jcwads
Well-Known Member
Hi All
Thought I would post this thread regarding my week away with the SWMBO to Dartmouth. It took a lot of planning and preparation. I had a previous thread where I had sought advice on the passage plan, and this did help greatly, giving me the opportunity to really research areas of overfalls and obstacles such as Portland etc. Here is the summary of the adventure, the highs, lows and even the frustrating! Hope it doesn't bore you too much, and hopefully it may well help others who take their first longer passage and trip away on their boats.
In my recently purchased Monterey 275CR my wife and I wanted to take a weeks holiday in the new toy. My experience is fairly novice, apart from some yachting when I was a teenager. Learning navigation and weather conditions was something I picked up again quickly having studied and practiced this from my sailing days.
The initial plan was to depart my home port of Hamble and travel to Yarmouth for the night. Then to Weymouth with a stop over night before crossing to Dartmouth the following day. We arrived in Hamble on Friday 26th August and it was a glorious day. We got all final preparations underway, the boat was stocked up, set up and we fuelled up to the brim. I had purchased enough safety equipment to see us through a cyclone - flares, GPS PLB, Softwood Bungs, a Mallet (for said bungs), a safety knife for any lobster pot related introductions and a watertight bag to put it in.... Paranoid maybe, but at least we were kitted up to the max!
First destination - Yarmouth.
Good and straight forward passage to Yarmouth in F2 conditions. The sun was shining, and the sea was calm. We arrived in Yarmouth inside 45 minutes and managed to get a berth for the night, only just though, it was pretty packed. Had a great afternoon at the George Hotel - its garden is something else, with sweeping views out to sea. On looking at the weather for the next few days, the Sunday which was Weymouth to Dartmouth had started to look a little too windy for my liking. F5 was on the cards and the wind was against the predicted tide so we took the decision to go Yarmouth to Dartmouth in one go, as the conditions were wind with tide all the way. I re-did my passage plan and plotted the following -
Head west and take the north channel past the Shingles. Then take a bearing from the North Buoy to take me 3.5 miles offshore of St Albans Head. Then take a bearing to take me 5NM offshore of Portland and finally straight across Lyme Bay (had originally wanted to be closer to shore but the SWMBO seemed happy to date the direct route) and then arrival at Dartmouth.
We set of at 6:45am on the Saturday. Weather was predicting F3 with occasional F4 gusts. Tide was in our favour, hence the early start and the wind was Easterly / South Easterly. Shortly out of Yarmouth my amazing safety cautious idea of brining a rubber mallet (for those bungs I purchased incase of seacock failure) came into its own as the SWMBO shut the bow line into the cabin door rendering it stuck. A few wacks and we were free, meaning we would have access to our sleeping quarters for the rest of the trip.
Totally smooth pass round Hurst and to be honest, a nice easy trip all the way past St Albans and towards Portland. A little bit of F3 chop but the waves were carrying us along nicely with our speed at around 16 knots (anything more and we started to bang about a bit). We rounded the Bill offshore and no dramas (phew). I had wholeheartedly been really worried about it. Got a few interesting choppy waves as we got to the end of the offshore route into Lyme Bay but nothing too worrying. We carried on across the bay with the same conditions and eventually saw the coastline appear. It was quite a feeling to know we'd made the journey and planned it correctly. Did the whole trip in under 5 hours. Not bad at all!!!
Arrived at the beautiful Dartmouth and what a lovely sight. Such a nice estuary to enter. Call up Dart Haven and full. Dart Marina - Full. Realising that I had chosen to arrive on the busiest day of Dartmouth Regatta was a bit of a blunder. However Dart Harbour rafted us next to another power boat on a mid river berth, so we were all sorted eventually.
First issue of the trip then arrives - we can't radio the yacht taxi and come to think of it - we don't get much traffic on the VHF either. Plus it takes me an age to get a response from anyone. It becomes clear my VHF is transmitting way way too low, next to the point of useless. I fork our for a handheld set to keep us safe in the meantime and plan to have the aerial looked at after bank holiday weekend.
After a couple of brilliant days in Dartmouth we take a day trip to Salcombe. I make my first passage plan mistake of the trip, probably because I thought that having past St Albans and Portland that they would be the major worries of any journey. But no!!! Say hello to START POINT! I didn't pick up the overfall markers on the plotter, and 2 mins into passing through I was considering turning round. We were being tossed and turned all over the place with wind against tide and a sea state that belonged in a dementia unit. SWMBO looks pretty worried so I put on my best oscar winning calm face and say it will all be fine. Luckily it was and we got through eventually and got to Salcombe. Needless to say the return journey was a well planned wide berth on Start Point, plus we have the wind and tide working together. Good news on returning to Dartmouth was we got a berth in Dart Haven, so we had power and water.
