Boat maintenance and a trip to Fowey

Yesterday's Post

We departed Falmouth with new crew (Chris, Jean-Francois and Keith) mid-morning and motored for a while in the river whilst we identified the source of a water leak into the engine bay. After much groping around and feeling of hoses etc. we concluded that the problem lay with a leaking hot water tank. When the water was heated, by use of the engine or by immersion heater, the pressure built up and the tank leaked. Looking for the source when moored in the marina was impossible however as all seemed well and the bilge remained dry. Earlier Jean-Francois had exercised his skill with self-amalgamating tape applied around one of the electrical leads that passed through the roof at the base of the mast where another leak had manifested itself. That problem seems now to be solved; as for the water tank, we will have a new one installed as soon as we are able to, and in the meantime keep on soaking up the water with cloth!

The sea state was slight and proved comfortable, and the wind was about 10 knots as we sailed out of the Fal bound for Fowey. Several other boats accompanied us, but we couldn’t keep up with them under sail alone. Presently we rolled away the headsail and started the engine. Sandwiches were prepared for lunch. Eventually we passed Gorran Haven and Mevagissey and Charlestown, the latter being a private harbour where training is offered on square rigged vessels that have appeared on TV programmes such as Poldark and The Onedin Line. Fowey soon appeared before us and we motored past the main town into the marina at Penmarlam. J-F and I walked to the pub at the ferry crossing and watched the England. Roger was chef of the day and had prepared a delicious chicken and apricot dinner on our return.

Joke:

A police officer called the station on his radio: "An old lady has shot her husband for stepping on the floor she had just mopped". The Duty Sergeant  replied "Have you arrested her?". "Not yet - the floor's still wet!"

The troublesome hot water tank

Jean-Francois and Keith look out as we pass Gorran Haven

Entering Fowey

In Falmouth

Blue Star has had a 2 week stop over in Falmouth prior to continuing her voyage. In that time I visited with Diane. Cliff and Ash came to stay with us, and also Angie and Keith from Woolcool visited. It was rainy when Diane and I arrived but a lovely rainbow soon gave way to lots of sunny weather. We took the opportunity to explore the River Fal, the Helford River and St Mawes.

New crew arrive this weekend, but the weather forecast isn’t very encouraging! Still, only 2 more weeks of sailing and we will have crossed the finish line!

River Joke:

Mr Thick wanted to cross the river. Mr Tricky shouted to him from the other side: ‘Hey, I’ll shine this torch across the river. All you have to do is walk along the beam of light until you get to this side!’.

‘Do you think I’m thick or something?’ said Mr Thick. ‘I know full well that as soon as I’m half way across you’ll turn the torch off and I’ll fall into the river!’

Diane and the rainbow

The Helford River

Catch up post

There was no internet connection at Newlyn and Falmouth, but here are the accounts of our days sailing to those places....

Wednesday 17 August 2016 - Padstow to Newlyn

We got up at 0500. It was still dark. High water was 0520 so we needed to be out of the harbour shortly thereafter as we would exiting down the river Camel on a falling tide – any touching the bottom would result in us being stuck until the next tide at least! The wind was still blowing strong, and even in the harbour boats were being jostled around! Was it safe to go, or stupid? The forecast was for a force 6 and a moderate sea. Hmmm! Moderate enough to be comfortable or enough to make us all ill? Another yacht, Tiger Moth, was also leaving, so it must be alright mustn’t it? I checked with Roger that he was happy. ‘I think it’ll be OK’ he said. Hmmm! Soon after and we were away, following Tiger Moth down the river. We raised the mainsail in the river, like Tiger Moth, and put two reefs in. The headsail was also reefed. Away we went, down the river and out to sea. Too late to turn back now. The sea was very lumpy and the wind tended to round the boat up making it difficult to keep control. We were heeled over considerably too. After a while we took in the mainsail completely and proceeded under reefed headsail only, which was more comfortable. We headed out across the bay away from the land which slowly disappeared from view in a mist and fog that came down. Eventually the sea state improved, the wind decreased and veered and we had to use the engine to make reasonable progress. We navigated with electronics, seeing nothing of the coast, or of Land’s End, and only a fleeting glimpse of the Longships lighthouse and surrounding rocks. Eventually we neared the coast off Newlyn and could only just see our way into the harbour. There were few places and we had to raft up against another yacht that planned to depart at 0500 for Falmouth. We would have to let them out, so we decided to set off early ourselves too.

Joke:

Q. What goes 'croak croak' in mist?

A. A froghorn.

Our view of Land's End!

