Somebody tell me something nice about Bristol

[AndyL]

I'll be there after next week to see for myself. In viewing the many posts about crummy marinas operators, VAT, Euro rip-offs, weather, inaccurate weather and tidal info, stinkpotters and RNLI call outs I don't look forward to this experience.

Somebody must have something good to say about the place?

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[dave]

You cab see the SS Great Briton

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[Twister_Ken]

And the Matthew is often parked there.

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[Starspinner]

The waterfront pubs are OK as well

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[Gunfleet]

Daniel Defoe is meant to have met Alexander Selkirk in a pub on Welsh Back.

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[richardknight]

Bristol Old Town is great for a drink or two. if you like jazz you'll find a fantastic bar there for this. Clifton (short taxi hop) have a good selection of decent pubs and restaurants.

Although I've never moored there myself, I believe you can get a berth slap bang in the middle of town, real stumbling distance from the old Town and at the bottom of Park Street which has a variety fo more upmarket restaurants.

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[jeanne]

Bristol is a nice town, big enough to have everything you need, but small enough to see the green fields of the countryside from lots of it. It is great for music, mostly in small scale places. The Bunch of Grapes in Denmark St for blues, The Old Duke in King St. for jazz or blues, the Albert Hole in West St. for Folky singer/songwriters and so on.
The docks are interesting to walk around, with all sorts of activities: dinghy sailing, rowing, waters-skiing, model boats, and festivals every year. It even has three boat clubs, all friendly people with no blue blazers to be seen, the sort of club you can pop into without hassle, or being asked to join straight away.

There is the Cabot Cruising Club, with their clubhouse in an old lightship in Bathurst Basin [ mainly motorboats] , the Bristol Sailing Club based in a barge on Redcliffe Back, and the Port of Bristol Sailing Club, opposite the Nova Scotia at Cumberland Basin, That's a nice salty pub, with good food, and is almost a sailing club itself, as is the Orchard by David Lunds marina.
The only snag is that boats kept in Bristol don't go sailing a lot, as one has to come and go with the tide, and it is about 7 miles down the river to open water, so the only option is to go out for 12 hours if you go at all.
This means that the most active [and best!] club in the area is the Portishead Cruising Club, based at the river mouth, with a clubhouse [and bar]at Pill, and boats either on drying moorings in the creeks [ some available, about £60 per year] and at Portishead Marina. We have a pretty active program, both socially and on the water, and there is usually someone looking for crew. Club nights on wednesdays! Here ends the advertisement!
Sailing the Bristol Channel is well worth the effort. It can be nasty in a wind against tide sort of way, but that has it's good side too, when the wind is with the tide you can sail in strong winds with flat seas. It is at its best in really light winds, when you can sail in a sea without a ripple, and still make 30 miles to windward in six hours, thanks to the tide. Hope to see you!

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[yoda]

M5 southbound when not blocked with holiday makers.

Yoda

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[Twister_Ken]

Sorry, thought you said Bristols.

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[AndyL]

Thanks, that was nice to read

and I've copied it for reference. I'll pop out to Portishead if I have the chance.

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[colvic]

They usually come in pairs so who is Bristol twinned with?

Phil

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[graham]

Re: We try to go every year.

The trip up the Avon from Avonmouth to Bristol Floating Harbour is interesting .Its about 6 miles through the countryside ,past Portishead Yacht Club at Pill on up to the Clifton Suspension bridge which spans the Clifton gorge,

Then lock in to the Docks(On spring tides they have to use"stop gates" to manage the water level )This means no locking in for a few hours over high water .

Be wary of ships manouvering near Avonmouth and Portbury Docks.For them it is a very narrow channel .If you need advise call Avonmouth Radio channel 12.The ships go very close to Portishead Point So avoid meeting one at that point.

If you arrive too late to get up the river before HW ,Portishead marina is not far down channel from Avonmouth And makes an ideal bolt hole for the night.

Bristolians are proud of their maritime history and a walk around the city docks will be fascinating for anyone interested in boats etc .Pubs are good as well.

We go most years for a long weekend when the Bristol Harbour Reggata is on .THe harbour is packed with visitors from far and wide There is live music in the arena ,lifeboat and helicopter rescue demonstrations etc.This year its the first weekend in August.

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[jonjo]

And don't forget the Bristol cafe scene. From the central part of the floating harbour it is an easy walk to some Bristol cafe institutions such as Woods and the Boston Tea Party on Park Street.

Clifton is an easy walk from the western end of the harbour. Cross the lock, haul yourself up Granby Hill and absorb the history.

There used to be a great post midnight atmosphere at an Italian restaurant opposite the theatre in Kings Street. Ordering food was a side issue, it was really just a late night venue for non vulgar people.

Oh and how can I forget, if arty films are your thing you can go the cinema by dinghy at the Watershed.

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[ecudc]

Royal Marriott Jacuzzi suites!
Laughing at all the students looking sick outside the law building as the go in for their finals.
Hiring a car for a day to visit Bath (go early in the morning and don’t drink the water) and Cheddar Gorge (beautiful drive down the gorge, great caves and have a go at doing the cliff walk…bit touristy though).
Old Bristol is really pretty. Good cathedral and the train station has to be seen to be believed.