Day 5 into our trip and we live the boat owning dream and anchor off Blackpool Sands on what was a perfect sunny day. There is nothing better than having a nice lunch onboard and a swim and sunbathe in the glorious sun. I checked out our engine bay and saw the holding tank was looking decidedly full. So later in the day we go well offshore and attempt to pump out some room in the tank. Issue number 2 arrived. The macerator was pouring the contents of the holding tank into the engine bay and bilge and not overboard. I immediately call Dart Marina and book in an engineer the next morning. Unfortunately until then we had to deal with a terrible stench coming from the engine bay, which meant the whole boat stank of sewage. That night was not the best I have ever had! We were phoning round looking for hotel rooms at 11pm!!! Horrendous.
The next morning the macerator is replaced with the broken unit missing 2 sealing bolts with a 3rd lose and not working anyway. So basically it was simply pouring waste out of the holes in the unit!!! Get an engineer to look at the VHF too and it so happens that the aerial is perished (threadbare wide being pulled out the aerial and all seals missing). Given I know nothing about how to know a VHF aerial should operate this is a little gutting. Bought the boat 7 weeks ago and would have hoped it was operational, especially having done the journey from Hamble to Dartmouth. End up with a whopping bill to pay but at least all is fixed!!!
Back in more pleasant conditions with things working, we plan our trip home. This time we plan to go onshore Portland and stay at Weymouth, and onto Hamble the next morning. Reason being that we can leave Dartmouth in the afternoon to catch the tide round the Bill. I got everything planned, while the SWMBO went into town to do some purchasing of expensive and unimportant items. As I am sat there planning in the marina a yacht arrives and asks if I am moving soon - it turns out the be the owner of the berth I have been put in. I politely explain my wife is in town, and was about to explain that given my novice experience that I would phone her and get her back quickly to help me move out their way. However before I can finish my words the yacht owner exploded into a torrent of abuse, saying he didn't give a damn where or what my wife was doing and I have to move now! At first I thought it was in jest, but it turned out he was deadly serious. Pretty aggressive and horrible man really. Literally shouted at me at the top of his voice. I phoned the marina office and explained my situation and my wife hurriedly got back to the boat. In fairness to the marina they were quite apologetic about the situation, as the owner was back early. But I can't say that the berth owner didn't leave a bad taste at the end of our Dartmouth experience. Hey ho, I bit my tongue and left the berth to head to Weymouth.
Trip was a F4, so a little more choppy than before, but had the wind in our favour. I anxiously approached the Bill to the north to start the inshore. To my delight I saw 2 yachts waiting to do the same thing, so this boosted my confidence massively. Heading down to the tip of the bill we pretty much got showered with sea water the whole way. Luckily as we started to round the sea state calmed and we took a nice steady route inshore. There were not too many lobster pots, and the whole experience was a whole lot better than I had anticipated. When we hit the route north to Weymouth I was elated, I really felt I had navigated and got through a challenging route. We had a great night in Weymouth, its a lovely town, and probably celebrated a little too much on the red wine. (I am on holiday after all).
Next morning was another early start at 6:30 to get the wind and tide offshore to St Albans and then north channel at Hurst into the solent. Conditions were F4/5. This leg was the most challenging of the trip. Whilst we had favourable wind and tide, the sea state meant a lot more work from me on the helm. I was a little bumpy and probably made me learn that this is the max I would be comfortable doing on a longer journey if it meant getting to a destination when required. Arrived at Hurst with no dramas, and then all of a sudden things changed. On the way out the week before the sea was calm and friendly, so I had an abundance of confidence that I would meeting the same conditions. It was probably 3 hours into the flood and to my knowledge that would be fine. But I must have hit some overfalls (the trap) and we got shaken around. It didn't help having a large powerboat steam past us the other way at about 25+ knots to give us their wake to add to the rollercoaster. Then ahead of us I saw the tidal rip between hurst and wight. I've never seen anything like it. A strip of white turbulent water that only was about 100 yards long. It wasn't massively rough, but it knocked us about a little. Then passing through the water in the solent was eerily calm, returning to normal sea state after another 300 yards or so. Anyway, we got through albeit after some interesting experiences!
We arrive back at Hamble after 3 hours. It was the end of the adventure, and what an adventure it was. My experience levels have increase, my wallet has lightened and we had such a great time. Good food at fabulous restaurants, good times in great towns, great fun our our boat, and above all we just loved the freedom of being on the water.
Anyway this post is far too long, but wanted to share the experience.
