Club trip: Swansea - 1/09/12 to 2/09/12

[Matt]

Early morning lock out from Cardiff about 7am then overnight in Swansea Marina, perhaps visiting Swansea Yacht and Sub Aqua Club, to gain maximum Blue Book Points!

Many who have work on Monday will have to come back on the Sunday afternoon tide but those that have got more time can proceed further west to perhaps Oxwich/Tenby/Milford Haven.

TIDES

Saturday (Cardiff)

LW 02:08 0.8m
HW 08:19 12.3m
LW 14:26 0.9m
HW 20:37 12.6m

Sunday (Cardiff)

LW 02:46 0.8m
HW 08:55 12.4m
LW 15:01 1.0m
HW 21:13 12.5m

Fleet will be on VHF Channel 77

Matt

[sheila]

Would like to join in on this one, however, that weekend is the Extreme 40s in Cardiff Bay and that is something that I really do not want to miss. But I can't speak for Vince though

[duncanhall]

May catch you all for the return leg

Duncan

[Matt]

Let me know if anyone wants to join us on this one. So far two boats are definitely going, Ocean Factor and Arietta.

We are planning to lock out at around 6.30am to catch the tide (and everyone knows how much I love early mornings!).

Matt

[Andy-High Spirits]

i may join the late stayers on monday for oxwich
Andy

[Matt]

If the weather is nice we might see if we can get to Oxwich on the Saturday and then back to Swansea late afternoon.

Matt

[ishtar]

Louise and I may well be about on Sat/Sun. We're bringing Ishtar back. Not sure on our plans yet, but Oxwich on Sat is a possibility. May try calling you on 77. It's Ocean Factor' isn't it, Matt?

[Fred]

Jul 5, 2012 11:44:26 GMT Matt said:

Early morning lock out from Cardiff about 7am then overnight in Swansea Marina, perhaps visiting Swansea Yacht and Sub Aqua Club, to gain maximum Blue Book Points!

Many who have work on Monday will have to come back on the Sunday afternoon tide but those that have got more time can proceed further west to perhaps Oxwich/Tenby/Milford Haven.

TIDES

Saturday (Cardiff)

LW 02:08 0.8m
HW 08:19 12.3m
LW 14:26 0.9m
HW 20:37 12.6m

Sunday (Cardiff)

LW 02:46 0.8m
HW 08:55 12.4m
LW 15:01 1.0m
HW 21:13 12.5m

Fleet will be on VHF Channel 77

missing all the fun for 6 weeks

Matt

[Matt]

Hi Martin, yes the boat is Ocean Factor, we'll be on channel 77 and will look out for you!

Katy (Julian's boat) maybe coming too.

Matt

[ishtar]

You're doing a great job, btw, Matt. Cheers!

[rbhorti]

Matt
Could change the boat name to Matt Factor!!!
Russell

[Matt]

Cath recons I should change it to 'Krypton Factor' but hey!

Is Annie Joining us Russell?

Matt

[ishtar]

At oxwich. Rolly night. Fog and rain. Leaving lunchtime. Spoke to moonstruck on vhf last night. Nobody else.

[Matt]

4 boats to travelled in company over the weekend.

Xanadu _ Mike with father in law
Arietta – Keith and Joff
Katy – Julian and Tracey
Ocean Factor – Myself, Peter, Dean, Liz

A couple of us stayed on board Friday night as we had to get the early lock out at 6.30 Saturday morning. After rubbing the sleep from my eyes and forcing my legs out of my sleeping bag we slipped the lines at 6.15 and shared the lock with Arietta, closely followed in the next lock by Xanadu and Katy. Outside near Penarth there was hardly any wind and we thought we might be motoring all the way. We all motored through the gap between Sully and the land, a first for most of us on the trip and I have to admit to being a bit nervous over the causeway. We had a gap of 3.7m so worked it out that it dried to about 7m.

When we were clear of the island we all turned left and put full sails up. We had a good bit of wind and as it was coming from the West we headed on a close reach towards Minehead. As we were crossing the waves were lumpy and the wind increased and we put 2 reefs in the main and rolled in half the genoa. We could see the rest of the fleet behind heeled over hard too. Mike on Xanadu radioed to say he wasn’t feeling well and would go into Watchet and changed course accordingly. 10 minutes later he was back following us and advised that Watchet’s tidal gate had closed already. Therefore he carried on with us towards Minehead with the intention of proceeding to Swansea. We tacked towards Nash and about 45 minutes from our tack Mike said that his forestay had broken! We immediately changed course back to Mike with Katy and Arietta proceeding onto Swansea. Once near Xanadu we stayed around to make sure they were okay. We could see the genoa flying uncontrollably in the distance. Mike was having difficulty in getting his furler down ant attaching the spinnaker halyard to the pulpit. It didn’t help that he was already feeling unwell. There was a discussion to follow them into Barry against the tide or continue down to Swansea. A decision had to be made as the tide to make the trip to Swansea would make it unviable if we stayed longer. Mike decided to proceed to Swansea but needed help getting into the lock as he felt incapacitated. Luckily his father in law was there to assist, otherwise it may have been worse. Liz who was on Ocean Factor also felt a bit icky due to the wave motion and was sick .

