We left Studland Bay at around 7.00am for Lymington, to catch the assisting tidal stream through Hurst Spit, the journey took a very quick 4.5 hours for 18 miles.
We heard a very strange Mayday call with a yacht coming back from France announcing that the skipper’s wife had been lost overboard. As the emergency services on both sides of the channel engaged he suddenly remembered that she had not been on the boat when they set sail and cancelled the Mayday. Odd to say the least.
At Lymington we refuelled after we had been beaten to the fuel pontoon by a cheeky cabin cruiser who just queue jumped. Increased the difficulty for us, as the area around the fuel pontoon is very tight with boats. However we were up for the challenge and navigated it with no problem.
Overall we completed 1883 miles over the 6 weeks and one day! Quite an adventure…
We had a very quick journey down to Studland Bay. A Beam reach most of the way and only one main tack once we were setup to sail. We arrived off Portland Bill some 4 hours before we expected to get there. We were helped by utilising the cruising chute. This is a very large fore sail similar to a spinnaker without the pole.
This was a bit of fun to fly, requiring a good deal of team coordination and also meaning we could travel much faster than the other yachts around us. Always enjoyable!
Once again we had a dolphin escort, amazing really as up until the last few days we had seen very few.
We are overnighting in Studland to wait for the tide to get past The Needles tomorrow morning where we end our adventure back in Lymington.
We are leaving Kingsand at around midday, next and penultimate stop is scheduled as Studland Bay. We should get there by midday tomorrow. But before we leave, the shrouds could do with a clean, the shrouds are up the mast.
So Paul, having not had any excessive for a while and being the lightest, volunteered to go up and clean them. The Bosun’s chair is the equipment required so we dug it out and up he went.
Who needs a drone when you have an Irishman v1966!
We arrived in Plymouth or more accurately Kingsand anchorage around 8.00 pm. Unfortunately it took us a while to set the anchor. Persistency paid off though with our fifth attempt being successful, the boats already there and anchored had an evenings entertainment watching us.
The trip down from Milford Haven was very good. The first 24 hours including through the night and past Lands End were made under sail. We travelled 235 miles over the 2 days with an average speed of 6.5 knots. Our quickest passage by a considerable margin. Check out the video on Day 40 to see what that looks like.
We encountered a number of different vessels including a very strange working boat. The Seajacks Leviathan shown below, was travelling at 8 knots out of Falmouth and was a very strange thing to see coming at you.
We also had another 4 dolphin escorts, with groups of various numbers and sizes. A family group of 3 including an infant and a large group of at least eleven who stayed with us for around an hour. Never tire of watching them have fun on the bow wave.
We left on time at 9.00am this morning, got about 500 yards from the marina and Nick spotted the engine wasn’t spitting water out of the exhaust. The engine is sea w after cooled so this is potentially a serious problem. So whilst Nick went below to check, we raised the Genoa (the front sail) that is easily handled and kept steerage in the channel. Nick filled the water filter with tap water as it was dry recapped it and we tried the engine again. Success!
The forecast is much better so next stop hopefully Plymouth tomorrow late afternoon/early evening.
We will not have a signal until then at least, as we go too far offshore to get anything. So no more updates until then.
You can follow our progress round Lands End by visiting www.marinetraffic.com and searching for her MMSI number 235063936.
Under way again
Haven’t seen many container ships, looks like a small island
The weather today is shocking and we are very glad to be in shelter. Today was a rest, cleaning, stretch your legs and passage planning day. We discovered by telephone that there is no room in Plymouth Yacht Haven. It is fully booked for the next 2 weeks. So our plan is to leave tomorrow and head for an anchorage just at the Breakwater Fort at Plymouth. That should take us around a day and a half sail time.
Today was a late rise for us, catching up on our sleep.
The bay is very pretty and we have a seal at the stern having a good look at us. We have managed to get a berth at the Marina in Neyland where we stayed at the beginning of our adventure. As it has turned out the weather forecast has worsened from yesterday to Gale Force 8, this has reinforced that it was a very good decision to come in. We will stay here for at least 2 days and then make a plan to round Lands End.
This morning finds us in the middle of the St George’s Channel. We have just had a weather forecast that is of concern. We are currently in a lumpy sea with the wind around Force 4. During the night we motor sailed to increase our distance South and to change our angle to the waves. This gave us a bit of relief to the beating and let us sleep when not on watch.
The weather forecast is predicting the wind coming round to the South West and increasing potentially to F5. In addition the following 24 hours is forecast to be even worse at Force 7.
Anyone of a certain age will remember the Fastnet disaster of 1979. Not comparing but……..
This is the same area that we would be in as the poor weather hits and the sensible thing to do is to divert and run for Milford Haven, before we even have to deal with the Force 5 if we can.
