Penarth to Windsor

Broom 450 is an ace boat, and so long as there are no unforeseen issues and the weather plays ball, your original plan seems achievable to me. Only pointer, and your probably aware, but from Lundy onwards down the devon, cornish coast keep a good look out for lobster pots as they are well scattered. On a positive note, keep a look out for pods of dolphins as there are plenty of those aswell.
Have a good safe trip, and it would be great to see pics of the journey updated on here please.
 
Curious now, where are you and the boat, on the M4 or the ogin?

I rather hope the latter in spite of my previous comments and transport recommendation
 
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Blimming Heck !

Sneds said:
Curious now, where are you and the boat, on the M4 or the ogin?

I rather hope the latter in spite of my previous comments and transport recommendation
Click to expand...


The Thames" grapevine" reports that the boat and crew is now safely moored on the upper Thames.
The story is according to my source,first stop, a quick refuel on the Solent, round for a
overnighter at Queenborough and on up through the lock the following day.
Hope there will be a tale to tell..... when the skipper gets his breath back.:)
 
Re: Blimming Heck !

Well guys we are home and tied up in Windsor. After endless checking of forecasts we decided that we would go and at the worse the boat would be back on the South Coast and an easier journey to get to than Penarth.

Collected the crew from Windsor Tuesday morning and drove to Penarth arriving at the boat for 13.00 While the crew and I checked the routes and loaded the plotters filled up with fuel and did last minute engine room checks My better half disappeared to Tesco to stock the boat by 19.00 we was ready for the mornings departure a quick meal out and goodbyes to Lynn who was booked into a local hotel for the night we retired to the boat and set alarms for a 05.30 morning call which came round all to soon.


We locked out the marina at 6.30 and called the barrage for a lock out to sea. While waiting for the lock to fill the starboard engine and stalled and didn't seem to want to start again. Heart in the mouth moment strange boat pitch dark having to manoeuvre on one engine. Seemed like the passage was going to be over before we had even started. Lucky enough it was operator problem on the restart not being used to EDC I didn't realise I was still in gear.
Problem over we put a very tentative nose out into the Bristol Channel at HW Penarth. Into NW 3to 4 wind with a small swell. Increased speed as we picked up our course to 12 knots not wanting to push to hard in the dark.


By 7.30 we had daylight in a grey and dismal Bristol channel increased speed to 20 knots and headed for Estuary. Our plan being to make Falmouth that day but we never got as big as push we were hoping for from the tide so decided to push up to 23 knots to stay on plan. After approx. 3 hours we were out into the estuary and beginning to feel the Atlantic swell rolling in probably by this time about a metre high and the wind had increased to steady 4. we started to slam in the short chop and had to slow down to a more comfortable 18knots. This continued till we were past Hartland Point and we then was able to speed up to 21 knots in a beam sea but with a much longer fetch.


Passing Lands End we began to recalculate our fuel and going by the fuel flow readings from the EDC we seemed to be using a lot more fuel than expected this was contradicted by the fuel gauges but it was a strange boat and we wasn't sure which to believe. All my calculations had been based on the boat test reports and Volvo spec sheets as well as talking to other owners. To add to the pressure the afternoon forecast was looking particularly gloomy for Friday daytime around Ramsgate and the Forelands.


The fuel gauges and the test reports and all the other information agreed with what I had been expecting and only the flow gauges disagreed . I went into the engine room and did a tap test on the tanks which backed up the fuel gauge readings. I was reasonably happy that fuel wasn't an issue but in light of the forecast decided that we make for Plymouth rather than Falmouth but keep Falmouth as a back up if the fuel situation seemed any worse.


All was well and we made Plymouth just as it was getting dark and made our way to the Haven where we refuelled with 1200 litres of fuel after completing 239 miles in 12 hours.

Stayed on the fuel berth all night with the kind permission of the mooring manager tucked into a well deserved meal at the marina restaurant and after one or two well deserved drinks we retired knowing we had along day the next morning.

Another 5.30 start and we crept out of the Haven and Plymouth into the sound at a lazy 10 knots. More confident now of our fuel burn but with an increasingly pessimistic forecast In Thames and Dover sea areas. We modified our plans of going to Cowes to refuel and then on to Brighton for the night we decided to do the Cowes leg and reevaluate everything then.


We left carrying a knot or two of tide with us and turned east for the Solent pushed our speed up to 24 knots in a flat for 2 to 3 had a quick burst to see what her top speed was with the newly scraped back hull and replaced anti fouling and re furbished propellers I was delighted to see her keep climbing to 30.04 knots through the water and 31 knots over the ground 3 more knots than she had done on sea trials.