Mike motored towards Swansea going via the inside of Scarweather sands with Ocean Factor not far away under sail. Once we were in Swansea Bay the waves became calmer and normality ensued. Liz tried to sleep down below. Katy and Arietta took the outside passage around Scarweather and the 3 boats joined up near Mumbles head lighthouse where we had a lovely sail in the sunshine over to the outer harbour of Swansea. We had to wait an hour for other boats to lock out and about 20 boats wanted to lock in the same time as us. Mike arrived and all 4 boats managed to lock in the same time. Once in the inner harbour we had to wait again for the ‘berth holders’ boats to go in first so spent about half an hour circling, trying to avoid big logs in the area which was ‘interesting’. All the boats tied near the fuel berth and paid our dues before travelling down to the far corner of the marina where we moored up next to each other (how cosy).

Mike and his father in law were knackered from the ordeal and Mike described it as the worst trip he had been on so he must have felt rough. They immediately went to sleep on Xanadu to try and recover.

Pete had made a great casserole which was a hodgepodge of potatoes, beans, mince and lots of other tasty stuff and we invited the other crews to dine aboard Ocean Factor. Liz left to get the train back to Cardiff. Lots of wine and cans of larger were drunk and then Me, Pete, Dean, Joff and Keith went up to the Yacht club where we drank more and talked about man overboard drills, and other boaty related stuff. Myself and Dean hit the town and went to a club where there were professional dancers (no not that kind) like strictly come dancing doing various acts. It was great to watch with the men swinging the women over their heads and other acts that were just weird. After getting pizza we didn’t get back to the boat until 4am.

At 10am in the morning we were awoken by Pete opening the hatch to let in the bright sunlight (arrgh). Feels like I have a hangover and may have drunk too much last night. Took some pills and had a coffee and we motored to the lock at 11.30. It was drizzle on and off and visibility was poor as we exited Swansea harbour. We couldn’t see land for about 3 hours and just headed in the general direction west of the west Scarweather cardinal buoy. We kept in radio contact with the fleet who were all okay. Mike was under motor of course as he didn’t want to stress his rig any further. The wind was nice, much less than the 20+ of the day before. Past Scarweather the waves started getting bigger and as we had to turn downwind it was very rolly and people began to feel a bit quezy. I needed a pee after a few hours and by the time I got my wet weather gear off and put my bum on the loo banged my head on the ceiling and then put all the gear back on again it was about 10 minutes I felt a bit unwell but just on the brink. I quickly got on the helm and was fine after a while. Dean went below for a drink and came up looking green. Tracey on yacht Katy was very unwell and was incapacited for the rest of the journey.

After lots of rolling along downwind the waves abated and we had a lovely beam reach to the Ranie Buoy back to Cardiff in the sunshine . We all had very red tanned faces by the time we locked in together. I always feel that Swansea feels like a long challenging trip when most of us are used to just going to Portishead, Bristol, Watchet, etc so it was great to see some of the newer members doing this trip and enjoying it. I can tell you that Mike is feeling much better after a good sleep

Matt

[vikingsmb]

sounds like you had a good trip matt, poor mike lol

[Matt]

Going through Sully.




Arietta




Me and Pete enjoying the sunshine.




Katy at Swansea.




Tracey getting ready at the bow.




Ocean Factor entering Swansea Marina

[ishtar]

Sounds like you had fun. We had that wind leaving Milford on Monday, especially crossing off St Govans head, but at least we were going downwind!

Tried calling on the radio on Sat, to no avail. Anchored in Oxwich. A boat called us, Moonstruck? Said he was from the club. I thought he might have been with you. I said we'd call him Sunday morning and travel back together, but when we got up around 8am, he'd gone.

Saw a pod of porpoise in the Oxwich anchorage



We left at 11:30. Like you, lighter winds, and mist/fog. We thought we saw some boats off Nash point, about 8 miles ahead of us, maybe that was you? We motored the last few hours when the wind dropped right off. Locked in at 20:15. More on the blog (link below)

[Matt]

We were thinking of going down to Oxwich but wouldn't have been able to get there in time as we had to stop halfway. It was probably for the best if it was rolley anyway. Sorry we weren't around. Great that you saw dolphins. Joff and Keith said they saw a seal.

Just as we were motoring out of the Cardiff lock and into the bay Sunday evening we heard the barrage calling Ishtar on Channel 18 so knew you were around.

Matt

[Fred]

Sept 3, 2012 19:12:58 GMT Matt said:

We were thinking of going down to Oxwich but wouldn't have been able to get there in time as we had to stop halfway. It was probably for the best if it was rolley anyway. Sorry we weren't around. Great that you saw dolphins. Joff and Keith said they saw a seal.

Just as we were motoring out of the Cardiff lock and into the bay Sunday evening we heard the barrage calling Ishtar on Channel 18 so knew you were around.

Matt

Was unable to make trip to Swansea on a boat in Cairns Australia very sad ;lol;
My grandchildren add a geat time on the boat in the bay with my son in law and daughter also at the clubhouse the boys injoyed the J20 Sheila.
Fred