The Rest of the Year

My regular reader will be aware, but probably not unduly concerned, that my blogging has become erratic.  Anyway, to continue and in summary ….

12 June 2021

From Dale (Wales) to Padstow (England). Currently both places are in the UK.

70 miles. No problems.  I found the entry to Padstow harbour challenging but we didn’t hit anything.

14^th June 2021

Padstow to Penzance

G7 were having a jamboree in Cornwall so the navy had her new aircraft carrier standing off to protect everyone from invasion and attack. I thought she was “stealth design” but she showed up nicely on my new radar.   We had a good day sailing around Lands End but found Newlyn full up with boats even anchored outside the harbour.  To PZ instead.  We like PZ.  We said “Goodbye” to Al.

16 June 2021

To Cawsand Bay.

Lovely supper at anchor with Jonathan and Sally.

17^th June 2021

To Dartmouth and home again.

10^th July 2021

To Teignmouth to see Lizzy and family and back home on 12^th.

17^th July 2021

To Scabbacombe Bay for a swim and the night then off to Weymouth.

3 nights in Weymouth. 2 meals with Helen and family, lunch and a lovely walk with Martin and Julie and swims on Weymouth beach to keep cool.  UK was having a “heat wave”.

On our last night in Weymouth we were woken by a soldier from a neighbouring boat who came down into Albatross at about 0400 hours having presumably mistaken us for his own boat.  I shouted a lot and he went away.

21^st July 2021

To Ringstead Bay for lunch, a swim and the night, then back to Dartmouth on 22^nd. Omelette for supper and home next morning.

16^th August

To Albatross for the night then off to Braye on 17^th.  

We sailed all the way!  F4 broad reach most of the way and a slightly hairy entrance to the harbour in F6 by the lee.   Braye has a new harbour master who appears to be making a name for himself. Enough said.

After a night at anchor in strict isolation and quarantine in Braye harbour, we were shuttled ashore for COVID screening.  Having filled in various forms on the “Travel Tracker” and having paid (twice) for this privilege, we were each issued with a packet of testing kits.  The extremely nice and helpful nurses then told us to go back to our boat, test ourselves for COVID and (assuming the results were negative) stick a “Cleared” sticker on a boat window, and from then on we could come and go on Alderney as we pleased.   We were also given some very striking yellow coloured bracelets to wear if we wanted to go ashore in Guernsey.  We did our tests. Remarkably they were negative.

Lovely stay on Alderney (with J and S and family again) then off to Guernsey on 20^th

20^th August

To St Peters Port ?

We wizzed down the Swinge  and on down to Herm for lunch (Belvoir Bay) then through Persee Passage to Beaucette Marina (for a change).  We were welcomed ashore without need for our yellow bracelets and spent a very happy 5 days exploring the island. We even fitted in a Parkrun.

25^th August 2021

To Dartmouth.

I was a bit frightened about our exit from Beaucette Marina and about the weather generally, but in the event  we had an easy crossing and sailed almost all the way.

Tuesday 21 September

Our Autumn Cruise

Up at 0730.  We took “the green thing” down the Dart (powered by our new electric outboard motor),  left our mooring at 1100 and arrived in Cawsand Bay at 1545. A nice swim around the boat (twice), supper aboard and a quiet night at anchor.

22^nd September

To the Yealm.  Easy berthing on the nearer pontoon (and we didn’t hit anything). A nice walk and supper at the pub.

23^rd September

To Salcombe and The Bag.

24^th September to Kingswear and home again.

Next Year, hopefully  Scotland, The Western Isles.

Two go sailing again

29^th March 2021

0600  It was dark. Very dark. We had a new plotter but no depth sounder. It was shallow, very …

We made it safely from Galmpton Quarry back to our mooring in Kingswear.  The new season at last!

16^th April.

New radar installed. My hand now repaired. Summer soon but a cold April this year.

20 April.

We motored into Start Bay. Quite a lot of things still work on Albatross.

6^th May.

We are now the happy owners of another boat. A Whaly 435. We asked the grandchildren to name her.  She is grey and plastic.  “Pigeon”. Now we can wiz up and down the Dart to and from Albatross in our new reliable comfortable and speedy tender, “Pigeon”.

