Concerto
Well-known member
It was a long hard sail yesterday as I had made a mistake with the distance. In the last thread I said it was 70 miles to Brixham, well it is in fact 90 miles.
Left the berth at 7.50 and pottered inside Newlyn Harbour whilst I stored all the fenders and warps as it did not look too nice outside the harbour. That could be an understatement as for the next few hours I wondered if I was daft to continue. The wind was forecast as S 5 to 7 and veering SW. The gale warning from the previous day had been cancelled, but the waves had not. The wind was SSE when I started and force 6, so I hoisted a double reefed main. Unfortunately this direction of wind was too tight to sail so I had to motorsail the 15 miles to reach the Lizard. Not very comfortable and occassionaly falling off the back of a wave and slamming down. Then there were the rain showers, not light rain, but rain that flattened the sea surface and removed all the small wavelets. Slowly I proceeded and it took 3½ hours to get to the Lizard, but by then the sun had come out and the wind had dropped to a force 5.
The change of course brought the wind nearly on the beam, so I unfurled the genoa with a single reef. The boat speed immediately rose and I enjoyed the peace of no engine noise and a smoother ride. It was all too short to be enjoyed for long and the wind rose and I put the second reef in the genoa. Then the rain started again for a while before the sun came out again. About half way across towards Salcombe, the wind rose still further, so I decided to hand steer. For the first time in months I saw a rainbow ahead. 1O minutes later a squall hit with the wind reaching force 8, with rain and I even saw a flash of lightning about a mile away. Concerto was still relatively easy to steer, but the conditions were as I would describe as lively. Thankfully it was all over within half an hour and the wind dropped to a force 6 and later a force 5, but became overcast. I only saw 3 boats all day, a trawler, an oiler and a tug, not a sail in sight. The 55 miles from the Lizard to off Salcome took 8 hours with the speed always reading 7 knots or above, but after punching some tide an average speed over the ground of 6.875 knots.
As I approached Salcombe, I made a quick phonecall to Brixham Marina to check they had a berth, yes they did. After providing details, they asked what time did I expect to arrive. Quick mental calculation, between 23.00 and midnight. Slowly the wind veered as forecast and this added to the problems. The tide was still against me and I was punching about a knot of tide and the change of course along with change of wind direction meant it had become almost a dead run. The genoa was unfurled to just a single reef and I was still sailing quite quickly, but progress was slower. Eventually I goose winged and this helped reduce some of the rolling. It was nice that there was just over half a moon shining, such a change to when I was sailing to Dale in pitch darkness.
Once I reached Start Point, I furled the genoa and tried to find some lee bedhind the point to drop the mainsail, there did not seem to be any as the wind was still a force 5. Turning into the wind I dropped the mainsail, but the traveller had moved to starboard and jammed. Oh well, I will move it later, but I could not center it as the traveller line had cut through where it passed through a hole in the track to secure it. Turning towards the harbour entrance, I fitted the fenders and warps for a port side berthing as I had alread been allocated berth D8 by phone. As I entered the fairway through the main harbour at 23.50, I called the marina so the night watchman could show me where the berth was and help me moor up. I was glad of this as finding my way into yet another harbour for the first time was not as straight forward as many others. There were so many lights, including floodlights blinding me, it was difficult to spot the marina wave break and the exact point of access to the marina. Not to mention finding the correct pontoon, luckily the marina chap was waving a torch showing where to going and called the berth was almost at the other end. To allow him time to walk down to the berth, I just poodled along in neutral doing about a knot as the wind was dead astern. This also meant I would be cross wind as I berthed and blown off the finger. Not that easy, especially with the main boom in the way for where I normally steer from. In I went and did it reasonably tidily. I quickly tied up and chatted to get the marina code, then it was time to head for bed. The trip had taken 16 hours and was certainly a rough one as well. The 90 miles was completed with an average speed over the ground of 5.625 knots, including getting out and in of marina berths, all in not perfect sailing conditions.
As I had not been online at all yesterday I thought I would see how long I spent getting this post finished. Initially I have to transfer the photos and videos to my Windows laptop. There was a problem as my phone got a little wet yesterday and was saying there was moisture in the lightning socket. Then whilst transfering files I moved the phone slightly and it unlinked itself. Some of the photos and videos had to be reloaded due to this. All the photos were then viewed and some photos needed resizing for the forum and several screen grabs were taken from the videos and also resized for the forum. Then there was a problem to connecting the laptop to the hotspot on the phone, it took 4 attempts before connecting, again probably due to water problems. First I needed to create a map of yesterdays sail. The Google map has to be sceen grabbed, cropped and a route added. Now a quick catch up on the forums before writing this post. Time taken, 3 hours. Could be why I decided to head straight for bed last night.
Motoring into a large swell was not fast
Really inviting weather
Then heavy rain hit
It was heavy rain, drops on the lens and cascading off the end of the boom
Sailing in sunshine approaching the Lizard
The Lizard lighthouse
Image grabbed from a video and shows the result of a wave slap against the hull
The trawler raising her bow
The oiler smashing into the waves
End of daylight hours off Salcombe
For anyone wanting to read the reports from the start, this is the link to first one.
