in your situation the buckets to clean....:D
 
100% correct decision!!
You as skipper make the decision not a couple of seasick passengers, they may have started out as crew but if below ill they are simply baggage.
Your 'passengers' can complain as much as they like about not crossing but it was your responsibility not theres.
You had a good day anyway so no problem.
 
I had planned the same booze cruise. Can't even boast of getting 4 hours in as we aborted to Poole from Chichester for the weekend. Blast back on Sunday with 9 knots logged and surfing along the North channel to Hurst.
 
Prudence

Babylon

What you did was right.
We ("Resolution", 42 footer) went over to St Vaast on Thursday night and had a fast but lumpy crossing. I was badly seasick (as feared), as was one other crew, but that still left three fit and able crew, one of whom was an excellent substitute navigator/skipper. We have AIS which makes crossing the shipping lanes far less stressful than before. Picked up a lobster pot around the rudder just outside St Vaast, but disentangled it without damage and made it in just as the lock gates opened.

At St Vaast we were joined by Angele on Friday and all had a fine time. Town en fete, fireworks etc.

For the return, the only safe weather window we could see was Sunday, forecast W or SW 20 to 25 knots, rain or mist. All other forecasts had variable or Northerlies. So we had a stonking triple-reef beam reach all the way back, door to door in just a shade over 12 hours. Big seas by the end, one broach that scattered M Gosselin's finest products all over the boat, but a great way to end a great weekend.

I certainly would not consider a Channel crossing unless I had at least two experienced crew whom I knew were unlikely to get seasick.
 
Babylon

Good call, but shame you and Galadriel didn't make it. As Innesker has just said, Saint-Vaast was a fun place to be on Saturday.

We left Saint-Vaast just before Innesker on Sunday but, instead of heading North, we went further South to Carentan. My first time there. Very peaceful and interesting, if slightly sureal, experience (for example sailing over a motorway and lots of WWII jeeps driving round with people dressed as GI's for today's anniversary of D-Day).

On Monday we had to beat up to Barfleur, against northerly F5, before bearing away to Cherbourg. We left Cherbourg Tuesday at 05:00 BST with a southerly F4 building to F6 by the time we were a dozen or so miles from the IoW. Then the heavens opened.

I'm guessing they cancelled the Red Arrows display at Southampton. Even if they hadn't my crew and I were looking like drowned rats and were not in the mood to head any further up Southampton Water than we absolutely needed to.
 
I vote "common sense" too - this is meant to be fun and trying to complete the crossing under those conditions and effectively on your own with a seasick crew is not my understanding of "fun".

It got pretty rough at times over the weekend - we just went down the Medway and the boat was slamming away!
 
Babylon said:
Sat, destination Cherbourg, crept out past Hurst and down the Needles Chan in thick fog, hopping from buoy to buoy. Cleared Needles in poor vis (200m), then set course for France. Wind F5 from east, so lovely beam reach and seas moderate, speed 5.5 to 6.0kn.

Two hours later, swilled side-decks where both my crew, not seasoned sailors, had been ill, then emptied barf-buckets from beside their bunks. Vis better at maybe 1mile.

Two hours hence, on edge of first shipping lane, fog thickens again. Vis down to 100m or so. Radar on: several westbound contacts, one or two looking like converging courses with us. No AIS or DSC facilities.

My thoughts were: okay, a couple of hours of this now, then a couple of hours later for the eastbound boys, all spent down below. Windvane steering. Stressful, sickmaking (I couldn't afford to go dry-mouthed, let alone puke). Daft. Willfully putting my crew's lives in danger.

So I turned back. Crew, upon waking, highly critical. Had a great weekend intead in Poole, then Newtown Creek, then up Beauliea, etc.

Chicken or prudent?
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I don't think the crew have the right to be critical, having been down below and useless during the difficult bit.
Given adequate crew, including one who was competent with the radar, carrying on would not have been unreasonable.
However, had you carried on, you would have had to consider that your crew would be equally out of it on the return trip, with a messy forecast.
Personally I would not have set off in such poor vis, radar or not.
Better to have a good time this side than spend a couple of days wondering when you can break out of euroland.
 
lw395 said:
Personally I would not have set off in such poor vis, radar or not.
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Several bods have made the same observation.

The Fri 2315UTC forecast for Wight was E or NE 5 or 6 later. Slight or mod. Fog patches at first, rain later. Mod or Gd, occ v poor at first.

Therefore, on departure in fog, I was working on the assumption that we might or might not still have fog further out - the only serious hazard in the conditions being fast-moving ship convoys mid-channel.

In the event, the forecast was only wrong in that the fog lingered for much longer. Had it been clearer, I would have pressed on through the lanes towards France, notwithstanding that the rookies were ill.

Was I wrong to set off in the first place?
 
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Babylon,

you were of course right to abort; to be completely honest I do think you shouldn't even have considered it if already in fog.

Maybe that's because the first time I ever crossed the Channel we were hit by thick fog halfway across and had a fun time tacking to & fro in the Separation Zone all night, with only DR navigation then...:rolleyes:
 
Babylon said:
Was I wrong to set off in the first place?
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Only you can know.

You've got a lot of support on here from people saying you did the right thing. I don't really agree with that. No-one can say whether your decision was right or wrong except you.

If you changed your question to "should I feel bad about setting off / turning back" (rather than whether those decisions were "right" or "wrong") then the answer is clear (to me): no - you shouldn't feel bad about it.

A lot of people wouldn't have set out when you did. A lot would have. A lot of people wouldn't have turned back when you did. A lot would have.

Your call. My only insight is that there is sometimes a voice in the back of your head saying "this isn't a good idea". Everyone's voice will be different, but I think it's smart to listen to that voice.
 
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