Concerto
Active member
On Wednesday afternoon Concerto finally departed from Chatham Maritime Marina after just over a decade. It was a sad day think that I would never sail on the Medway or Thames again. No I have not sold Concerto, but last year I moved from Kent to Cheshire. Finally after having to clear out my old business storage unit which I finished at 10pm on Tuesday, I started to sail to new waters and adventures.
On Wednesday I had a few pre-leaving jobs to complete and caught to afternoon high tide at 3pm. As I left I did not know whether I should just go down river and moor in Queenborough or sail to Ramsgate. Once sailing, the decision was easy, Ramsgate here I come. I berthed at 9.45 after a 6¾ hour sail. Mainly close reaching along the Thames using the inshore route close to Sheppy and the mainland shore. At North Foreland the wind was on the nose so on went the engine.
Thursday I was eager to get sailing and left at 7.45. I planned to go to Brighton Marina, but the tides and weather changed that. There was no wind to sail by, so it was a motor all day job. The glassy sea certainly said no wind at all. The tides were 6 hours out of sync for my needs, so ended punching more tide than I am used to. As I had been working so hard to clear the storage unit (I thought it would take 4 to 6 weeks, but ended taking 4 months) I could not find the time to get the boat scrubbed. So a barnacle encrusted prop is not particularly efficient, along with a slightly mucky bottom, so boat speed was not quite like normal. Then as early evening started, a weather warning popped up on my phone for thunder storms and heavy rain. Checking the rainfall info on the Windy app confirmed it was going to be bad. Hence a change of destination to Eastboure. I arrived just before the rain started at 10pm after a 14¼ hour trip. I was lucky somehow as the lightening strikes missed Eastbourne Marina.
Saturday morning I caught the 10am lock out. It was pretty windy and felt I needed a single reef in the main and genoa. The wind direction was SW to WSW and I was heading west. After leaving the marina I took a long fetch almost due south to the edge of the large ship west bound channel zone. You guessed it the tide was flowing east. The gusts of wind near Beachy Head were intense and I seriously considered putting a second reef in the main as I was over canvased. I left until I was clear of the headland and the wind stablised which suited the existing reefs. It was surprisingly cold on the water and battling into a stiff breeze. Once I tacked on to the west making heading, I sailed for some hours and finally decided when off Worthing I needed some more south to my course. After shacking the reefs out, nearing the NW corner of the windfarm, I was surprised by a pod of dolphins. This is the short video I took.
https://youtu.be/FOYOZmkJSqY
The journey continued and I missed the tidal gate at the Looe Channel off Selsy Bill by an hour and a half. Nothing for it but to motor hard as the wind was dropping fast. There was about 2½ knots against me, so progress was slow, then I still had to punch the tide all the way to Cowes. The marinas were rammed, but I had already decided it would be best to go to the visitor pontoons at the Folly Inn. Well I had never seen them so busy. Normally there is space to moor alongside, but in places they were berthed 5 out. Panic set in as it was approaching 3am and I did not want to moor alongside someone at that hour and possibly get moved in a few hours. Then I spotted a double length empty section of pontoon on the other side. I negociated the tight turn due to shallow water and glided into the berth and stopped her using a warp rather than using reverse. I was all moored up, boat tidied and in bed in half an hour. I was zonked after a 17 hour trip.
Sunday should have meant a lie in, but no I woke at 7am after just a few hours sleep. I decided that I might as well get up and leave before most of the other boats awoke. I greeted several as I left and looked to see if the boatman was about to pay the berthing fee. Nope, so I slowly made my way down stream. I shifted all the fenders from starboard to port so I could pick up some diesel. After 20 minutes of slowly passng down the Medine I saw a harbour launch approaching and they looped alongside. The ferryman at the Folly had seen me leave and contacted them. I asked if I could pay them, certainly. How much? £3 per meter amd how long are you. 9.7m, so that's £30 I said and handed them the cash. Then to my horror the fuel barge showed closed. I tried the VHF link, but no response. I saw another harbour launch and asked if and what time it opened. He said 10, so I thought I can wait ¾ hour rather than run out of fuel (again). He then moored inside the fuel barge, and moored the the downstream end. He then started to prepare to open the barge by opening the office, turning on the fuel and checking every pump. Before he finished 2 ribs (one with twin 150hp outboards) came alongside for fuel. To my surprise he then passed the hose to me and did the same for the ribs. When I had topped the tank, he told me there was a super yacht booked to come in later in the day to pick up 20,000 litres, but he only had 22,000 in the tank. He even showed a photo of the 5 decked yacht.