27^th May 2021

May had been cold. Very cold.  But now summer was here and it was time to go!

We would sail to Wales, maybe beyond. Perhaps even leave the boat there for a while or head up to the Isle of Man. Or perhaps to Ireland?  What lovely clear plans!

After a night aboard Albatross, we set off for Cawsand Bay (Plymouth) and 7 engine hours later arrived in Fowey.  We would have a day off in Fowey and rest.  There was some sort of Old Gaffers event happening. 7 ancient boats duly arrived and rafted on our pontoon.

“Can we stay tomorrow ?” I asked the dues collector. “Not here, there’s sailing school coming in”.

Fowey would be full.  We would move on.

28^th May

1100 We set off for Falmouth.  22 miles and 4 engine hours later we ran aground as we approached the Visitors’ Marina  (which has been renamed, rebranded and re-staffed since we last visited).

It was low water springs with a high centred on Falmouth.  I blame the moon.   There we were about  1 boat’s length from berthing, stuck in the mud.

A very nice man, Dave, from “No Worries” chucked us a rope and hauled us in as tide rose.  We had a nice day off in Falmouth and ate fish and chips.  G7 was due to happen somewhere near St Ives sometime the following month so Falmouth had shut its main car park and employed people in yellow jackets to play with their phones in between obstructing the traffic and chatting. This would obviously aid the smooth running of G7.

30 May 2021.

To Penzance.  We got the tides right around the Lizard (another first for us) and arrived at the right time for the lock gates into the harbour.  The harbour staff welcomed us in and took our lines. We berthed against the harbour wall and even used the trusty fender board which we had acquired in Troon 9 years ago and had last deployed in Fair Isle in 2013.

Now to prepare for our trip across the sea to Wales.

We filled up with diesel.  I fiddled with the steering mechanism (it had been creaking), to no avail. We visited the very nice local chandlery who attempted to get us a new fresh water pump. It didn’t arrive. Briefly I wondered how we would cope without any drinking water but quickly realised that, as sailors, we could probably exist on wine and beer for a couple of weeks although showering would be expensive.   I rigged up a switch to control the half-broken water pump.  If turned on for exactly the right length of time, water would come out of the taps. If turned on for more time than this, a fuse would blow.  It worked.

Passage planning when heading westwards from Penzance Harbour is challenging because, as far as I could calculate, when the harbour gates were open the tide was going to be against us.  To avoid such challenges we picked up a mooring outside the harbour for the night before we would set off for Wales.  This allowed us to go when the tides were just right, but unfortunately it also meant that we had a horrible wobbly night at anchor when we needed a proper night’s sleep.

3 June 2021

Penzance to Milford Haven.

We set off at 0715, motored for only a couple of hours and then put up “the white flappy things”  (sails),  and sailed (Yes, sailed!)  across the Bristol Channel to Milford Haven.

We had a watch system.  I slept whenever possible but got up for meals.  Jean sailed the boat and made the meals. It seemed to work quite well.

Arriving on the outskirts of Milford Haven at night is quite confusing.  From about 15 miles out, there appeared to be a very large oil rig or possibly a casino parked just outside the harbour. It wasn’t on the chart or radar.  There were lots of lights, white red and green mainly, but as we approached them, they got further away.  We decided to slow down and wait for dawn.  When she arrived, the floating casino became an inland oil refinery and the lights mainly vanished.  We anchored in Dale, had breakfast and slept till lunch. After lunch I slept till teatime. Then we had an early night.

Dale is a lovely safe, easy anchorage. Nothing went wrong except for the toilet pump flusher.

5 June 2021

We motored to Neyland Marina and took their last vacant berth.

6 June 2021

Al arrived, which was nice.

7 June 2021

To Lawrenny Yacht Station.

We motored. A lovely peaceful river. Not a station in sight.  Jean threw the magic rope hooking device overboard but we found it again after a long and intrepid dinghy expedition up the river.

We had 2 nights in Lawrenny. There is a “Yacht Station” and a Pub. These are next door to one another, but each has its own pontoon, which guests from the other organisation may not use.

