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).