As it played out we did exactly that, we motor sailed to get maximum speed of around 7 knots. As we were approaching The Smalls (rocks marked by a lighthouse in the middle of nowhere) we gained an escort of 3 Common Dolphins. We were very happy to get to the Dale Anchorage at the start of the channel into Milford Haven around 8pm, not having enough daylight left to go down the channel.
There is a pontoon in the middle of this bay that we have tied to and will get a good nights sleep and motor down to the marina tomorrow.
We made good overnight progress under sail. Dodged a few fishing boats and have changed our proposed course, to sail to the wind we have, plus we had stronger winds after passing the Isle of Man. This meant we got a good tack quite far South.
Our track at 07.37am
Unfortunately during the day the wind moved more to the South West and strengthened. This has been a bit unpleasant as the boat is moving a lot and occasionally slamming into the waves. We have also slowed Our progress South down quite a bit as the tacks are not going in the direction we want to travel.
We have also been keeping a careful listen out to the Coast Guard weather forecast as any further strengthening of the wind would not be welcome. We have started thinking about our contingency plan to go for Milford Haven rather than go round The Lizard and Lands End.
We left Bangor at 09.45 to catch the tides for our long run down to hopefully Falmouth or Plymouth.
We passed the Copeland Islands in thick fog, a bit of a disappointment, we could see them but only just.
We made slow progress but around 6 pm a Minke whale cheered us up, it surfaced so close to the boat we heard it take a breath.
The real problem we have is the wind is South Easterly or Southerly. This means we can’t sail directly in the direction we want to travel and we don’t want to motor all the way down. What that means is that you have to tack either side of the wind at about 55 degrees, the downside of that is the distance you have to travel is increased by about 50% over the straight line. Not a problem on a day sail but a big problem on a 300 mile straight line sail.
As Paul said “we are widdling down the Irish Sea!”.
The photograph of the Gobbins 3 below has been photo bombed by a dolphin directly below the second windmill from the right.
We arrived at Bangor around 5.00pm, 43 miles from Balleycastle. We need to refuel and restock with food here before our big sail departing tomorrow, initially planned for 3 and a half days to Falmouth or Plymouth. We have one eye on the weather though as there is a possibility of strong winds.
Today was a rest and recuperation day in Balleycastle. The boat needed a good clean inside and out, we also needed water. In the evening we had dinner in the Basement restaurant. The food in the restaurant was pretty good and a lot better than the local delicacies Paul treated us to. Namely Wheaten Bread and Dulse. We were spared Yellow Man, as Paul couldn’t find any for sale, although as it is honey based it probably would have been better than the Dulse. Dulse is purple seaweed, very salty and tough as old boots, you have to have strong teeth to make a dent on it. The Wheaten Bread on the other hand was very good with cheddar or smoked salmon.
Balleycastle is an old town with lots of history in farming and a very famous (in Northern Ireland) song expounding it’s virtues. The Old Lammas Fair.
So today it is time to say goodbye to Scotland. We left Ghia at 07.50am in a mixture of low cloud and sunny spots. We had to motor for a short while to get out of the lee of the island. The weather forecast is NE F4 to F5 occasionally F6, sea state slight to moderate. Hopefully not too much F6 as everything else sets us up for a great sail to Ballycastle in Northern Ireland.
Ballycastle is a small seaside town with a lot of history in farming markets but it has an interesting approach from the sea. To get in you have to pass through Rathlin Sound, this means passing between a very significant headland Fairhead some 600ft high and the small island of Rathlin. For Game of Thrones fans FairHead was used as the basis of Dragonstone cliffs. In the middle of the channel there is a very big undertow, formed by the Macdonnell race, and if you get the tides or the winds wrong you can’t get through.
In the extreme it can push you a long way back from where you want to go. In addition to get to this channel, you have to come across a Transport Seperation Scheme area. This is a deep water safe passage for large vessels. A bit like a motorway for trucks. A small vessel like ours is required to enter at right angles to the “motorway” and steer a consistent corse through the water. That means if a tide is running you enter at one point and come out well up or down the other side.
Nick has therefore had to carefully calculate our entry point and time of entry for tidal strength to allow for our exit point to be close to where we need to be to safely pass through the opening for Balleycastle.
We arrived at 3pm covering 43 miles sailing 6 hours of the journey.
Goodbye Ghia and Scotland
Large arrows show direction of ships. A to B course to steer, C to D actual course over the ground.
Paul as usual when we make landfall went off for his run. This time only 13 miles, but to be fair to Paul that is the whole island of Ghia!
He couldn’t find much off road running but there was almost nothing on the roads or the beaches. Stunning views across to Jura, Islay and the Mull of Kintyre.
A fantastic finish to find the others with a beer in the sunshine.
