Portishead cruise

[Cardiff Yacht Club]

Please use this thread for discussion of the Portishead trip.

[ishtar]

Fantastic trip. I've lots more photos, the best ones are of boats that got very close to Ishtar, anyway, on to my report!

[ishtar]

Louise and I locked out at 10:30 on Saturday, intending on a sail down the coast with the last of the ebb, before heading up to Portishead later in the afternoon. We locked out with Chausey and Red eye (who was sadly unable to come to Portishead)



Allan was joined by a prospective new member, Tony.

We enjoyed a cracking sail towards the South West, in gusting conditions, making it almost as far as watchet before turning back upstream

[ishtar]

As Ishtar passed near the Holms, we saw this square rigger, making her way towards Weston



We crossed between the holms, and on emerging the other side were joined by Chausey, Alana, Xanadu and High Spirits, a little ahead of us.

[ishtar]

The wind eased as we neared Portishead, and the car transporter passed, approaching her berth



It was turning into a beautiful evening, I counted at least 10 CYC boats as the spring weather led to a lovely sunset

[ishtar]

As we neared the Firefly buoy, we started the engine to make the turn. Things became slightly more interesting and less serene for the next hour. Our new engine died, leaving us drifting towards the car transporter an over 4 knots. Luckily, Sheila and Vince came rushing to our rescue aboard Alana. We quickly tied alongside and they began towing us to safety against the strong tide.

30 seconds later, their engine cut out. We were tied together and now BOTH drifting towards the car transporter, now being towed to her berth by the tugs. Vince shouted 'Sail, Now' and a few other words not suitable for a family forum. We quickly untied, and sailed away from the transporter. Allan and Tony aboard Chausey then took us under tow and took us to a mooring bouy outside the lock before returning for Alana, who was sailing against the tide heroically.



I managed to get Ishtar's engine going in time to get into the lock but it cut out again before we could enter, so our third tow in an hour was Matt and Cathy, aboard Sunbeam, who bravely towed the much bigger Ishtar to her berth with Sunbeam's 5hp engine.

[ishtar]

We found the problem with Ishtar pretty quickly - a tiny piece of fuel hose rubber had blocked the filter intake. She was running again by 19:00. I'd given up on the idea of making the minibus to Portishead yacht club.



I resigned myself to helping Vince with Alana - also experiencing Diesel problems. I was covered in the stuff anyway. Vince then made his second great call of the evening, pointing out that beer tasted better than diesel - he was going to the pub. We quickly changed and took advantage of the very hospitable members of PYC, who gave us a lift to the bar.

[ishtar]

A great choice. We received a very warm welcome, great food, a good atmosphere and a good time was had by all.













Every few minutes (or so it seemed), the bell was rung and various people made speeches. We were told that our lift back to the Marina would be ready whenever we were. The biggest laugh of the evening was reserved for Vince, who rang the bell and asked 'What's the latest time we can stay until?'

[ishtar]

I, for one, was feeling a little worse for wear in the morning, and our 10 o'clock lock out seemed to come all too quickly. Attempts to start Alana had failed, and we assembled in the lock, full of CYC boats, with another lock ful of CYC boats to follow half an hour later.



Ishtar, Chausey, Bright Flyer, Lucy Too, High Spirits and (out of shot, sorry, Alegria).

We then set off for a cracking sail, close hauled, back to Cardiff. I only have shots of those boats in our lock, sorry.

[ishtar]

[ishtar]

We arrived back at Cardiff just in time to lock in before low water.



The mud banks and sand banks in the Bristol Channel are, of course, notorious, but should pose no problem for experienced sailors who know what they are doing............

Anyway, well done to all who made the trip, and thanks to the organisers. Particular thanks to Sheila, Vince, Allan, Tony, Matt and Cathy, all of whom helped tow us at some point on Saturday evening!

[Deleted]

Great write up and great photos as usual Martin. How do you manage it so quickly?! Not much to add from Cassandra's perspective, other than we enjoyed being part of the first adventure of the season - may there be many more!

We were bowled over by the hospitality at Pill! Hope to get up there again and anchor in the river sometime soon.

Of course there's another exciting episode to tell from the boats that left in the later lock ...but That's probably best left to Huw

Peter,Elaine and Karen (Cassandra)

[ishtar]

I heard Huw had taken the kids to the beach........?

[Fred]

! locked out out with Theodoxus at 12.30 used main reefed Theodoxus used cruising shute on run. Taking our time to arrive at 16.20 first lock in. Unable to make it to P Y C due to grandson going to bed on boat first time

Lock out at 8.00am Sunday close hauled all the way locked in 10.45. Went to my grand daughter 3rd birtday party at Porthcawl
short 2 min video

[Camelot]

Need my bed now, so the full explanation (and excuses) will have to wait until after work tomorrow - but yes Camelot had an unplanned stop off at our own private beach in the middle of the Bristol Channel! Which made it a very long day! Details and photos tomorrow.

