Concerto
Well-known member
Last night I made an error, I was using tide tables in GMT, not British Summer Time, so I actually set the alarm for 5.30, not 4.30. However I woke at 5.05 and got up. I like to take my time in getting myself and the boat ready to go to sea. There are always some things I cannot put away until the morning. This morning I also had the problem of solving what went wrong with the compass unit in the autopilot. So, there was plenty of reading and button pushing, but it is now working correctly. The water tank was almost empty so out came the hose to fill it and then put away. The mains electric cable needed to be coiled and put away. The mainsail front cover and stack pack have to be made ready, I do not do it the night before as quite a lot of rain gets trapped in the sail and splashes all over the deck and sometimes me. Then I am wearing full oil skins with boots and life jacket with a PLB. The engine key, winch handle, bottle of water, binoculars, hand held VHF and mobile phone are moved from the cabin and all correctly positioned in the cockpit. The washboards are stowed below. Instruments are turned on and checked thatb they are working. Any fenders or warps that are no longer needed are stowed in the sail locker. Not forgetting getting dressed, inserting my contact lens, preparing some snacks for easy grabbing. etc. Now I can start the engine and slip the berth. I never hoist a sail until the balance of the fenders and warps have been put away. A tidy ship is so much easier to work on.
So today I finally slipped out at 6.20. After leaving the inner harbour and then the outer harbour. I proceeded to do the final calibration on the autopilot, then I hoisted the mainsail. Once I turned on to the course for the eastern side of the Orkney Islands I realised the wind was almost astern with little strength. Not enough to sail, even with the spinnaker, to make a reasonable speed over the ground.
Whenever I felt some extra breeze I tried to sail, but never reached 4 knots. The slower I sailed in the initial sections would mean I would start facing strong tides at the end of the trip. I do get bored with so much motoring, today I even picked up a paperback and every couple of pages checked all round the boat, I read about a third of the book I was so bored. As I started passing land close by, I took some photos and videos, plusd looking at what birds were flying. The rocky cliffs are quite impressive and the dark granite had large patches of white guano under all the ledges.
As I making the turn into the main approach towards Kirkwall, I thought I would be able to sail on a reach, but the pesky wind decided to swing to almost on the nose and increase. No point battling a strong wind and the tide was also starting to flow against me. So I rolled the genoa away and motor sailed for a while, but the wind certainl felt like a force 5 so I dropped the mainsail. It was lucky I did it when I did as the rain started and eased off to misty drizzle. Visibility reduce to about a mile and a half. It was not nice with the whistling in the rigging.
As I made the final turn towards Kirkwall, I saw there was a cruise ship moored up. The wind was now buffeting me almost on the beam, so I slowed down slightly and started hanging the fenders. A quick check on VHF confirmed there was a berth head to wind and to moor on the port side, so finished preparing for port side berthing. As usual, when it is a fairly tricky berthing, there is no one to help. The space on the alongside pontoon was about 5 metres longer than the boat, but the wind could easily push to bow off. So I had to be quick and careful to bring Concerto in so I could tie her up securely at 15.20, after covering about 45 miles.
So today was not an enjoyable day due to the weather. Tomorrow I am staying put to have a look round and possible walk to the chandlery to buy some more mooring lines. Also I must pack a small parcel of birthday presents for my wife and send it to my daughters house.
Been too busy to work on the photos, will post some tomorrow.
For anyone wanting to read the reports from the start, this is the link to first one.
Round Britian day 1
So today I finally slipped out at 6.20. After leaving the inner harbour and then the outer harbour. I proceeded to do the final calibration on the autopilot, then I hoisted the mainsail. Once I turned on to the course for the eastern side of the Orkney Islands I realised the wind was almost astern with little strength. Not enough to sail, even with the spinnaker, to make a reasonable speed over the ground.
Whenever I felt some extra breeze I tried to sail, but never reached 4 knots. The slower I sailed in the initial sections would mean I would start facing strong tides at the end of the trip. I do get bored with so much motoring, today I even picked up a paperback and every couple of pages checked all round the boat, I read about a third of the book I was so bored. As I started passing land close by, I took some photos and videos, plusd looking at what birds were flying. The rocky cliffs are quite impressive and the dark granite had large patches of white guano under all the ledges.
As I making the turn into the main approach towards Kirkwall, I thought I would be able to sail on a reach, but the pesky wind decided to swing to almost on the nose and increase. No point battling a strong wind and the tide was also starting to flow against me. So I rolled the genoa away and motor sailed for a while, but the wind certainl felt like a force 5 so I dropped the mainsail. It was lucky I did it when I did as the rain started and eased off to misty drizzle. Visibility reduce to about a mile and a half. It was not nice with the whistling in the rigging.
As I made the final turn towards Kirkwall, I saw there was a cruise ship moored up. The wind was now buffeting me almost on the beam, so I slowed down slightly and started hanging the fenders. A quick check on VHF confirmed there was a berth head to wind and to moor on the port side, so finished preparing for port side berthing. As usual, when it is a fairly tricky berthing, there is no one to help. The space on the alongside pontoon was about 5 metres longer than the boat, but the wind could easily push to bow off. So I had to be quick and careful to bring Concerto in so I could tie her up securely at 15.20, after covering about 45 miles.
So today was not an enjoyable day due to the weather. Tomorrow I am staying put to have a look round and possible walk to the chandlery to buy some more mooring lines. Also I must pack a small parcel of birthday presents for my wife and send it to my daughters house.
Been too busy to work on the photos, will post some tomorrow.
For anyone wanting to read the reports from the start, this is the link to first one.
Round Britian day 1