Jonathan
Thought I would post this thread regarding my week away with the SWMBO to Dartmouth. It took a lot of planning and preparation. I had a previous thread where I had sought advice on the passage plan, and this did help greatly, giving me the opportunity to really research areas of overfalls and obstacles such as Portland etc. Here is the summary of the adventure, the highs, lows and even the frustrating! Hope it doesn't bore you too much, and hopefully it may well help others who take their first longer passage and trip away on their boats.
In my recently purchased Monterey 275CR my wife and I wanted to take a weeks holiday in the new toy. My experience is fairly novice, apart from some yachting when I was a teenager. Learning navigation and weather conditions was something I picked up again quickly having studied and practiced this from my sailing days.
The initial plan was to depart my home port of Hamble and travel to Yarmouth for the night. Then to Weymouth with a stop over night before crossing to Dartmouth the following day. We arrived in Hamble on Friday 26th August and it was a glorious day. We got all final preparations underway, the boat was stocked up, set up and we fuelled up to the brim. I had purchased enough safety equipment to see us through a cyclone - flares, GPS PLB, Softwood Bungs, a Mallet (for said bungs), a safety knife for any lobster pot related introductions and a watertight bag to put it in.... Paranoid maybe, but at least we were kitted up to the max!
First destination - Yarmouth.
Good and straight forward passage to Yarmouth in F2 conditions. The sun was shining, and the sea was calm. We arrived in Yarmouth inside 45 minutes and managed to get a berth for the night, only just though, it was pretty packed. Had a great afternoon at the George Hotel - its garden is something else, with sweeping views out to sea. On looking at the weather for the next few days, the Sunday which was Weymouth to Dartmouth had started to look a little too windy for my liking. F5 was on the cards and the wind was against the predicted tide so we took the decision to go Yarmouth to Dartmouth in one go, as the conditions were wind with tide all the way. I re-did my passage plan and plotted the following -
Head west and take the north channel past the Shingles. Then take a bearing from the North Buoy to take me 3.5 miles offshore of St Albans Head. Then take a bearing to take me 5NM offshore of Portland and finally straight across Lyme Bay (had originally wanted to be closer to shore but the SWMBO seemed happy to date the direct route) and then arrival at Dartmouth.
We set of at 6:45am on the Saturday. Weather was predicting F3 with occasional F4 gusts. Tide was in our favour, hence the early start and the wind was Easterly / South Easterly. Shortly out of Yarmouth my amazing safety cautious idea of brining a rubber mallet (for those bungs I purchased incase of seacock failure) came into its own as the SWMBO shut the bow line into the cabin door rendering it stuck. A few wacks and we were free, meaning we would have access to our sleeping quarters for the rest of the trip.
Totally smooth pass round Hurst and to be honest, a nice easy trip all the way past St Albans and towards Portland. A little bit of F3 chop but the waves were carrying us along nicely with our speed at around 16 knots (anything more and we started to bang about a bit). We rounded the Bill offshore and no dramas (phew). I had wholeheartedly been really worried about it. Got a few interesting choppy waves as we got to the end of the offshore route into Lyme Bay but nothing too worrying. We carried on across the bay with the same conditions and eventually saw the coastline appear. It was quite a feeling to know we'd made the journey and planned it correctly. Did the whole trip in under 5 hours. Not bad at all!!!
Arrived at the beautiful Dartmouth and what a lovely sight. Such a nice estuary to enter. Call up Dart Haven and full. Dart Marina - Full. Realising that I had chosen to arrive on the busiest day of Dartmouth Regatta was a bit of a blunder. However Dart Harbour rafted us next to another power boat on a mid river berth, so we were all sorted eventually.
First issue of the trip then arrives - we can't radio the yacht taxi and come to think of it - we don't get much traffic on the VHF either. Plus it takes me an age to get a response from anyone. It becomes clear my VHF is transmitting way way too low, next to the point of useless. I fork our for a handheld set to keep us safe in the meantime and plan to have the aerial looked at after bank holiday weekend.
After a couple of brilliant days in Dartmouth we take a day trip to Salcombe. I make my first passage plan mistake of the trip, probably because I thought that having past St Albans and Portland that they would be the major worries of any journey. But no!!! Say hello to START POINT! I didn't pick up the overfall markers on the plotter, and 2 mins into passing through I was considering turning round. We were being tossed and turned all over the place with wind against tide and a sea state that belonged in a dementia unit. SWMBO looks pretty worried so I put on my best oscar winning calm face and say it will all be fine. Luckily it was and we got through eventually and got to Salcombe. Needless to say the return journey was a well planned wide berth on Start Point, plus we have the wind and tide working together. Good news on returning to Dartmouth was we got a berth in Dart Haven, so we had power and water.