[brian (Blue Bear)]

Sorry I missed that weekend which was obviously quite an adventure and the pictures show the excellent company.... good to see these accounts, much more exciting than my much praised adventure at the moment at least...

[Andy-High Spirits]

Sorry we missed the PYC, we went to the pub for a quick pint and didn't notice the time. We had a very nice sailing weekend, whoever picked the wind gets my vote.
Andy

[ishtar]

Apr 3, 2011 19:58:12 GMT Fred said:

! locked out out with Theodoxus at 12.30 used main reefed Theodoxus used cruising shute on run. Taking our time to arrive at 16.20 first lock in. Unable to make it to P Y C due to grandson going to bed on boat first time

Lock out at 8.00am Sunday close hauled all the way locked in 10.45. Went to my grand daughter 3rd birtday party at Porthcawl
short 2 min video

Nice to see the video, Fred, great work.

Although I resent the accusation that Louise was the one working on the engine on that mooring buoy. Can I make it QUITE clear that she didn't start working on the engine until we were on our pontoon berth....... ;D ;D ;D

[Xanadu]

What a fantastic weekend to end our week's work on the boat. Many thanks to Jock and team for their hard work as well, and especially getting us back in the water so promptly on Saturday morning.

Great sailing both ways, wonderful hospitality from PCC. We couldn't have had a better start to the season.

My only really interesting photo from the trip - Camalot are caught using the time waiting to lock out of Portishead Marina to plan beach party.

[Camelot]

Apr 4, 2011 10:48:41 GMT Andy-High Spirits said:

Sorry we missed the PYC, we went to the pub for a quick pint and didn't notice the time. We had a very nice sailing weekend, whoever picked the wind gets my vote.
Andy

No worries about missing the PCC, though I've got to say you missed a great night.

[Camelot]

We had a mostly excellent weekend in Portishead, leaving on Friday evening to make the most of our time in Portishead. On Saturday morning we visited the leisure centre for a swim (the outdoor swimming pool in Portishead that we used last year doesn't open until after Easter).

We had an enjoyable an relaxing day, awaiting the arrival of the rest of the CYC boats. It was great to see so many boats arrive, 16 in total, making this our best attended cruise yet:-

• Camelot
  
• Xanadu
  
• Bright Flier
  
• Star (our first mobo of the year)
  
• Coracle
  
• Cassandra
  
• Lucy Too
  
• Katy
  
• Chausey
  
• Ishtar
  
• Alana
  
• Sunbeam
  
• Alegria
  
• High Spirits
  
• Freya
  
• Runagane

[/i][/li][/ul]

After a little a frustrating wait for news of those suffering engine difficulties, everyone arrived.

[Camelot]

Coracle, Lucy Too and Cassandra in the corner.


Bright Flier.


High Spirits.


Lucy Too, Coracle, Cassandra and Freya.


Sorry didn't get photos of you all.

[Camelot]

The PCC (Portishead Cruising Club) members kindly picked us up from the marina in their cars and ferried us to their clubhouse. I think it safe to say that an excellent night was had by all. The food they laid on for us was superb, and the welcome couldn't have been friendlier.

I should apologise to the crew of Freya who I couldn't find before we left, o inform them of the arrangements - very sorry!

[Camelot]

Apr 4, 2011 17:23:33 GMT Xanadu said:

I'd better own up to all my sailing sins this weekend before someone else beats me to it - The above photo was taken whilst a number of us were tied up near the Portishead lock, awaiting a green light to enter (Peter!!!). Shortly after the photo was taken the lights turned to green, and I ordered the crew to slip the lines, and went to motor away - quickly realising that I had shut off the engine during our extended wait!

[Camelot]

As most of you are now aware our sail home was 'interesting'. We were aware that we were close to the middle grounds and were stuggling to point as high as we'd have liked. We had only around 4 meters beneath us, but the chart plotter showed us to be right on the very Western tip of the bar, so I decided to continue, expecting the depth to increase shortly... It didn't instead suddenly dropping to 1.5m (we draw 1.4).

Angie suggested we start the engine and motor hard to force our way through. Our speed was down to just 2.2 Kts, I didn't want to motor hard, as I wanted the now likely impact to be as gentle as possible. There seemed little point in changing course as we were already making the best possible course according to the chart.