I then headed out and had to wait for the chain ferry to cross, only to get some boats bunch astern. Then we all joined the meddly of races boats leaving the marinas, it was chaos. Some must have thought I was over dressed with a sweatshirt on, especially those is swimming trunks and lifejackets. Finally a ferry was entering as well. All in all it all worked out fine. I headed to port and raised full main as the SW wind was not too strong. I motor sailed along the island shore to cheat the tide, perhaps I should have used the other shore as if is shallower wider. The further I motored, the stronger the wind became and full oil skins were needed.I wondered how long those in swimming trunks had lasted. As I approached the Hurst narrows I decided to shoot across and into Christchurch Bay. Then I unfurled the genoa to leave one reef in. The boat was nearly needing the main reefed. Off Christchurch I tacked south and reefed the main. Once below the level of Isle of Wight, I tacked onto the making leg. This took me near to Bournemouth, where I tacked round an anchored RN patrol vessel. Later I had to take a second reef in the main. I held this tack I held until I thought I could clear along the Dorset coast. Nearly made it, I got as far as Luworth Cove before tacking out again as I could not lay Weymouth. The predicted easing of the wind happened and I shook out all the reefs. Eventually I had to motor. When entering Weymouth at 9pm it looked busy with many boats in rows of 5. I then spied a clear section of pontoon and slipped in. As I approached I got "Hello Roger". It was Tonic, the Elite Sailing school Bavaria 46. The skipper is someone I had chatted to many times. They had left on Saturday and come via Calais. He was surprised to see me as I am only 32ft and they had started some many days earlier. So this trip had taken me 13¼ hours. So in 5 days I had done 51¼ hours of sailing, mostly on the wind. As it is now 2am, I should be catching up with my sleep as in the morning I heading out to cross Lyme Bay.
A further update of the trip will be posted when I get time. Hope you enjoyed reading about this trip. Finally I should mention my normal sleeping period is only about 5½ hours average tbis year according to my FitBit. I can catch up once I reach Hafan Pwllheli Marina in North Wales. I am about half way there now and hoping to be there at the end of the coming week.
On Wednesday I had a few pre-leaving jobs to complete and caught to afternoon high tide at 3pm. As I left I did not know whether I should just go down river and moor in Queenborough or sail to Ramsgate. Once sailing, the decision was easy, Ramsgate here I come. I berthed at 9.45 after a 6¾ hour sail. Mainly close reaching along the Thames using the inshore route close to Sheppy and the mainland shore. At North Foreland the wind was on the nose so on went the engine.
Thursday I was eager to get sailing and left at 7.45. I planned to go to Brighton Marina, but the tides and weather changed that. There was no wind to sail by, so it was a motor all day job. The glassy sea certainly said no wind at all. The tides were 6 hours out of sync for my needs, so ended punching more tide than I am used to. As I had been working so hard to clear the storage unit (I thought it would take 4 to 6 weeks, but ended taking 4 months) I could not find the time to get the boat scrubbed. So a barnacle encrusted prop is not particularly efficient, along with a slightly mucky bottom, so boat speed was not quite like normal. Then as early evening started, a weather warning popped up on my phone for thunder storms and heavy rain. Checking the rainfall info on the Windy app confirmed it was going to be bad. Hence a change of destination to Eastboure. I arrived just before the rain started at 10pm after a 14¼ hour trip. I was lucky somehow as the lightening strikes missed Eastbourne Marina.
