End of the South West tour

[Morpheous]

Ah well, our summer tour of the south west is now coming to a close. From Portishead we have visited: Watchet, Lundy, Padstow, Clovelly and are now in Swansea. Planning to head back to Portishead this evening provided the forecast is correct and the wind drops later. It has been a fantastic experience, real feel like we know the boat now. Highlights include seeing dolphins twice and a huge sunfish doing acrobatics right in front of us. Definitely made the right choice not keep the boat on the south coast.

 

[Sneds]

Well done, glad it all went ok and you had a good time.

Got any pics?

 

[graham]

Sounds like a good cruise,great to hear .

Ive only ever seen one sunfish,it was about 4 ft diameter but apparently thats just a little one! I thought it was a Basking shark initially when I saw the dorsal fin moving slowly.

 

[Morpheous]

Spoke too soon!

Final leg did not go quite as well. Gear linkage cable on the starboard engine snapped whilst manouvering onto the fuel pontoon at Swansea leaving the engine stuck in gear. Took a few minutes to realise what was going before we got her back under control. Ended up pinned bow on to the wall but fortunately no damaged and managed to miss all the other boats. We then decided to to still head back to Portishead where Advance marine would be waiting for us. We could run OK, just started up the stbd engine when clear of the locks. Of course my power stering is on the stbd engine!

The other mistake was planning an inshore route round Nash point. This was Friday night when someone was washed off Porthcawl pier. Big mistake - thats the most scary boating experience I have had in a long time. We heard all the maydays but could not help in those (and our) conditions.

Still we made it back and got through the lock with help. Divers down on Saturday and new cable installed.

I do have pics, will upload some when I get them all downloaded from the various cameras.