Thursday 18 August – Newlyn to Falmouth

At 0500 we were ready to depart Newlyn (despite the fact that our neighbour wasn’t!). We left. The fog of the previous day still prevailed and we set out into the murk to round ‘The Lizard’ on our way to Falmouth. It was a day for electronic navigation, navigation lights and radar again. We had to stand well of Lizard Point as there were large waves close in. Even two miles out we had to contend with large rollers that caused us to wallow uncomfortably. After a while we altered course to head towards Falmouth, east of The Lizard and we were able to surf down the rollers instead of wallow in them. Slowly the fog lifted and we could see the coast. There was an appearance of sun even! We checked the forecast for the following day – gales! It was clear that Falmouth would be our stopping point for this week. Everyone else obviously thought the same as all of the marinas in Falmouth were very full; we could only get a place where we had to raft up against another yacht. Never mind, at least we were in. 

Joke:

Parallel lines have so much in common. Its a shame they'll never meet. 

We could just about make out Lizard Point

Onward.......Milford Haven to Padstow

Rob (Hollins), Bob (Costello) and I boarded Blue Star late on Saturday and spent Sunday provisioning. The Tesco trolley was wheeled back to the boat and unloaded, and Bob (who comes from Liverpool) said he would take care of returning the trolley. Roger joined us aboard late on Sunday, and we departed even later – well Monday morning about 10 past midnight actually! The weather forecast did not encourage a visit to Lundy, so we headed for Padstow some 70+ miles and 14 hours away. It seemed to take an age to get out of Milford Haven, but once the sails were set and the Haven cleared we broke into a watch routine, with Bob and I on until 0330 and relief then provided by Roger and Rob. Avril’s Florentines, which she had kindly posted to us at Milford Haven, were sampled by at least one of the watches, and very yummy they were too! Thank you Avril! After initially motor-sailing we were able to proceed under sail alone. The moon lit the sky for most of the night and soon after sun-up we were joined by lots of dolphins jumping playfully alongside the boat. We saw Lundy in the distance and a several hours later Padstow Bay welcomed us. We had to pick our way carefully up the river Camel, almost running aground at one point, before we managed to enter the locked harbour where we tied up alongside the harbour wall. The place is packed with holiday-makers and our entry provided the entertainment for most of them,

We plan a day of rest in Padstow tomorrow before a start at 0545 on Wednesday bound for Newlyn.

Bob’s joke:

The police in Liverpool have found a stash of hand-guns, grenades and stolen property behind the library. Residents are absolutely shocked! They hadn’t realised that they have a library!

Bob taking care of the Tesco trolley

Avril's Florentines (yum yum!)

Sunrise in the Bristol Channel

A dolphin playing and jumping alongside the boat

Blue Star alongside in Padstow

By the way.....

Team GBchallengecrew are extremely grateful to all of the wonderful people who support us by making a donation to the CF Trust! I mention this having realised that 'Anonymous' recently made a very kind donation. Thank you Anonymous! We don't know who you are but we really appreciate your support.
A personal 'thank you' from me to all crew members who have sailed with us, or plan to, and have made a donation. It is really gratifying to see how much we have all raised together.

Much has been said on the news recently about how good the weather is going to be next week! That would be nice! However, a closer look at the weather in the Bristol Channel does not suggest a good week for the crew of Blue Star who plan to sail from Milford Haven to Padstow and beyond. We hope to dodge the lightning storms, winds of F7 and waves forecast of 2-3 meteres by carefully choosing precisely when we sail, and hopefully getting to Padstow before the worst! Then we will have to see......

Joke:
Q. Where did the weather-forecaster stop for a drink?
A. The local isoBAR!

Q. What did one raindrop say to the other?
A. Two's company, three's a cloud!

A storm at sea - hopefully not what we will see!

