christopherc
Well-Known Member
Finally made it. Moved the recently acquired 1st boat, got in Friday night; Plymouth - Newlyn - Padstow - Swansea. Very exciting, and not without incident, but we made it unscathed.
Great trip and we were very lucky to get through the weather, a day either way and we would not have made it. On wednesday night, bad forecast had me thinking we were going to have to leave the boat in Newlyn, not the easiest place to get to form the midlands! A low point after a tough sail with seasickness thrown in for good measure. Went out to Runnel stone on thursday in testing conditions, and decided to push on for Padstow. Good decision and had a cracking sail around lands end and up the north cornwall coast.
Most notable incident was arriving in Padstow to find the harbour locks permanently open (refurb work going on I think), with the harbour drying. I explained to the deputy harbour master we could take ground with our lifting keel, and asked if there was a suitable place near the wall so we didn't need to stay out in the river; oh yes, came the reply, hard ground against the wall, no problem. Only to find the hard ground did not extend from the wall and quickly shelved into soft mud, hence tipping us over half way through supper. I sent crew ashore quickly with main halyard, leaping accross to harbour wall ladder which was getting further way by the second, tied main halyard to a bollard to arrest movement beyond 30degrees and eventually went to bed when i was sure all was stable, got up at 1.30am to find us afloat again, lesson learnt; don't listen to anyone else about suitability of ground until you've seen it for yourself. Hopfully no damage done to twin rudders, seemed ok the next day.
Arriving in Swansea was a good feeling, 1st time i had skippered a boat on a trip like this and it felt very rewarding; here I was arriving through the lock gates after a challenging (for me anyaway) 3 day trip in my first boat. Great.
Looking forward to the next trip. Antifoul is the first job though, hope to get that and the remainder of the heating installation sorted in next few weeks.
Great trip and we were very lucky to get through the weather, a day either way and we would not have made it. On wednesday night, bad forecast had me thinking we were going to have to leave the boat in Newlyn, not the easiest place to get to form the midlands! A low point after a tough sail with seasickness thrown in for good measure. Went out to Runnel stone on thursday in testing conditions, and decided to push on for Padstow. Good decision and had a cracking sail around lands end and up the north cornwall coast.
Most notable incident was arriving in Padstow to find the harbour locks permanently open (refurb work going on I think), with the harbour drying. I explained to the deputy harbour master we could take ground with our lifting keel, and asked if there was a suitable place near the wall so we didn't need to stay out in the river; oh yes, came the reply, hard ground against the wall, no problem. Only to find the hard ground did not extend from the wall and quickly shelved into soft mud, hence tipping us over half way through supper. I sent crew ashore quickly with main halyard, leaping accross to harbour wall ladder which was getting further way by the second, tied main halyard to a bollard to arrest movement beyond 30degrees and eventually went to bed when i was sure all was stable, got up at 1.30am to find us afloat again, lesson learnt; don't listen to anyone else about suitability of ground until you've seen it for yourself. Hopfully no damage done to twin rudders, seemed ok the next day.
Arriving in Swansea was a good feeling, 1st time i had skippered a boat on a trip like this and it felt very rewarding; here I was arriving through the lock gates after a challenging (for me anyaway) 3 day trip in my first boat. Great.
Looking forward to the next trip. Antifoul is the first job though, hope to get that and the remainder of the heating installation sorted in next few weeks.
