This weekend

[ishtar]

Louise and I are toying with the idea of heading West this weekend. Tides are perfect to head West from Friday lunchtime, with light Northerlies or Easterlies, and a 7am (Ilfracombe-ish) or 8am(Swansea-ish) start on Sunday to drift back up to Cardiff by mid afternoon for a pint.

Beautiful warm sunshine too, it seems.

Anyone fancy doing this, or something similar? Company would be great.

There. That's bound to have jinxed it!

[Sui]

Ha! Sounds great, of course. No can do the Fri, but possibly planning a Sat/Sun; hate having to wait until mid-day (ish) Sat

[ishtar]

OK. No firm plans yet, other than 'West'. I'll try and let you know where wer may be nearer the time.

[Sui]

I've sorted Friday, so I'm going somewhere then :-)

[Andy-High Spirits]

I'm ok for friday, west sound good.
Andy

[ishtar]

That's great. The only constraints we have is that Louise works a night shift on Thursday, and we will not leave before say 10:30 ish on Friday. We need to be back in Cardiff by late afternoon on Sunday. Apart from that, it'll be see where wind and tide take us.

[allan]

On Thursday night I'm going out in Bristol. If I feel OK on Friday I will be over in the morning and head west sometime before HW.
Allan

[louiseishtar]

I would prefer to drop the anchor somewhere rather than a marina. Any thoughts?

[Andy-High Spirits]

Combe Martin?

[ishtar]

Mar 28, 2012 15:55:23 GMT Andy-High Spirits said:

Combe Martin?

Nope, I'm bald. ;D

[Sui]

take the combe, Martin! Am thinking of that neck of the woods, Porlock to Ilfracombe region, due to winds (now N to NNW) and tide. I don't have a tender/dinghy and haven't yet dropped the bower nor kedge. Will be about Thursday late afternoon/evening

[ishtar]

Yes, I think somewhere along that coast will be on the cards for us. We have to get Tigger ashore in the evenings/mornings, so we'll be using the dinghy, and you'll be welcome to use it.

We'll be at the club later this afternoon, and I'll be in the bar later, so we can chat about it then.

[ishtar]

Locking out 1100. Heading west along english coast. Vhf77. Come on!

[ishtar]

Ok, a few notes and pics from this trip.

A few beers in the club on Thursday night where we were delighted to find out that Volition would be joining Ishtar, Sui and High Spirits.

Friday morning, pontoons:


Louise arrived at 10:00, knackered after her night shift. She wanted to get some sleep asap, so we locked out 1/2 hr before the others at 10:30, to let her settle whilst I sailed.

Got the cruising chute up as we passed the Ranie bouy, and I could see the others coming out of the lock. I saw Allan had brought Chusey along too, which made 5 boats in our little flotilla.

We had a very slow sail along past Barry to the power station at Aberthaw



where the plan appeared to be Mumbles. A quick look at our speed over ground, however and the disappearance of the last of the wind, and we decided to head due South, engines on, into Porlock for the night.

[ishtar]

The fickle winds that dogged us all weekend then changed again. Within about 20 minutes of that last shot of High Spirits motoring, we were all sailing along at a fine pace, in a Westerly gusting to 17 knots.



This took us right into Porlock where we all dropped anchor for the night.

Sui and High Spirits:


Volition.


Tigger needed to go ashore, so we offered to take anyone who wanted to go, to the pub. Louise had a little trouble starting our dinghy engine:



So ended up rowing until she managed to work out what she'd done wrong ( ;D)



Eventually, we gathered at 'The Ship' for a real ale.



An uncomfortable night followed, as the swells rolled into the anchorage. Louise took Tigger ashore again in the morning, and spotted a lovely boat - maybe one for Paschall, when he sinks Sui?

[ishtar]

With hardly any wind again on Saturday, we began motoring, determined to get to Mumbles this time, and early points in this year's Blue book challenge.





Sea - 'glassy'.

We tried to sail several times on the way across, but the wind never seemed to stay for more than an hour or so. Eventually we steamed in past the iconic Mumbles light



Mumbles pier and lifeboat station:



and dropped anchor in around 3 metres in an extremely picturesque spot.





Vince pumped his dinghy up too, and we began ferrying passengers ashore.



I had a great idea. We'd chain the two dinghy engines together, engine to engine, to deter theft. We then spent 20 minutes trying to undo the lock, which had seized, before heading for the yacht club.



where we enjoyed the hospitality - even Tigger was allowed in!

[ishtar]

The sea was like glass again as we returned to our boats by dinghy. I looked forward to a peaceful night's sleep after the rolly anchorage at Porlock. Would you believe it? As soon as we'd settled in, the wind picked up to what felt like a 4 or 5 straight from the only direction that Mumbles has no Shelter - East. Another night of poor sleep followed.

Then the hard bit. Low tide was 8:00. Louise had to be back in work on Sunday evening, so we had to sail the 40 odd miles back, tidy the boat, drive home to Neath, shower, eat, all in 12 hours or so. It was too much really, and, although we could have sailed all the way back and enjoyed it, we felt pressured by time, and motored for about 4 hours.

A lovely sunrise though:



But a cold early spring wind was blowing from the East as we looked back towards Mumbles



Several hours later, we were back near Cardiff,



and, in fact, locked in with Chris, aboard Bilbo, who'd been out around the Holms:

[ishtar]

I really enjoyed the weekend, and the company, as always, was great. Personally, though, I think Louise and I will not leave so many miles to travel on the last day of a mini cruise again, I don't like rushing when we're supposed to be enjoying the sail.

[rbhorti]

Martin
Re diesel problem - check the primary filter bleed/drain screw. If the screw is plastic as is usual with truck filters, the suction created by opening the throttle full can cause an intake of air. I had this problem after fitting a new Beta to our Centaur Lady Kate. The problem was solved by replacing plastic with a metal screw.
Hope this helps.
Russell 'Annie'

[ishtar]

Many thanks for that tip, Russell. I'm doing moorings this weekend, but Louise is going to Ishtar, so we'll let you know what we find.

M.