I spent the night aboard Ishtar with Tigger, Louise did her nightshift. I woke at 07:00, put the bed away and sat on deck, shivering, with a mug of steaming black coffee, watching the sunrise over Cardiff Bay.
The crews of the other yachts arrived, carrying provisions and clothing. Louise arrived at 10:00, exhausted. She wanted to get to bed as soon as possible. We decided to lock out at 10:30, half an hour ahead of the others. The noise of the locks over, Louise would be able to crawl under the duvet and leave me to it. She was not alone......
Leaving them to it, I heaved the sails up and set off down past the pier at Penarth and then turning Westwards towards the open ocean. Well, towards the wide end of the Bristol Channel, anyhow. The wind was light and warm. I'd only sailed a couple of miles when I saw the 4 other yachts, Sui, Chausey, Volition and High Spirits, exit the locks themselves. High Spirits indeed!
We drifted slowly Westwards, passing Barry and the Power station at Aberthaw
The wind couldn't make it's mind up, and I kept switching sails, raising and lowering the 'cruising chute' twice before settling back onto the genoa. Louise had risen and helped me raise the large coloured downwind sail the second time.
None of us were in any great hurry to get anywhere. We briefly discussed going to Mumbles, in Swansea Bay, over the VHF radio, but then changed our minds, and settled on the village of Porlock Weir, on the English side of the Channel. We set off under engine power
'There's a big ship in the distance', Louise called won to me when I was making tea. I stuck my head out and could see by the white water of it's bow wave that it was moving very quickly across our path. Louise had already decided to slow and let it pass in front of us.
And then it started. After passing bhind the stern of that ship, and following a morning of almost no wind, we had a few hours of 15 knots from the West, and were soon heeled over, scything through the water towards Porlock.
Where we were soon anchored up just offshore. The Delta anchor scraped across some rocks before burying itself very securely in the sand. We've noticed this before at Porlock - some patches are better than others. We anchored directly in front of the entrance to the inner harbour, in about 3metres at low tide.
Tigger loves going ashore, and ran about with a big smile on his face. I had a smile on my face too, as we walked through this beautiful old village
and had a beer in 'The Ship'
A poor night's sleep followed, unfortunately. With the swells coming in from the West, Ishtar rolled a lot, and the snatching of the anchor chain, added to the fact that we had dragged our anchor here a couple of years back, meant that we slept only fitfully.
