Places to go from Cardiff

[kds]

"I assume if we need to be at the Gore buoy between HW-3 and HW, then we need to be there going out between HW and HW+3."

If heading back to Cardif - we try to get out as soon as possible - two and half hours before high. It takes almost an hour to get to deep water (aagainst tide flowing in the main channel ) , so Cardif is about 4 hours, with a tide against y9ou as you approach. Mind you, I am talking about yacht speeds - a motor boat, you will have no problems.

 

[zlod]

We had an extremely interesting and exciting weekend.

Saturday morning: motoring to Newport

We got up really early, locking out at 7am and aiming for Newport. There was no wind. The seas were glassy calm and the sun was shining. We motored up to Newport. Going into Newport was interesting: West Usk lighthouse looks fantastic and there's a varied community of birds that hang out nearby. We motored all the way up to the transporter bridge (which we were always sure would be on the verge of transporting something, but it never did), marvelling at the industrial heritage on the banks of the river. We then moored up at Newport and Uskmouth sailing club (narrowly missing the electricity wires thanks to the cries from our welcoming party: the wires cross the pill at a weird angle that is very difficult to judge). Newport sailing club was buzzing and we were made very welcome. We were able to enjoy their company as a nasty little rainstorm developed outside.

Motoring under the Newport transporter bridge: note the ugly looking cloud behind!​

In search of Holm Middle buoy

On leaving Newport, we heard on the VHF that a ship had run over Holm Middle buoy. As we were going that way, we decided to investigate. By now, there was some wind, so the engine was unnecessary. We started off with full sail, but were reefed before too long. In the region of the Holms, we had 20 knot winds and were reefed right down. Holm Middle was nowhere to be seen. The seas were pretty large. My mate Roystone was finding things both brilliant and also somewhat scary (we steered over some pretty big waves that were steep, but not breaking). We saw a couple of buoys on the horizon and they turned out to be Mackenzie and Holm Middle almost next to each other. We tried to get close to Holm Middle to note its position (about 1 cable south of Mackenzie). It was in this area that we met some pretty vicious seas (there are overfalls symbols on the chart after all). There was one really nasty pyramid shaped wave that reared up that was only a pyramid from the front: it had no back. We slammed right off the back of that one in a way that's never happened before: things went flying, but we were OK. As the seas were so nasty, we tacked south towards Watchet.

South to Watchet

The seas weren't that great on the way to Watchet. We ended up close hauled into a 15-20 knot wind with some reasonably sized seas. Unfortunately, Roystone succumbed to seasickness after having gone down below in these conditions. It wasn't a very good situation. He was still on for getting to Watchet, but I wasn't sure that he meant it. Two hours later, I decided that Watchet probably wasn't a good idea as the Quantocks didn't seem to offer any respite from the wind and the waves and we'd be out for another 3 hours before the Watchet cill opened. Roystone was lying in one of the berths, trying to recover. We turned back to Penarth, just heading for Barry, then picking up the buoys and letting the tide sweep us up to Penarth (I was in no mood to go down below to check the charts: at least one of us needed to be in a capable state). We were doing 6-7 knots with tailwinds of between 15 and 22 knots: all made more miserable by some heavy rain. It was very nice to be in some sort of shelter behind Lavernock Point. Once the mainsail was down and we were motoring towards Cardiff Barrage, I knew that things would be OK.

A warm night in Penarth

Once we got to the marina and had the heating on, Roystone started to perk up. He wasn't quite right as he refused my offer of a drink for the first time in 15 years of knowing him. By 10pm, we were planning the next day's sailing: the return to Newport.

Return to Newport

On the Sunday, the winds had swung round to the north. We locked out at 8:30am and had a great sail up to Newport under full sail (well, we still had the number 2 genoa up from the day before, but we had all of it up). We got to the West Usk buoy about half an hour after high water and then close tacked our way up to Newport and Uskmouth sailing club against the ebbing tide. This was a great exercise which we both really enjoyed: trying to point as high as possible and tacking as the depth was dropping. After getting level with the sailing club, we motored into St Julians Pill and moored against the pontoon with 1.2m under the keel. NUSC were just as welcoming as the day before. We enjoyed bacon rolls and tea as we chatted with members and tried to work out from Reeds when we had to leave. Watching the tide racing past the sailing club, we realised that there was no time like the present. We left with 0.6m under the keel (Reeds was spot on).

Nervously watching the depth sounder exiting St Julians Pill / NUSC​

We sailed down out of the Usk on broad reaches at 6 knots with the mudbanks rising to the sides of the channel where earlier there had seemed to be water (those tide things I guess). Once out of the channel, we sailed nicely on a broad reach under white sails on a flat sea. My heart was into getting the cruising chute up though and so we made preparations for that. Getting the cruising chute up was excellent. We went from doing about 5.5 knots to doing 6.5 to 7 knots and the way she seemed to be drawing was just fantastic. It was just a really brilliant experience to be sailing along the Peterstone Flats on a flat sea, under sunny skies with the cruising chute up. It was such a difference to the day before and a great end to the weekend.

Sailing under the cruising chute along Peterstone Flats​

The big revelation for me this weekend was what a good destination Newport is (in the conditions we had). I'm going to have to work out how I can get there from Portishead now (I don't like crossing those Middle Grounds).

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

 

[graham]

Great read Zlod, nice to see someone making the most of it.Apologies for recommending St Julians Pill then not mentioning the wires.

I think the transporter Bridge is being refurbished,its been closed to traffic for ages now. I did notice the carriage was on the opposite bank recently so it must still be in working order.

Water proof chart case is a good bit of kit for singlehanding Can save you having to go below so often.

PS Are you entering any of the pics in the comp?

 

[zlod]

Graham> I've got a "waterproof" case. It's a Blue Performance A2 thing. It sort of works, but doesn't keep things that waterproof. Do you have any better suggestions?

The biggest problem I had with charts is that I've only got one copy of 1152 (Nash Point to Sand Point) and if I've got one chart, it tends to stay down below to keep dry in case I need to fix position (although there was little chance of that in the conditions and effectively single handed without self steering gear). I'm going to get a second copy as I think Watchet is somewhere I'm likely to go to quite a bit.

The thing I'd really like from UKHO is one of those Tough Chart packs for the upper Bristol Channel. That would be a godsend.

I'm planning on going out the weekend of Nov 22/23 (the return to Portishead), so I'll take my camera out and try to snap something that would stand half a chance against the other excellent entries.

 

[graham]

I dont know what make mine is. It came from force 4 in Bristol. Best £15 I ever spent

When your cold tired and peed off its very easy just to say bugger it and push on when you cant be bothered going below but with a chart in the cockpit its much easier,

I suppose a good chartplotter is the answer with paper charts and instruments as back up.