Out of the channel from Bristol

[mattonthesea]

Having brought her up to Bristol and done all the stuff I had to do for her I am now planning to take her out on sea trials over to Ireland or Scilly at the end of the month. I will also be exploring some of the channel on the way. As it's my first time in this direction can anyone offer me some pointers in routing, places to see and mistake avoidance?

I was thinking of Bristol, Cardiff, Swansea (too long a leg on one tide?) or Lundy if weather looks more favourable to go SW. I'm in a Rival 32 which is not fast to windward although reasonably comfortable in less moderate seas. How much time does the slack travelling up the channel shorten the W going tide by?

Is there a recognised plan for going West? Strangely, neither the pilot or almanac offer pointers on this.

I'll have a crew of three but one is a novice and I don't want to put her through the misery of hours of choppy, wind over tide, for the sake of standing still for six hours.

Thanks

 

[Morpheous]

Sounds like a great trip.

From my limited experience: Take care heading for Swansea, the Nash passage can get seriously nasty

But the highlights:
Lundy - a must see
Clovelly - very pretty, not for too long though
Padstow is a great stop, good atmosphere, no chance of cheap food though!
Cardiff has everything, we are there almost every other weekend, including this one.

Can't help on achieving it in one tide, I no longer have such concerns - its now about 2.5 hours at 24 knots, but a fair bit of diesel. Gin & tonics well and truly spilt attempting the nash passage.

 

[graham]

Passage plan

Basically the only consideration for a cruising yacht if you lock out of Bristol on first or second lock then motor down the River its going to be about an hour before HW at Avonmouth .On a spring the tide will still be flooding strongly on a neap not so bad.Theres little point being at avonmouth any earlier.

Cardiff is easilly done ,you will get there about half tide on the ebb so make sure you stay in the channel approaching the barrage or you could spend a long day on the mud

swansea is also doable provided you get past Nash point before the tide turns the streams get weaker further west. Wether you go through Nash Passage or take the offshore route is up to you , tide runs strongly through the passage so definitely stay out if its turned before you get there.In wind over tide situations there can be overfalls at the approach to the Eastern end of the passage.

Good Luck and hope you have a good sailing season.

 

[Bosun Higgs]

Bristol > Cardiff >Swansea >Milford are reasonable 1 tide legs. As are Bristol> Combe>Padstow >stMary.

The only one I would be unsure about never having done it is Bristol >Combe. Depends obviously on what speed you can average but this wouldnt be a leg for tacking in a Rival 32 as opposed to keeping up 5 to 6 knots with the donkey.

 

[mattonthesea]

Update

Thanks all for help,

however, we didn't heed it too well. Spent an hour on the mud in the middle of the channel outside Caridff! No problems tho'

Good learning curve as to how long it takes to beat westwards. We took it easy so spent a day in Swansea and a day on Lundy before heading back. But it was a good sea trial for the yacht and she took just about everything we threw at her. I now have added in a few extra days for the journey to Brittany in August and will probably call in at Scilly on the way as I didn't get there this time

Matt

 

[ash12]

were you the one calling cardiff about being stuck on the mud last week?

 

[zlod]

A place I found remarkably convenient and useful out west was St Ives. There are at least 5 visitors mooring buoys off Porthminster Beach. You'd float there at all states of the tide.

St Ives won't be that useful for getting to Scilly, but if the wind changes direction or you're not making the speed you want, it's an alternative place to go to on the way. I guess it's a more useful place if you're hoping to get round Land's End to then go south or east and things go wrong.

We found it nice and sheltered in a westerly. Reeds says which wind directions are suitable.

We had St Ives to ourselves midweek.