Pwllheli to Milford Haven

Friday's blog post - Friday 29 July 2016

We departed Pwllheli at 0700 after saying good-bye to Jamie who had to return home. Fortunately John had arrived to replace him, and Avril came to wave us off too. There was a reasonable wind initially to put us on a close reach starboard tack, although the sea was rather ‘lumpy’. After a while the sea flattened and the wind came from further behind to give us a reasonable sail. Eventually however, as we progressed further across Cardigan Bay, the wind died too and we had to use the motor to maintain progress. Out in the bay there was nothing to see except the grey sea itself and a sky of similar colour – no other vessels and  no land. We plodded on. Eventually the sea was flat enough to brave going below and preparing a lunch of stewing steak and vegetables. The left-overs became our dinner later in the day too. It was very nice, but the steak was a bit tough – we decided that the butcher had ‘seen us coming’ or perhaps thought we had asked for ‘chewing steak’ instead of ‘stewing steak’! We took turns in going below for a lie down. Eventually South Wales turned up on the port bow and we motored through Ramsey Sound, the narrow stretch of water between the island of Ramsey and the mainland as we listened to music on deck. I had a message from Dan to say he was feeling a little better, which was brilliant! We were welcomed into the seas beyond the Ramsey Sound by huge numbers of birds and dolphins. The birds were resting in the sea and as we motored past them they all flew off to the sound of Take That singing ‘the world comes alive’ – a magical moment which we caught on camera! Onwards we motored as it turned dark, past Skomer and finally into Milford Haven as we picked our way through the flashing lights of the navigation buoys. As we motored down the Haven towards the marina we made radio contact with harbour control and were asked to navigate along the north side of the harbour to make way for a large tanker exiting the Haven. Dolphins made another appearance, this time very close to the boat, jumping and playing alongside us as we made our final approach to the marina which we entered via a lock. A wonderful day to remember!

Joke:

When the chemist died they had to barium.

Approaching St David's Point

 The birds greeting us after passing through Ramsey Sound heading towards Skomer

Click on THIS LINK to see another video of us sailing through the flock of birds
(If you can't get the video to play, try it on your pc, or try using Firefox as your browser and clicking the 3 dots in the top right hand corner and selecting 'request desktop site')

Locking in to Milford Haven marina late at night

Port Dinorwic to Pwllheli

Yesterday's post, Wednesday 27 July 2016
We departed Port Dinorwic at 1500hrs. The marina fee was a special £0 on account of us sailing to raise funds for charity. Thank you Port Dinorwic! We really appreciate your support! I must say also that the staff at the marina were also extremely helpful giving directions, advice and helping with our lines.

It had to be a 1500hrs departure since we needed the high water to lock out of the marina. It was dry, and a little overcast. In the marina we picked up a new would-be crew member, John. We had been chatting to John and Avril who had a motor cruiser, Bliss, which they were taking back to Pwllheli. John expressed interest in sailing and said he would give us a ring with a view to joining us for the next leg from Pwllheli to Milford Haven, and of course he would make a donation to the CF Trust. We decided not to race them to Pwllheli, especially since we cruise at 5 knots and Bliss goes at about 20 knots! It needs to be remembered however that Bliss requires about 30 litres of diesel per hour, whereas Blue Star needs about 50 litres per average week, depending on how much we use wind power.

The journey to Pwllheli took us 12 hours. We wormed our way out of the channel past Caernarfon which seemed to take forever, and then set a course for Bardsey Sound at the end of the Lleyn Peninsula. Initially we were able to sail, but before we reached Bardsey the wind had backed from north-west to south-west and we had to motor instead, almost directly into the wind. Darkness came after we had passed Porth Dinllaen but before Bardsey Island was reached. Night sailing brings a different sensation to the sailing experience, with only stars, a range of shore and navigation lights, and a series of silhouettes and half-lit clouds to break the pitch black night. Even so, I am not a great fan. Whilst the sailing experience itself is valued, I cannot help but feel that you miss out on the scenery, and arrive at your destination too tired to do justice to the following day. After Bardsey, Aberdaron was lit up, and then onwards past Hells Mouth, Porth Ceiriad, Abersoch, and finally we picked out the leading lights for Pwllheli marina.

A week or so ago I had arrived home to find a package on my doorstep. It tuned out to be a cake, left by my good friend David Shepherd from SCCC. When I telephoned to thank him David had said that he always felt that it was ‘really nice’ to have a cup of hot tea and ‘nice piece of cake’ when on night watch. ‘But then’, he went on to say, ‘you always do day sailing so it doesn’t really apply to you!’. I can now report that in the dark, somewhere off Aberdarron and with Bardsey just astern, we partook of a ‘nice cup of tea’ with a piece of Shepcake! Very nice too! Thank you David!

Layton’s jokes:

Q. Why do cows have lips?

A. If they didn’t they would go ‘Oooo!’

Q. Why do seagulls live in the sea?

A. Because if they lived in the bay they would be bagels!

The lock and Port Dinorwic with the marina beyond

The other side of the lock at low water

John and Avril, aboard Bliss, locking out with us

Sailing into the dark around midnight

Today? We walked into Pwllheli in the rain, bought some groceries, floor cloths and a flashlight in readiness for our next night-time entry to a port (probably Milford Haven).