Plymouth to Wells next to sea

SilverTT

SilverTT

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Dropped two blokes off on sat to bring back a (sorry) a sailing cat from plymouth to wells, north norfolk. Phone call at lunch today to say they have arrived in one piece.

Is that a record.
Speed was only about 5 or 6 knots max for a sailing boat.
 
I did Grimsby to Portsmouth in under 13 hours which included refuelling/engine check stops. That is about 60 nm less in distance but come on spill the beans how long did they stay in each port /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif that has to be a record of some sort /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif


Oh the joys of sailing /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

Extract from an email in similar cruising grounds from a good friend who used to crew for me

Objective - Deliver B's new boat from Levington (nr Ipswich) to its new
home in Grimsby.

* Friday PM get together to discuss plan. I advise against going due to poor
weather forecast.
* They decide they're going anyway so I agree to go to try to keep them
safe.
* Saturday morning in Levington, weather is good, - forecast not too good
but not too bad.
* B discovers he's left the boats compass at home but it's ok he's got a
GPS and electronic compass on board.
* We set off.
* Saturday - good sail - cold but sunny.
* Wind on the nose as we turn North - start engine
* M gets sea sick - applies bucket to face
* Night arrives
* We are 10 mls off shore, up the Norfolk coast - no harbours suitable for
shelter - next available port - Grimsby.
* Wind F6 from the North and we're beating into it for most of the journey
* Weather not exactly as forecast.
* Sea Moderate to Rough - 5-10 mtr waves.
* Occasional clear skies - very cold.- except when it:
* Rains - no great problem - we're wearing 6 layers of clothing, inc 2
thermal layers and proper marine waterproofs
* Hails - that hurts - put on ski goggles so you can see.
* Snows - you can only just see past the end of the boat. So thick that the
boats nearly hits a huge Cardinal buoy, 12 ft high, 8ft wide, painted black
& yellow, complete with flashing light,
* The cabin leaks - there is no dry space below - no heating and the temp
leaves plenty to be desired. I decide to get a couple of hours sleep before
we get into the shoal waters.
* Get woken up to identify some strange lights - a couple of bloody huge gas
rigs - not on the chart but easy to identify by means of the big square
shape, with loads of lights and a pointy top - go back to bed.
* Get woken up again because we appear to be on collision course with a ship
that probably hasn't seen us. Tell them to steer around the bloody thing -
go back to bed.
* Cold and wet - decide I might as well get up anyway.
* The electronic gadgets start to fail - every time the boat bounces off the
top of a wave and crashes into the next one, the GPS resets itself and the
lights go out intermittently on the other instruments, which gives the
appearance that they've all failed. Fall back is a Silva walking compass.
* "Erratic Eric" - the Autohelm, does its own thing when the GPS resets,
including at least one 180 deg turn.
* Now very carefully manual plotting on the paper charts and watching our
progress carefully on the Maptech charts and my hand held GPS, luckily these
are independent of the boats electronics.
* We are now approaching shoal waters, 4 - 5 mtrs depth, 10mls offshore, the
boat has a daft of 2mtrs, the waves are huge. I advise going round - it
might be longer but it will be a lot safer. B wants to go with his
original plan - It's going to get rough.
* One wave picks me up from one side of the cockpit, throws me 6ft in the
air and dumps me on top of Mark on the other side of the boat- breaking his
glasses. Lucky we were both wearing harnesses
* Same wave throws M out of his seat across the cabin into the stove -
which breaks out of its gimbals on several occasions during the night when
people fall on it.
* It's snowing and so dark outside you can't see anything anyway so we head
for the gap in the shoals (between Race Bank & Dugeon Shoal) using a compass
bearing & waypoint on the GPS and hold on.
* Everyone begins to believe that it's getting serious when I ask them to
get out of their bunks, put on full gear and life jackets and get the
life-raft out of the fore-cabin so we can launch it quickly if needed.
* We manage to clear the shoals, (don't know how) - it's deep water now, so
we're safe enough but it's still uncomfortable with the high seas running.
* It gets light, the wind starts to drop but the seas are still running
quite high.
* M still has a bucket pressed to his face - I didn't realise one body
could produce so much vomit.
* Sun comes out.
* M stops throwing up.
* Mid day Sunday - Arrive in Grimsby - all in one piece (just)!
* Eat bacon butties & discuss what a pleasurable experience it's been.
* And they call this fun!!!!

* Should we have put this in the company risk register?



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