Passage plans

[Elza_Skip]

Bristol is a great destination and really no more planning than Minehead.

I reckon the best best is for you to sketch out your rough passage plan and then get the forum to comment. That way you learn from the exercise, tailor it to your preferences but still get the input from those who have gone before.

Anyway, if you let me know when you want to go to Bristol we would be happy to follow you over in Wisy.

BTW, when you talk to the bristol lock keeper on the phone to book a lock, they will confirm what time to plan to arrive, and there are various threads here on ti- that's where I got the info from and it turned out to be a doddle really.

Vernon

 

[LizzyD]

As I have often confessed on here, I am still learning all of the time even though I've been sailing for a few years now. My lack of passage planning saw me and Bev in quite a bit of trouble two years ago.

We'd made our way to Milford during our Summer cruise. The weather was typically British (rhymes with Barry White!) and we abandoned the trip, deciding instead to return home and go touring in the car.

We'd arrived at Milford on a weekend day. However, we were now going to be leaving on a weekday and that meant a 6 mile sail due South before we could do any Easting because of the firing ranges at Castle Martin etc. Being a canny sailor (or so I thought) we would travel up channel on the flood. However, the wind had got up and had veered overnight from a NW to a NE. This meant that once we'd gone out on our six mile detour southwards, we had the wind on the nose when we turned east. I'd logged our departure time as 08:00 and when it got to 10:30, I began to worry that the fuel tank might begin to get low.

Lizzy is an old boat and doesn't have a fuel guage. If she had run our of derv, I'd not only have to refill her from canned stock, but I'd also have the near impossible task of bleeding the system whilst rolling around in 15' waves.

My lack of passage planning meant that I was out at sea and I couldn't go east as I wanted to, because the wind was on the nose and I was running out of fuel. Although I had loads of canned stock, getting it into the main tank was almost impossible, as th filler cap is on the gunwhale and was constantly being washed over by breaking water coming over the bow. I couldn't turn back westerly, as the tide was against me. I couldn't go north, becasue of the firing ranges, and south led nowhere that I wanted to go to.

Suddenly, I found myself in a world of hits (anag) and I didn't really know what to do for the best. There was no doubt in my mind that I had to get more fuel in the tank. I headed North and hoped that the MOD would see me on their radars - which fortunately, they did. The safety range boat came out and advised us that we were were within the firing range. I felt a little like Del Boy as I explained our predicament. I was trying to get under the lee of St Govern's Head to re-fuel. They kindly offered to inform the range who had to stop their training whilst they led us to St Govern's Head.

My lack of foresight didn't go unpunished. Whilst I was, and still am, truly sorry for spoiling essential MOD training, caused through my own lack of planning, the safety range boat took Lizzy and her useless crew through the roughest water I have ever, ever experienced in my life. We were both scared to death and when a wave broke into the cockpit, we accepted that death was inevitable (no exaggeration, I kid you not).

We intended to go to Swansea. Instead, we made a bolt for Tenby and just abandoned the boat on a fisherman's mooring (seeking approval and permission the following day) whilst Bev and I hid in a hotel to regain our nerves.

When the day came to leave Tenby, I really didn't want to get back on board and was considering selling the boat. Clearly, I'm not cut out for sailing and it's a matter of time before I kill myself and someone else. However, we had a lovely trip to Swansea and then on home to Cardiff over the following few days.

I now plan very thoroughly, even for short hops to Bristol or Portishead, not just taking the wind speed into account, but also its direction and likely effect it will have on the sea conditions. Flares are now carried about our person. I have interfaced the GPS with the DSC radio to we can push the button if we cannot actually send a verbal distress message, and a handheld radio is carried in a waterproof cover so that we can still call for help if we go over the side.

I'm just worried about what lessons I will learn this year. Hopefully nothing as harsh as that one.

Take care all and safe boating,


Lizzy D

 

[sb99]

Thanks for the offer Vernon.

We'll have to firm up a date once the good weather arrives /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif


See you soon

 

[sb99]

[ QUOTE ]

When the day came to leave Tenby, I really didn't want to get back on board and was considering selling the boat.

Lizzy D

[/ QUOTE ]

You did well to keep going after such a scare and Bev is obviously made of stern stuff.

Bet you're glad you stuck at it

 

[mrbloto]

done the same myself left milford2200tosail to dale, to anchor for 6 hours. nice bright start first light tide, turns 2hours early if you stay inside crow rock. so by the time you get to st gowans you got a flooding tide, all the way to swansea.first time crew been on boat, a24 ft wash deck ex racing boat so what did we do, a few beers we will carry on. what next, wind picked up to a7, we broached , took down main just a small jib. took 7hrs to do what we could have done in 2 hours if we kept to our orginal plan, the only consolation it was so black we could not see how bad the seas were. first light on the nose5-6wind over tide, all the way to swansea. our bow dipped in to every wave across carmarthen bay