Saturday morning I caught the 10am lock out. It was pretty windy and felt I needed a single reef in the main and genoa. The wind direction was SW to WSW and I was heading west. After leaving the marina I took a long fetch almost due south to the edge of the large ship west bound channel zone. You guessed it the tide was flowing east. The gusts of wind near Beachy Head were intense and I seriously considered putting a second reef in the main as I was over canvased. I left until I was clear of the headland and the wind stablised which suited the existing reefs. It was surprisingly cold on the water and battling into a stiff breeze. Once I tacked on to the west making heading, I sailed for some hours and finally decided when off Worthing I needed some more south to my course. After shacking the reefs out, nearing the NW corner of the windfarm, I was surprised by a pod of dolphins. This is the short video I took.
https://youtu.be/FOYOZmkJSqY
The journey continued and I missed the tidal gate at the Looe Channel off Selsy Bill by an hour and a half. Nothing for it but to motor hard as the wind was dropping fast. There was about 2½ knots against me, so progress was slow, then I still had to punch the tide all the way to Cowes. The marinas were rammed, but I had already decided it would be best to go to the visitor pontoons at the Folly Inn. Well I had never seen them so busy. Normally there is space to moor alongside, but in places they were berthed 5 out. Panic set in as it was approaching 3am and I did not want to moor alongside someone at that hour and possibly get moved in a few hours. Then I spotted a double length empty section of pontoon on the other side. I negociated the tight turn due to shallow water and glided into the berth and stopped her using a warp rather than using reverse. I was all moored up, boat tidied and in bed in half an hour. I was zonked after a 17 hour trip.
Sunday should have meant a lie in, but no I woke at 7am after just a few hours sleep. I decided that I might as well get up and leave before most of the other boats awoke. I greeted several as I left and looked to see if the boatman was about to pay the berthing fee. Nope, so I slowly made my way down stream. I shifted all the fenders from starboard to port so I could pick up some diesel. After 20 minutes of slowly passng down the Medine I saw a harbour launch approaching and they looped alongside. The ferryman at the Folly had seen me leave and contacted them. I asked if I could pay them, certainly. How much? £3 per meter amd how long are you. 9.7m, so that's £30 I said and handed them the cash. Then to my horror the fuel barge showed closed. I tried the VHF link, but no response. I saw another harbour launch and asked if and what time it opened. He said 10, so I thought I can wait ¾ hour rather than run out of fuel (again). He then moored inside the fuel barge, and moored the the downstream end. He then started to prepare to open the barge by opening the office, turning on the fuel and checking every pump. Before he finished 2 ribs (one with twin 150hp outboards) came alongside for fuel. To my surprise he then passed the hose to me and did the same for the ribs. When I had topped the tank, he told me there was a super yacht booked to come in later in the day to pick up 20,000 litres, but he only had 22,000 in the tank. He even showed a photo of the 5 decked yacht.
I then headed out and had to wait for the chain ferry to cross, only to get some boats bunch astern. Then we all joined the meddly of races boats leaving the marinas, it was chaos. Some must have thought I was over dressed with a sweatshirt on, especially those is swimming trunks and lifejackets. Finally a ferry was entering as well. All in all it all worked out fine. I headed to port and raised full main as the SW wind was not too strong. I motor sailed along the island shore to cheat the tide, perhaps I should have used the other shore as if is shallower wider. The further I motored, the stronger the wind became and full oil skins were needed.I wondered how long those in swimming trunks had lasted. As I approached the Hurst narrows I decided to shoot across and into Christchurch Bay. Then I unfurled the genoa to leave one reef in. The boat was nearly needing the main reefed. Off Christchurch I tacked south and reefed the main. Once below the level of Isle of Wight, I tacked onto the making leg. This took me near to Bournemouth, where I tacked round an anchored RN patrol vessel. Later I had to take a second reef in the main. I held this tack I held until I thought I could clear along the Dorset coast. Nearly made it, I got as far as Luworth Cove before tacking out again as I could not lay Weymouth. The predicted easing of the wind happened and I shook out all the reefs. Eventually I had to motor. When entering Weymouth at 9pm it looked busy with many boats in rows of 5. I then spied a clear section of pontoon and slipped in. As I approached I got "Hello Roger". It was Tonic, the Elite Sailing school Bavaria 46. The skipper is someone I had chatted to many times. They had left on Saturday and come via Calais. He was surprised to see me as I am only 32ft and they had started some many days earlier. So this trip had taken me 13¼ hours. So in 5 days I had done 51¼ hours of sailing, mostly on the wind. As it is now 2am, I should be catching up with my sleep as in the morning I heading out to cross Lyme Bay.
A further update of the trip will be posted when I get time. Hope you enjoyed reading about this trip. Finally I should mention my normal sleeping period is only about 5½ hours average tbis year according to my FitBit. I can catch up once I reach Hafan Pwllheli Marina in North Wales. I am about half way there now and hoping to be there at the end of the coming week.