A great run to Cowes arriving by 12.45 after a quick refuel topping up with an additional 820 litres of fuel and a engine room check it was decided after getting the latest forecast that if we where to get past Ramsgate we had to do it that night. By 6 in the morning it was forecast to be blowing 18 knots gusting 24 and by 10.00 blowing 25 gusting 30K.
The decision was that we would make for Queenborough direct from Cowes and estimated and arrival time of 02.30 in the morning. We would press on through daylight making the best time we could and then slow down it was dark.

We decided to have a watch system that let everybody have 2.5 hrs sleep before it was dark and have everybody on watch in the dark.
We left the Solent at23 knots but had a foul tide all the way to the Forelands to contend with and at times was 2.5 knots against us. We lost the light as we passed Dungeness and at first the darkness wasn't to bad and I felt comfortable to maintain 20 knots. We worked a system where Charlie my next experienced crew would run the plot backed up by Clive who was using Navionics on his iPad to back up the navigation plan and I ran the radar and Ais Plot. This worked so well I was happy to run at 18 knots in the dark on the logic that I wouldn't be able to see a lobster plot at 10 knots any more than I could at 18. The weather was still a benign 3 to 4 and was pushed on past Dover up to the Forelands where I slowed down to 15 Knots as we turned into the Princes channel and had the pleasure of following a huge tanker all the way at 15 knots into the Medway.

Turning into the Swale we reduced speed to 8 knots while we prepared line and fenders and hoped that we could get on the Queenborough pontoon. No such luck and ended up picking a buoy up for the night. Finally being secure at 23.00


Next morning we could get a lay in as HW London Bridge wasn't till nearly 16.00. I have to say we did hit the Whiskey bottle quite hard with a great fry up celebration meal.


Left Queenborough at 11.00 am. into a very gusty for 4/5 sea in the Sea Reaches but not enough bother us. Had a uneventful trip up the Thames passing London Bridge at 14.30. Then we had the only incident of the whole trip when we miscalculated the height of Hammersmith Bridge and lost the riding light. A small price to pay.


Arrived Teddington at 17.00 and pushed on to Weybridge passing Molesey Lock two day before it closed. Good pub meal that night and then pottered up to Windsor the next morning.

Fabulous boat completing 620 mile in two days with over 30 hours running and a fuel burn at over 3/4 mile per gallon, probably cost me a £1000 more than trucking by road but It was worth every penny. Haven't stopped grinning since I got home.
 
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Re: Blimming Heck !

Newbroom said:
Well guys we are home and tied up in Windsor. After endless checking of forecasts we decided that we would go and at the worse the boat would be back on the South Coast and an easier journey to get to than Penarth.

Collected the crew from Windsor Tuesday morning and drove to Penarth arriving at the boat for 13.00 While the crew and I checked the routes and loaded the plotters filled up with fuel and did last minute engine room checks My better half disappeared to Tesco to stock the boat by 19.00 we was ready for the mornings departure a quick meal out and goodbyes to Lynn who was booked into a local hotel for the night we retired to the boat and set alarms for a 05.30 morning call which came round all to soon.


We locked out the marina at 6.30 and called the barrage for a lock out to sea. While waiting for the lock to fill the starboard engine and stalled and didn't seem to want to start again. Heart in the mouth moment strange boat pitch dark having to manoeuvre on one engine. Seemed like the passage was going to be over before we had even started. Lucky enough it was operator problem on the restart not being used to EDC I didn't realise I was still in gear.
Problem over we put a very tentative nose out into the Bristol Channel at HW Penarth. Into NW 3to 4 wind with a small swell. Increased speed as we picked up our course to 12 knots not wanting to push to hard in the dark.


By 7.30 we had daylight in a grey and dismal Bristol channel increased speed to 20 knots and headed for Estuary. Our plan being to make Falmouth that day but we never got as big as push we were hoping for from the tide so decided to push up to 23 knots to stay on plan. After approx. 3 hours we were out into the estuary and beginning to feel the Atlantic swell rolling in probably by this time about a metre high and the wind had increased to steady 4. we started to slam in the short chop and had to slow down to a more comfortable 18knots. This continued till we were past Hartland Point and we then was able to speed up to 21 knots in a beam sea but with a much longer fetch.


Passing Lands End we began to recalculate our fuel and going by the fuel flow readings from the EDC we seemed to be using a lot more fuel than expected this was contradicted by the fuel gauges but it was a strange boat and we wasn't sure which to believe. All my calculations had been based on the boat test reports and Volvo spec sheets as well as talking to other owners. To add to the pressure the afternoon forecast was looking particularly gloomy for Friday daytime around Ramsgate and the Forelands.


