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Roger on the helm, the three penents Devon, Scotland and Ireland, crossing the Thames estuary, Aproaching Dover, sunrise over Sussex, last sun set over Dorset, a welcome home from Barney, feet on dry land

 

 

We are home 9th july

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We slipped our mooring in Lyme at 8:30 giving us 2 hours to sail to Seaton and the mouth of the river Axe. Even on our last sail the wind was determined to make us work giving us a beat into the waves with a 17 to 25kt of wind. No full sail easy reach, it was reefed sails and a windy wet final 2 hours sailing high as possible to get around another headland.
The river mouth finally came into view and so did the surf hitting the beach. The river Axe is not the easiest harbour to get into. It’s a narrow entrance and once in the channel you then have to make a 90degree turn to the left to enter the main harbour. At low water it’s less than a foot deep and the shingle bar shifts around so one day you might enter straight on and another at 45 degrees. We had checked with the club beforehand so knew it was straight this time.
We were entering at high water which on a light wind day with no swell is a simple motor in. Today we had wind and a reasonable swell with waves breaking on the beach and rolling through the entrance. After lining up and a check behind for waves I went for it, all ok then one large wave twisted us nearly 90 degrees to port, too late to go back out I just steered for the entrance gave full throttle and we were through round the bend and in the calm of the harbour, phew!!
Alongside the entrance there were friends and family and Barney my dog on the beach waving, cheering and blowing horns, it was a fantastic and unexpected reception. As we motored to the pontoon I could see flags and people and thought “that’s just what I need people and boats on the pontoon where I’m trying to moor. As we got closer we realised it was a second reception committee, again with horns and cheers, fantastic and thanks to everyone who was there.
Well we did it, a bit faster than expected but then we were lucky with the weather as we didn’t have any big storms and were only held up twice, in the Scillys and in the Hebrides. The wind could have been kinder and given us a bit more down wind sailing but that’s life.
A great adventure and fantastic experience. First thanks must go to Eddie for putting up with me, I wouldn’t and couldn’t have done it with out him. Thanks also to Roger for crewing when we picked Sancler up from Brightlingsea and for joining us in Scarborough for some of our best sails. Thanks to Moira, Tom and Lizzy for putting up with me talking about the boat and sailing for the last 6 months and of course thanks to Sancler, the boat as she behaved impeccably being solid, stable and safe at all times.

Now I’m home With good wifi I will post some more pictures and stats on the trip. I hope this has been interesting and maybe encouraged you to go and see some of the places we have visited, I will certainly go back and see more whether by boat or car. As someone else said, a sail around the coast just shows you the places you want to go back to.

Friday 8 th July getting round Portland Bill

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Anchoring in Swanage was very peaceful until the wind got up around 2:30 causing the anchor chain to rumble, which for me in the forward cabin was like someone pouring rocks in a wheelbarrow just beside my head. We were both up at various times checking our transits to make sure we weren’t dragging but all was well and I also had the GPS on the iPad as a second check. Pulling the anchor up when we left I could see why we were so steady if was set in good Swanage mud and had a big lump stuck on it to prove it.

The wind was blowing a SW 5 /6 as we sailed out of Swanage we knew the tide was still against us but I hoped we could still hoped to make a southerly course. I should have listened to Eddie, he said it wasn’t possible. In reality with the wind and tide we could barely make SE so after nearly an hour of sailing we then had to motor sail back in and hug the coast and so after 2 hours we had made only 1 mile towards our destination.
Catching the tide past Portland Bill was absolutely critical, we had left early knowing we would be against the tide and should have motored from the start. The new plan was to motor until the tide change then sail and trust the tide to counteract the leeway and push us forward faster. Well it sort of worked but we’re still 12 miles off the bill with only 3 hours of tide left so we decided to motor sail through the inner passage. The trouble was we were on a track to sail the outer passage so had to cut back avoiding the Shambles Bank back onto the inner passage route. This meant cutting through some pretty rough water but from a distance it didn’t look to bad so we went for it. On other sails I had only seen the Bill from a smooth inner passage so this rough, confused water was quite a sight. There were waves for several angles tossing the boat around and we had one break in to cockpit. All very exciting but not to be repeated and thankfully over in 5 mins. If that was just a small taste of the Bill in action I for one learnt a valuable lesson, respect the Bill, listen to Eddie when he says motoring is the only way.
The change once we were on the Lyme Regis side couldn’t have been more pronounced. Smooth sea and force 4 wind allowing us to sail straight for Lyme. Our last night time sail and very calm and pleasant it was.
We entered Lyme harbour around midnight and tied up on the pontoon where we had protection from the SW wind. A long day for what was a pretty small sail and only one small hop to get home in the morning. To celebrate and finish off the stores we had a midnight supper and a bottle of wine.

Cowes to Swanage 7th july

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It was my first visit to Cowes but after seeing it on the TV and in the press during Cowes week it seemed smaller and less glamorous than I expected, not at all crowded which I was very thankful for as Im still getting to grips with close quarter handling under engine. I had already made a basic mistake coming into Cowes, following the buoyed channel, motoring straight lines between the buoys I didn’t see one and cut a corner only to come to a halt in the soft mud. Fortunately it was soft and a quick reverse got us out and over to the deeper channel so no damage and cleaned up the bottom of the keels.
We had a quick walk around and out of the festival weeks it’s a nice town but crowded with boats and people it must seem another place. We eventually found a pub that’s served food, wasn’t too noisy and not smelly so had a fairly quick dinner and couldn’t even manage a second pint, we were knackered, it really is two old men in a boat, we were having coco and milk by 10:00.
Thursday morning start was to be leisurely thanks to the tide as we needed a outward tide through Hurst Narrows, unlike when we collected the boat and took 17 tacks against the tide. So no early start, sometimes it woks in your favour!

The sail out of the Solent was really nice, a good SW breeze but nothing too strenuous. The Ben Ainsley cat was out for a photo shoot and went past us up on its foils at about 20 kts with a helicopter following filming everything. It looked amazing all black carbon fibre and sailors in crash helmets, a bit too much for two old men.
Our sail was fast and with the tide we popped out through the narrows into the Needles channel, and off to Swanage. This two was a great sail, once we had tacked out of channel we tacked for Swanage, ghost Roger took over and we made it in a single tack “whizzing” along at 7kts over the ground on a pretty flat sea, again so different from last time we.
We were anchored in the bay by 18:30 and were able to sit with a cider watching the club dinghy racing. All very peaceful and satisfying near the end of our great adventure.

Off to Lyme orBeer tomorrow and from then hopefully in the Axe on the tide on Saturday.