Seems a distant memory now (with pics)

[Ianj68]

A few weekends ago, before the start of the monsoon season, we took our maiden trip across the channel. As part of a cruise arranged by or berth holders association we, with 18 other boats, took the trip from Poole to St Vaast. We met on the Friday evening with the other crews for the pre trip briefing. At this point the decision was made to go. I must say that at this point the nerves began to jangle a bit. Whilst we've been boating for a number of years, having done our ICC and Day Skipper Theory etc, the prospect of losing sight of land certainly added to the nervous excitement. Our 30ft single seemed somewhat tiny, and perhaps a little vulnerable in comparison to the other boats consiting of a new Rodman 38, Targa 40 and a Princess 430. Rather stupidly, one of the things that made me most nervous was the prospect of having to reverse into the berth at the other end. The cruise leader says this was a must on account of the small finger berths. Our boat with a single just doesn't like reversing!

We woke on the Saturday morning to be greeted by perfect conditions, but the shipping forecast predicted visibility of good, occasionaly poor. As the pictures below show, it should have been vis poor, with a bit of good at the end!

It was worth it though! we had a fantastic time, and the sense of achievement was great. The other crews looked after us from start to finish knowing that we were first timers, and the cruise leaders were fantastic. I can't recommend St Vaast enough. With the weather that greeted us it was very picturesque indeed! Great food, quaint shops, fantastic wine!

Some pictures of our adventure.

The group getting together off Old Harry, Studland.

The visibility getting worse

About as bad as it got, and just before a little yacht making his way westward nearly got t-boned by one of the big boats mid channel.

This trawler showed up well on the radar, but vis was getting better

Then the sun came out about 10 miles from Barfleur.

Flat Calm

St Vaast entrance

And the town from the marina

Our boys getting the suncream lotion on as it was going to be a warm one

The end of a lovely day

Monday, and time to head home, it was a bit foggy again, and a little rougher!

It calmed down when we were about 20 miles out where we encountered this guy

 

[segaerta]

Great pics, never have done a channel crossing but loving to do one (or more) when we have new boat as of next year. Amazing how weather and sea state can be so much different over such a small distance ...

Now unfortunately boatless (boat sold last week) ... anybody fancies an enthousiatic crew member /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Cheers,
Alain

 

[adrianb]

Excellent, nice report and pictures too. You'll have to do it again soon.

My first cross channel was in my second boat a Searay 270 Sundancer, twin petrols.

Fantastic sense of achievement. Nothing quite like the first time !!


Adrian


www.cleanandshiny.co.uk

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Excellent report and pics, Ianj68. I really appreciate these cruise reports especially from the UK as they often bring back happy memories

 

[CaptainMike1970]

Well done Ian, we still have to get a channel crossing under out belts, great to see that you have done it with the same boat as we have.

Hope to catch up with you when we are in Poole later this season.

PS We have a bow thruster which really takes the panic and nerves out of reverse parking (even if you don't use it, it is great to know it is there!)

Well done and great pics.

Mike

 

[duncan]

nice one Ian.

I'm guessing this was the same weekend I ran over to St PP with Geoffs? First in June?

Fog Sat around St PP was thick - really thick!

Well you have dealt with the mystique - and boredom - as well as having gained a glimpse of why to make the trips

 

[Sneds]

Great report and pics, well done!
The only cross channel we have done is Portishead to Cardiff and then back over to Watchet! Got a great feeling of achievement doing that so the English - French crossing must be really good.
Looking forward to being able to get a newer, bigger boat with a diesel engine so we can aim for Swansea and maybe Milford. (no petrol once you leave the upper reaches of the Bristol Channel)

 

[tico]

petrol available at Lawrenny (further up the haven)

 

[atlowers]

Well done Ian and what a nice set of pics to augment the report. I to have some weird desire to get the first crossing done but with a single and only 23ftr I would need company to give me confidence to do it. What a great idea by the birthholders to organise a group trip and must have been very comforting to have the safety net of all the other boats. St Vaas looks great, congrats again.

 

[pheran]

Excellent. And so nice to find someone who can size their photos correctly so I don't have to whizz left and right to read the report! I wish others would note.

Doing the first crossing in company is obviously the way to go. We've crossed many times, normally on our own these days but we still take the opportunity to team up if we happen to meet someone else who is going our way.

 

[Ianj68]

Thanks for the responses, and hoped you enjoyed the pictures.

I picked up a few valuable lessons on the way, firstly, I doubt very much indeed that I would tackle a crossing like this alone. Dare I say it, my boat is capable but in my opnion it's all about enjoying yourself. I would just be too anxious to relax.

That said, the smallest boat in the group was an S23 that I'm told has gone across several times previous.

Secondly, I would not even contemplate it without radar. As I menioned in the report, we had a very near miss in nearly hitting a yacht who was projecting little or no signature. The fog was so thick that at times that we had to put our foulies on as we were getting soaked.