Inevitably we touched almost as soon as I'd said no to the engine and stopped, so with the impact over with I started it up and motored hard. There was lots of juddering and the girls wanted me to stop, but we were moving and the speed was picking up to around 1.4 knts. However, just as I was about to congratulate myself, we stopped sharply. This time I accepted defeat.

We had a tense few moments waiting to see whether we'd dry upright. We had some banter on the radio with some of the other boats.

I then contacting the coastguard to let them know our situation, before someone else reported us, assuring them that we would not be requiring any assistance.

Initial ideas of scrubbing the hull were abandoned - to much like hard work (we got as far as cleaning the rudder!). So we had a wander around our massive island. The sand was firm, other than at the waters edge where it was like quick sand. The kids were amused that the 'pebbles' they picked up were actually soft balls of clay.








The mood was quite jovial and we made the most of our predicament. At HW I lay out out kedge anchor to help get us clear. It's a fortress anchor, with 15m of 6mm chain and 30m of rope, which I extended with a couple of mooring lines to make the whole lot around 70m in total.

[Camelot]

As the tide returned the wind stregth increased, and brought with it increased swell. We slammed for quite some time, which I always hate, but seemed much worse out in the open.

We got the engine started and motored and hauled our way clear against the flooding tide.

Once clear, and with the coastguard informed, we resumed course for Cardiff. It was slow going; we were making just 1.2 kts over the ground against wind and tide. Sailing wasn't an option with the wind and tide coming directly from our destination. So we just plugged away, the 7 miles to home ticking away very slowly. Now tired the mood onboard was no longer as cheerful.

After about half an hour we hit a larger wave and shortly after the engine revs reduced, after a very long few seconds they increased again. It didn't take long to discover the water separator bowl under the primary fuel filter was nearly full of water - I guess sucked up as Camelot experienced her first swell of the season. The revs died back again after another larger wave, but I was relieved to see the water level in the bowl had reduced. For some time the engine didn't seem happy, but kept going. Then after a couple of hours with the tide now reducing, and us starting to experience some protection from the Penarth front, the engine seemed happier again.

We locked in at 19:15, probably around six hour later than planned!

[Camelot]

I've updated the Blue book Challenge website to reflect the weekend's points, see:-

greyreef.co.uk/bluebook/main.asp

Congratulations to Alana and Chausey who are currently sharing the top spot with 8 points. In joint third we have Alegria, Bright Flier, Katy and Lucy Too trailing by only 1 point.

If you click the show all tab in the bottom left corner, you can then click on your (and other's) boat names to see where the points were earnt.

For this trip I've awarded 2 points for joining a Club Cruise, 1 point for visiting Portishead Marina, and 2 points for attending the PCC social night, making 5 in total.

I thoroughly checked the Blue book, but middle grounds aren't mentioned, so I can't award myself any extra points for my extended cruise!

[Deleted]

Well following all before this message seems odd for me to post, as it's usually Katy that has a story to tell!! All I can say this time is that I had a lovely sail both there and back, everyone at the PCC gave us great hospitality as usual and it was a brilliant start to the season.

I'd just like to throw a rhetorical question into the air. Didn't Huw say that beginning with Portishead was a gentle start to the season as it the easiest place to navigate to? He didn't say anything about getting back. :-) :-) :-)

I was probably the last to leave Cardiff as I had been waiting for Mick Ray who didn't turn up. Again! I had also been the last to leave for the day after new years day round flat holm trip, because I had waited for Mick Ray who didn't turn up then either, so I left feeling a bit grumpy about being let down by both crew members. Single handed again!! But once out into the channel the sun was shining and it was pleasantly warm, the sea was calm (despite all predictions) and so Cap'n Pugwash here settled down to enjoy the trip.

As everyone has mentioned now, we were ferried back and forth in PCC mrmber's cars, fed and watered and a great time was had by all.

I locked out at 9:30 with Matthew and Cathy on Sunbeam, and a local fishing boat which seemed reluctant to leave the lock for some unfathomable reason.

Here are a couple of pictures of Sunbeam. Sorry, but everyone else was too far away to photograph.

A distant sunbeam
i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h439/yottie69/Portishead%20Trip%2020110402/P1000704.jpg

A bit closer...
i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h439/yottie69/Portishead%20Trip%2020110402/P1000705.jpg

Even closer still...
i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h439/yottie69/Portishead%20Trip%2020110402/P1000706.jpg

[Deleted]

<a href="http://s1109.photobucket.com/albums/h439/yottie69/Portishead%20Trip%2020110402/?action=view&current=P1000704.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h439/yottie69/Portishead%20Trip%2020110402/P1000704.jpg" border="0" alt="A distant Sunbeam"></a>

[Deleted]

Alright - too tired right now to work out this photobucket thing for the first time!!

A distant Sunbeam