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[summerwind]

Yeeeees. The reason you can sail in the Bristol Channel under wind with tide conditions and not see a ripple is because the tide is going faster than the wind.

Yeeeees. You can sail 30 miles in six hours (Probably less) in these conditions. It will take you six weeks to get back though. Aaaaand - you won't be able to sail more than six minutes without a gybe because you will otherwise hit a sandbank or be hit by a floating block of flats moving cars or coal into one of the ports - or even worse - going down channel with the tide. Ah, the experienced sailor will say, sail outside the Big Ship channel. In that case it wouldn't be sailing, it would be ploughing - not for far though!

Mind you, after a couple of seasons sailing the Bristol Channel, assuming you survive, you will be able to sail anywhere. You will do tidal calculations faster than a Sun super computer. Offsets for tide and leeway - no problem - done in nanoseconds without paper or pencil in sight. Why? Because to fail is to die. GPS - what do you need that for? You know where you are by recognising the homicidal nuclear powered bouy you just craftily avoided, how deep the brown of the water is, how far you are from the forest of masts, chimneys etc growing around the Channel and by how many inches the last plane cleared the top of your mast.

"Ship shape and Bristol fashion" means the first word is incorrectly spelled by one letter, that you are smeared with mud and impregnated with coal dust.

Lovely place.

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[Birdseye]

I'm surprised that Jeanne of Portishead Cruising Club didnt mention Bristol's biggest attraction - that its not at all far from sub tropical South Wales. Venture across the border (it will cost you £4.50 by road but we let seafarers in for free) and you will be able to visit charming Chepstow (castle, yacht club, cheap moorings) slightly less charming Newport (sailing club, free moorings, a few more castles, docks, and the odd steelworks) the capital city of Cardiff (large bay behind barrage, 3 sailing clubs, marina, moorings and all the facilities of a capital city plus yet more castles) plus lots of other small attractive ports of call. The natives are friendly (some speak English), the beer is drinkable and the food wholesome!

Sailing on the Severn estuary / Bristol channel is excellent. Uncrowded (busy day when you see 3 other boats) interesting ports with lots of history, less rapacious marinas than the South coast (but they're learning), lots of free harbours still. Only thing is, you would find it easier to get to the interesting places if you can take to the ground.

Take the opportunity to have a look at parts of S Wales. It's not a bit like most English people's mental image of the place. I know - I came from Yorkshire a decade or more ago.

And did I mention that you can have a look at a castle or two.


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[Guest]

Nothing wrong!

From Lands End to Bristol there are 150 miles of uncrowded sailing. You might see no more than one other small craft under way until you reach Cardiff. Enjoy the varied scenery of the North Cornish and North Devon coasts ... visit Padstow for a rest ... go ashore to Lundy (excellent place).

You will have the chance to experience faster speeds in your boat than you might find anywhere else - due to the flat sea and powerful tides. A 14 meter range an have a slow boat doing ten knots SOG.

The very few ships are predictable in their movements.

Enjoy the total absence of fishing boats trying to run you down.

Enjoy the fact that fog is very rare compared to the South or East coasts.

The water might be brown, but it's natural brown and not caused by excessive pollution.

The wind is predominently from the SW, often with more West than forecast so a wing and wing sail, or a run with the chute, for 15 hours is a real possibility.

Friendly natives around Cardiff. For sailors, the Penarth Yacht Club is far better than the others. £3 by taxi from the bay, or there's Penarth Marina or Cardiff Bay YC.

Beware of where you leave your boat in Bristol if you go into the centre, though, as the natives there are VERY light fingered. Especially as the pubs let out. I refer to the city, here, not the marinas of which I have no knowledge.

Marcos is a great Italian restaurant (or it used to be).

Tides ... not so bad to calculate as they are only going one direction or the other, not swirling around all over the place. The backside of Lundy is a great place to drop the hook vs. sailing against a foul tide. Look at the chart carefully and you will find many other such places.

As a hint, once you get to The Nash (E. of Swansea), you will make the best time up channel by staying VERY close in shore. Very close. I've done it many times in the past four years.

Avoid Swansea. The marina is a souless place and the bay is a bugger with weird currents and very dangerous sandbanks . Nothing to see there anyway.

Time your trip up past Newport with extreme care. Don't be late!

If there's been heavy rain in Wales in the few days prior, then watch out for very large mostly submerged tree trunks ... about the only real hazard to the area.

Have fun and private message me if you need any more specific advice.




<hr width=100% size=1>Humperdinck

Email: HJ@Seacracker.org
Website: www.seacracker.org<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by humperdinck on 28/05/2003 19:49 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[drawp]

Redcliffe Caves

Look up www.bristoltours.com and go on a tour of the Redcliffe Caves

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[Guest]

Re: Nothing wrong!

Watch out for a blow from the west when the tide is on the ebb ( 40 -50 foot rise and fall of tide) in places it can be like the inside of a washing machine going at full tilt.You will notice that in 150 miles there are very few places to go if it gets nasty and a lot of those are closed to you until about 2 hours either side of high water.Its a gnarly old spot on its day.

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