And Duncan, yes this was the weekend that you went across with Geoffs, I recall reading the report and seeing him filling up with fuel at corrals on the Saturday morning. Pass my congrats on to Geoffs if you see him.

We're very keen to go across again before the end of the season, so if any wants company give us a shout (hint hint Duncan /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif)

Ian

 

[PCUK]

Thanks for sharing that with us, makes me want to crawl under the boat again and finish the epooxy touching-up.

 

[ChrisKaye]

Nice pics Ian, drop me a line when you plan to go over next, I would love to go

 

[Geoffs]

Great stuff Ian, well done, great pictures.

I hope to venture accross again, at least once this year, like you I'd like to do it in company, so perhaps we can keep in touch.

It worries me not having radar, but no where to put a scanner in my boat, unless I were to fit a SS radar arch or something.

I've been looking at AIS. Seems to be a reasonable half way house. At least you can see relative positons of big stuff on a screen. Won't pick up the small sailing boat, of course.

Anyone any thoughts, is this a good half way house, better than nothing?

Oh, and I don't think you saw me fuelling at Correls as we went accross on the Friday, and I refuelled the week before. Topped up in St. PP, on Saturday.

 

[duncan]

[ QUOTE ]
Secondly, I would not even contemplate it without radar. As I menioned in the report, we had a very near miss in nearly hitting a yacht who was projecting little or no signature. The fog was so thick that at times that we had to put our foulies on as we were getting soaked.

[/ QUOTE ]

this radar issue is interesting - I am suspecting that you were using about 3 - 6 miles range on the radar as you were mid channel and looking for 'big ships' in a line etc and that you didn't switch to less often - I find with my little JRC that I can pick up a yacht easily on 1m but if I move it out to 6 miles and increase the gain enough to see the yacht I get a fair amount of clutter - even on a flat calm day.

I now run on 0.5mile and switch occassionally to 6miles briefly for a picture of what's out there - this works for me as a fast manoevrable boat but wouldn't for a small displacement or yacht. best thing is to actually have a dedicated radar watch individual who's doing it!

re waterproofs - I will admit to using the windscreen wiper constantly on the Saturday but we were snugg enough under the HT /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[oceanfroggie]

Well done, glad you had a good trip. Interesting story and nice pics. COLREGs (ie visibility and speed) and photo no 3 ?

 

[duncan]

looks like they are doing under 20 knots and I believe they have a good radar watch set..........are you suggesting the worlds commercial fleet would be going any slower?

 

[Ianj68]

[ QUOTE ]
Well done, glad you had a good trip. Interesting story and nice pics. COLREGs (ie visibility and speed) and photo no 3 ?

[/ QUOTE ]

You have a very valid point. The chap behind us was without radar, like us, he was very keen to stay within the group as it was so thick at times it would have been so easy to get split up.

If I remember correctly this shot was taken at the point where it had got very thick and the chap behind had just sped up in order to say within visible range of us and the boys in front. He backed off when the group had compacted.

However, it crossed my mind several times to ask the boys at the head of the group to slow down as it did seem we were travelling quite fast at times.

 

[oceanfroggie]

Understand. It's amazing how quick vis can change. I got caught in a similar situation off Kinsale last year on route to Dingle. Forecast was for good vis, but thick fog and vis around 100m for 3hrs of passage, and sometimes less than 100m. It was the day after Cork week so there were a lot of sail yachts out. The radar was alive with slow targets all around me, but quite a few only showed up on radar at short range so I had to slow to displacement speeds for fear of hitting the yacht traffic as in our case the vis was almost minima (ie give me more reaction time as some of the smaller targets just didn't show up well on radar). Some of the yachts sails emerged from the fog like ghost ships so 8kt allowed me plenty of time to avoid risk of collision. Btw, I did sound fog signals regularly but most of the yotties many sailing under power took no avoiding action whatsoever, it was up to us to weave our way around all the traffic. Yotties have their own brand of COLREGs (ie we're sailing and helpless so get out of our way, and it's your job to keep lookout and maintain traffic separation, not ours cause we've got sails /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif )

I know commercial traffic doesn't always slow down in thick fog in the open sea, but that's their decision, under the COLREGs they are obliged to take some action and precautions. I just made ours based on the prevailing conditions and what we were comfortable with at that time. It's all relative anyway, vis over 400m is quite a different proposition making faster speeds manageable.

Anyway liked your pics and interesting account. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Searush]

[ QUOTE ]
looks like they are doing under 20 knots and I believe they have a good radar watch set..........are you suggesting the worlds commercial fleet would be going any slower?

[/ QUOTE ]

The comment about t-boning a raggie speaks volumes. It would only have been doing 5-6kts max (probably half that if sailing) so you would have flown out of the murk at him going like a train. AND, being in flotilla, any attempt to miss one projectile could throw him under the bows of the next.

Try to think what the MCA report might have said . . . It's OK, no harm was done, but next time could be different. Asking convoy speed to be reduced slightly might have been more sensible.