Round Britian day 1
All the links with place names are in my about me page available from my avatar.
Left the berth at 7.50 and pottered inside Newlyn Harbour whilst I stored all the fenders and warps as it did not look too nice outside the harbour. That could be an understatement as for the next few hours I wondered if I was daft to continue. The wind was forecast as S 5 to 7 and veering SW. The gale warning from the previous day had been cancelled, but the waves had not. The wind was SSE when I started and force 6, so I hoisted a double reefed main. Unfortunately this direction of wind was too tight to sail so I had to motorsail the 15 miles to reach the Lizard. Not very comfortable and occassionaly falling off the back of a wave and slamming down. Then there were the rain showers, not light rain, but rain that flattened the sea surface and removed all the small wavelets. Slowly I proceeded and it took 3½ hours to get to the Lizard, but by then the sun had come out and the wind had dropped to a force 5.
The change of course brought the wind nearly on the beam, so I unfurled the genoa with a single reef. The boat speed immediately rose and I enjoyed the peace of no engine noise and a smoother ride. It was all too short to be enjoyed for long and the wind rose and I put the second reef in the genoa. Then the rain started again for a while before the sun came out again. About half way across towards Salcombe, the wind rose still further, so I decided to hand steer. For the first time in months I saw a rainbow ahead. 1O minutes later a squall hit with the wind reaching force 8, with rain and I even saw a flash of lightning about a mile away. Concerto was still relatively easy to steer, but the conditions were as I would describe as lively. Thankfully it was all over within half an hour and the wind dropped to a force 6 and later a force 5, but became overcast. I only saw 3 boats all day, a trawler, an oiler and a tug, not a sail in sight. The 55 miles from the Lizard to off Salcome took 8 hours with the speed always reading 7 knots or above, but after punching some tide an average speed over the ground of 6.875 knots.
As I approached Salcombe, I made a quick phonecall to Brixham Marina to check they had a berth, yes they did. After providing details, they asked what time did I expect to arrive. Quick mental calculation, between 23.00 and midnight. Slowly the wind veered as forecast and this added to the problems. The tide was still against me and I was punching about a knot of tide and the change of course along with change of wind direction meant it had become almost a dead run. The genoa was unfurled to just a single reef and I was still sailing quite quickly, but progress was slower. Eventually I goose winged and this helped reduce some of the rolling. It was nice that there was just over half a moon shining, such a change to when I was sailing to Dale in pitch darkness.
Once I reached Start Point, I furled the genoa and tried to find some lee bedhind the point to drop the mainsail, there did not seem to be any as the wind was still a force 5. Turning into the wind I dropped the mainsail, but the traveller had moved to starboard and jammed. Oh well, I will move it later, but I could not center it as the traveller line had cut through where it passed through a hole in the track to secure it. Turning towards the harbour entrance, I fitted the fenders and warps for a port side berthing as I had alread been allocated berth D8 by phone. As I entered the fairway through the main harbour at 23.50, I called the marina so the night watchman could show me where the berth was and help me moor up. I was glad of this as finding my way into yet another harbour for the first time was not as straight forward as many others. There were so many lights, including floodlights blinding me, it was difficult to spot the marina wave break and the exact point of access to the marina. Not to mention finding the correct pontoon, luckily the marina chap was waving a torch showing where to going and called the berth was almost at the other end. To allow him time to walk down to the berth, I just poodled along in neutral doing about a knot as the wind was dead astern. This also meant I would be cross wind as I berthed and blown off the finger. Not that easy, especially with the main boom in the way for where I normally steer from. In I went and did it reasonably tidily. I quickly tied up and chatted to get the marina code, then it was time to head for bed. The trip had taken 16 hours and was certainly a rough one as well. The 90 miles was completed with an average speed over the ground of 5.625 knots, including getting out and in of marina berths, all in not perfect sailing conditions.
As I had not been online at all yesterday I thought I would see how long I spent getting this post finished. Initially I have to transfer the photos and videos to my Windows laptop. There was a problem as my phone got a little wet yesterday and was saying there was moisture in the lightning socket. Then whilst transfering files I moved the phone slightly and it unlinked itself. Some of the photos and videos had to be reloaded due to this. All the photos were then viewed and some photos needed resizing for the forum and several screen grabs were taken from the videos and also resized for the forum. Then there was a problem to connecting the laptop to the hotspot on the phone, it took 4 attempts before connecting, again probably due to water problems. First I needed to create a map of yesterdays sail. The Google map has to be sceen grabbed, cropped and a route added. Now a quick catch up on the forums before writing this post. Time taken, 3 hours. Could be why I decided to head straight for bed last night.
Motoring into a large swell was not fast
Really inviting weather
Then heavy rain hit
It was heavy rain, drops on the lens and cascading off the end of the boom
Sailing in sunshine approaching the Lizard
The Lizard lighthouse
Image grabbed from a video and shows the result of a wave slap against the hull
The trawler raising her bow
The oiler smashing into the waves
End of daylight hours off Salcombe
For anyone wanting to read the reports from the start, this is the link to first one.
Round Britian day 1
All the links with place names are in my about me page available from my avatar.
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