The fuel gauges and the test reports and all the other information agreed with what I had been expecting and only the flow gauges disagreed . I went into the engine room and did a tap test on the tanks which backed up the fuel gauge readings. I was reasonably happy that fuel wasn't an issue but in light of the forecast decided that we make for Plymouth rather than Falmouth but keep Falmouth as a back up if the fuel situation seemed any worse.


All was well and we made Plymouth just as it was getting dark and made our way to the Haven where we refuelled with 1200 litres of fuel after completing 189 miles in 12 hours.

Stayed on the fuel berth all night with the kind permission of the mooring manager tucked into a well deserved meal at the marina restaurant and after one or two well deserved drinks we retired knowing we had along day the next morning.

Another 5.30 start and we crept out of the Haven and Plymouth into the sound at a lazy 10 knots. More confident now of our fuel burn but with an increasingly pessimistic forecast In Thames and Dover sea areas. We modified our plans of going to Cowes to refuel and then on to Brighton for the night we decided to do the Cowes leg and reevaluate everything then.


We left carrying a knot or two of tide with us and turned east for the Solent pushed our speed up to 24 knots in a flat for 2 to 3 had a quick burst to see what her top speed was with the newly scraped back hull and replaced anti fouling and re furbished propellers I was delighted to see her keep climbing to 30.04 knots through the water and 31 knots over the ground 3 more knots than she had done on sea trials.


A great run to Cowes arriving by 12.45 after a quick refuel topping up with an additional 820 litres of fuel and a engine room check it was decided after getting the latest forecast that if we where to get past Ramsgate we had to do it that night. By 6 in the morning it was forecast to be blowing 18 knots gusting 24 and by 10.00 blowing 25 gusting 30K.
The decision was that we would make for Queenborough direct from Cowes and estimated and arrival time of 02.30 in the morning. We would press on through daylight making the best time we could and then slow down it was dark.

We decided to have a watch system that let everybody have 2.5 hrs sleep before it was dark and have everybody on watch in the dark.
We left the Solent at23 knots but had a foul tide all the way to the Forelands to contend with and at times was 2.5 knots against us. We lost the light as we passed Dungeness and at first the darkness wasn't to bad and I felt comfortable to maintain 20 knots. We worked a system where Charlie my next experienced crew would run the plot backed up by Clive who was using Navionics on his iPad to back up the navigation plan and I ran the radar and Ais Plot. This worked so well I was happy to run at 18 knots in the dark on the logic that I wouldn't be able to see a lobster plot at 10 knots any more than I could at 18. The weather was still a benign 3 to 4 and was pushed on past Dover up to the Forelands where I slowed down to 15 Knots as we turned into the Princes channel and had the pleasure of following a huge tanker all the way at 15 knots into the Medway.

Turning into the Swale we reduced speed to 8 knots while we prepared line and fenders and hoped that we could get on the Queenborough pontoon. No such luck and ended up picking a buoy up for the night. Finally being secure at 23.00


Next morning we could get a lay in as HW London Bridge wasn't till nearly 16.00. I have to say we did hit the Whiskey bottle quite hard with a great fry up celebration meal.


Left Queenborough at 11.00 am. into a very gusty for 4/5 sea in the Sea Reaches but not enough bother us. Had a uneventful trip up the Thames passing London Bridge at 14.30. Then we had the only incident of the whole trip when we miscalculated the height of Hammersmith Bridge and lost the riding light. A small price to pay.


Arrived Teddington at 17.00 and pushed on to Weybridge passing Molesey Lock two day before it closed. Good pub meal that night and then pottered up to Windsor the next morning.

Fabulous boat completing 620 mile in two days with over 30 hours running and a fuel burn at over 3/4 mile per gallon, probably cost me a £1000 more than trucking by road but It was worth every penny. Haven't stopped grinning since I got home.
Click to expand...
Great report, and well done! Only missing? A few pictures :encouragement:
 
Re: Blimming Heck !

Great report and good effort. Thanks for posting. :encouragement::cool:
 
Re: Blimming Heck !

Great report, thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Love the 450 (our last boat was a 41) - unfortunately our pockets aren’t deep enough to buy one ourselves :)
 
Re: Blimming Heck !

Help I can mange to get a boat from Penarth to Windsor but I cant find out how to post photos. Any body help.
 
Re: Blimming Heck !

Newbroom said:
Help I can mange to get a boat from Penarth to Windsor but I cant find out how to post photos. Any body help.
Click to expand...

I us a web based phot hosting site, Postimage. Others use Dropbox. We tended to use Photobucket, which was great until it got greedy and wanted $400 pa.

If you are still struggling, use the search function on this forum, and you will find some very helpful advice.
 
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