We met up with our friends from “No Worries” and enjoyed a nice walk to a special pub at the head of the river. The pub, we understood, was famous for 2 things.  Having a grumpy landlord and not serving lunch.  However, knowing this, we didn’t ask for lunch and had good beer and happy service. Who needs lunch after a long walk anyway?

Back to Neyland. (we motored).

The nice walk to Pembroke Castle included bracing walks across two mighty road bridges and various detours around Pembroke Docks. It was all very interesting and historical.

Back to Dale.  You can moor on the floating pontoon and it was deep enough.  This saves all that fiddling around with mooring liners and magic rope hookers, but in exchange you get grawnching  lines and bottom slapping, plus rather a lot of seagull shit.

We flubbered ashore for a nice walk and a slap up meal  (Fish and Chips … again).

 

 

 

 

 

 

2021 at last

Dear Reader(s),

Perhaps, in the absence of any news since August, you are wondering if  my blogging is over for good?  

Has lockdown led to blogdown ?  

What has happened to Albatross and her crew ?

Well  .. sorry, to disappoint you, but the blog is back.  A new season is here and sailing and blogging  must go on.

As spring approaches, boats need maintenance.  

Boat maintenance now has to be redefined as Emergency Essential Boat Care  (EEBC).  EEBC is, of course, an entirely essential activity during lockdown and can be conducted away from home (well this is how we have interpreted the advice provided by an employee of our local boatyard, anyway).

Wednesday 17th February 2021

After a long and boring winter alone on her trot in Kingswear, Albatross needed to be lifted to have her bottom scrubbed .   Getting out to Albatross on her mooring is not as easy as it was pre-COVID because the yacht taxi is less freely available.  But don't despair, we have THE GREEN THING.

My regular reader will remember that The Green Thing has this winter been redeployed as a cover to prevent weed growth on our vegetable patch. However, with some help from my crew and first mate we managed to extract her from our garden and launch her into the River Dart at Stoke Gabriel from where it is a mere 5 or 6 miles downstream to Albatross in Kingswear.

The Green Thing.

Stoke Gabriel to Kingswear is pretty straight forward and downstream. 

About halfway is the famous village of Dittisham  (pronounced locally as "Ditsum" or "Arrr Ditsum" if you're a pirate, or "Ditters" if you are posh).

Dittisham is well know as being the birth place of a Enid Blyton and is also where she also worked with a Mr H. Poirot on a collaborative novel entitled "Five get murdered on the Orient Express".  Enid has, of course, since moved on but she is still very much revered locally.

I was just marvelling at the astonishing reliability of the Green Thing and her 10 year old Suzuki 2.5 HP engine when she spluttered to a stop.  Had this happened  20 seconds later it might have resulted in an interruption to the smooth running of the Dartmouth Higher Ferry, but it didn't and a ferry nasty incident was therefore averted.

A little more petrol and some verbal encouragement saw us safely to Albatross at her mooring. 

I won't trouble you with the finer intricacies of the getting off a trot mooring without getting a rope around ones sterngear  but Harbour Patrol, appreciating that we were undertaking EEBC, was extremely helpful and gave us a good shove with his RIB.

Safely aboard Albatross, we motored back to Dittisham, towing the Green Thing behind us.

Despite its fame in literary circles, Dittisham is really very pretty.

Someone else's boat at Dittisham.

We left Albatross in Dittisham on a visitors' mooring and took the Green Thing back to Stoke Gabriel. The plot would continue tomorrow.

Tomorrow

Albatross was to be lifted at Galampton Quarry Boatyard  (pronounced "Gamton" by locals or  "Arrr Gamton" by pirates and "Gammers" if you're posh etc.*).   Conveniently Galampton is just across the river from Dittisham, so all we had to do was to get back by Green Thing to Albatross and motor into Galampton at high tide to be lifted out of the water.

The forecast was F8 - 9  (yes really) and heavy rain.  I woke up at 0230 that morning to hear the roof tiles rattling and rain falling like horses pee.  How would we ever get back to Albatross in that?

Dawn broke.  It was still and sunny, Warm even.

We completed the rest of this epic mission without incident.

Albatross is now safely ashore and will soon have her bottom scrubbed and painted.

*Posh pirates rarely visit Galampton.