Day 5 into our trip and we live the boat owning dream and anchor off Blackpool Sands on what was a perfect sunny day. There is nothing better than having a nice lunch onboard and a swim and sunbathe in the glorious sun. I checked out our engine bay and saw the holding tank was looking decidedly full. So later in the day we go well offshore and attempt to pump out some room in the tank. Issue number 2 arrived. The macerator was pouring the contents of the holding tank into the engine bay and bilge and not overboard. I immediately call Dart Marina and book in an engineer the next morning. Unfortunately until then we had to deal with a terrible stench coming from the engine bay, which meant the whole boat stank of sewage. That night was not the best I have ever had! We were phoning round looking for hotel rooms at 11pm!!! Horrendous.
The next morning the macerator is replaced with the broken unit missing 2 sealing bolts with a 3rd lose and not working anyway. So basically it was simply pouring waste out of the holes in the unit!!! Get an engineer to look at the VHF too and it so happens that the aerial is perished (threadbare wide being pulled out the aerial and all seals missing). Given I know nothing about how to know a VHF aerial should operate this is a little gutting. Bought the boat 7 weeks ago and would have hoped it was operational, especially having done the journey from Hamble to Dartmouth. End up with a whopping bill to pay but at least all is fixed!!!
Back in more pleasant conditions with things working, we plan our trip home. This time we plan to go onshore Portland and stay at Weymouth, and onto Hamble the next morning. Reason being that we can leave Dartmouth in the afternoon to catch the tide round the Bill. I got everything planned, while the SWMBO went into town to do some purchasing of expensive and unimportant items. As I am sat there planning in the marina a yacht arrives and asks if I am moving soon - it turns out the be the owner of the berth I have been put in. I politely explain my wife is in town, and was about to explain that given my novice experience that I would phone her and get her back quickly to help me move out their way. However before I can finish my words the yacht owner exploded into a torrent of abuse, saying he didn't give a damn where or what my wife was doing and I have to move now! At first I thought it was in jest, but it turned out he was deadly serious. Pretty aggressive and horrible man really. Literally shouted at me at the top of his voice. I phoned the marina office and explained my situation and my wife hurriedly got back to the boat. In fairness to the marina they were quite apologetic about the situation, as the owner was back early. But I can't say that the berth owner didn't leave a bad taste at the end of our Dartmouth experience. Hey ho, I bit my tongue and left the berth to head to Weymouth.
Trip was a F4, so a little more choppy than before, but had the wind in our favour. I anxiously approached the Bill to the north to start the inshore. To my delight I saw 2 yachts waiting to do the same thing, so this boosted my confidence massively. Heading down to the tip of the bill we pretty much got showered with sea water the whole way. Luckily as we started to round the sea state calmed and we took a nice steady route inshore. There were not too many lobster pots, and the whole experience was a whole lot better than I had anticipated. When we hit the route north to Weymouth I was elated, I really felt I had navigated and got through a challenging route. We had a great night in Weymouth, its a lovely town, and probably celebrated a little too much on the red wine. (I am on holiday after all).
Next morning was another early start at 6:30 to get the wind and tide offshore to St Albans and then north channel at Hurst into the solent. Conditions were F4/5. This leg was the most challenging of the trip. Whilst we had favourable wind and tide, the sea state meant a lot more work from me on the helm. I was a little bumpy and probably made me learn that this is the max I would be comfortable doing on a longer journey if it meant getting to a destination when required. Arrived at Hurst with no dramas, and then all of a sudden things changed. On the way out the week before the sea was calm and friendly, so I had an abundance of confidence that I would meeting the same conditions. It was probably 3 hours into the flood and to my knowledge that would be fine. But I must have hit some overfalls (the trap) and we got shaken around. It didn't help having a large powerboat steam past us the other way at about 25+ knots to give us their wake to add to the rollercoaster. Then ahead of us I saw the tidal rip between hurst and wight. I've never seen anything like it. A strip of white turbulent water that only was about 100 yards long. It wasn't massively rough, but it knocked us about a little. Then passing through the water in the solent was eerily calm, returning to normal sea state after another 300 yards or so. Anyway, we got through albeit after some interesting experiences!
We arrive back at Hamble after 3 hours. It was the end of the adventure, and what an adventure it was. My experience levels have increase, my wallet has lightened and we had such a great time. Good food at fabulous restaurants, good times in great towns, great fun our our boat, and above all we just loved the freedom of being on the water.
Anyway this post is far too long, but wanted to share the experience.
Jonathan
It just gets better as you keep going west...
