Chelone floats!

Apologies for the delay on this post. I managed to type the title in on my phone a couple of days back, but I could not get it to accept any text......

Friday morning. The alarm went off at 05:45. A quick coffee and Louise, Tigger and myself piled into the camper van and headed off down to Pembroke dock to watch Chelone being launched. An hour and a half or so later, on a cool damp October morning, we approached the boat, hanging on straps in the launching cradle.

John turned up soon after, and before we knew it, the driver of the launch cradle was moving Chelone towards the slip. Around 16 tonnes of expensive sailing boat, dangling by a couple of nylon straps.

Just before going in, I grabbed a tin of antifoul and painted over the places where the pads of her cradle had been. I could only just reach.

A few minutes later she inched her way down the slip and into the cold waters of the Haven, at just about the top of the tide.

And that was that. Engine on, a short trip of about 50 yards and she was tied up on the pontoon.

Then we split up. The boat needed to be taken a couple of miles down river, to Neyland Marina. Our van, John's car and Ross' (the other crew member) car were parked at Pembroke dock. Someone needed to drive a car across the Cleddau bridge to Neyland Marina. I really wanted Louise to go with the boat - she's worked so hard these last few months, so many night shifts, putting money in the bank so we could afford to go. I jumped in John's car with Tigger and we drove the 15 minutes to the marina, leaving John, Louise and Ross to take the luxury trip.

As is usual when relaunching a boat, there were many checks to carry out. With a new engine, too, John spent an hour or so tightening glands, checking water and oil pressures and so on. Tigger and I were not that bothered, and, soon enough, I saw Chelone coming down river,

under the Cleddau bride and turning into Neyland Marina.

Louise was at the helm!

I was very surprised. She waved at me and didn't seem at all nervous. John then took over, and expertly turned Chelone around before going astern into her pontoon berth. Louise and Ross tied her up and they let Tigger and me in through the marina gate.

I had thought that was that, but there were still a few jobs that needed doing. The dinghy had been in John's garage for 18 months, so I set about scrubbing that. Louise did a bit of sewing on the sprayhood, and did some cleaning on deck, helped, or rather, watched, by Tigger.

Chelone's teak decks look beautiful in the sunshine. Tigger looks less happy. I wonder if he knows he won't be coming with us, and will, in fact, be parted from us for over 2 months, the longest time by far in the 10 years or so since we had him.

We spent Saturday evening in the van. Unfortunately, the leisure battery had given up the ghost, so we drank a few glasses of wine by candle light. we managed to get a new battery in Haverfordwest on Saturday. John and Suzie, the fifth crew member, had arranged a lunch at Neyland marina, and kindly bought us all a meal. Suzie's parents were also there, and a friend, Steve, as well as John's mother.

That evening, we went to Dale. Louise, Tigger and I walked up to WestDale beach. Then we had a bit of fun. We found a large (2ft by 2ft) block of a yellowish waxy substance washed up on the beach. I told Louise it might have been ambergris. When we got back to the van, she looked it up. Once she realised its potential value, she decided that she must go and get some. Now. She set off with a rucksack, hammers, knives and so on.

By now it was getting dark.



An hour later she came back up the steep cliff path, puffing and sweating, her rucksack full of the stuff. It didn't have the musty odour of ambergris. It didn't contain embedded squid beaks like ambergris does. It didn't burn with a smoky flame like ambergris doe, either. It was wax. We were not millionaires.

The following morning, I took a picture of Louise with her 'treasure'

So. Now we wait. John wants to do a 'shake down' sail and practice man overboard drill, and we need to pack the boat properly, but we just wait. The weather for Biscay does not look good at the moment, but may improve this week. It's strange. We can't wait to set off, and we know we will, but, as each day passes, we wonder when that will be.

So, we wait.

Sailing again

Surely not? Not another weekend away?

The first decent high pressure of the summer saw hot weather, clear blue skies and light winds. Family matters kept us in Neath until 5pm, but we were at Dale by 7pm, chomping and the bit to get out to Ishtar.

A lovely warm evening saw crowds outside the Griffin, however, and we were waylaid and forced to drink pints of foaming ale, or, in Louise's case, distinctly non-foaming but chilled cider. We didn't get out to Ishtar until much later, and I think the hot sun had addled my brain somewhat......

I was still sleeping when the engine started at 06:00 on Saturday morning. Louise was up and about, and motored Ishtar around the corner to Castlebeach bay. Tigger was jumping about, ready for a beach trip and a swim, and Louise was already setting the anchor when I clambered out of the cabin, bleary-eyed.

I left them to it and put the kettle on. I could hear Louise rowing away, and then Tigger barking on the beach. It was still only just after 06:30, but the day was already hot, as was the coffee.



With no wind whatsoever, there seemed little point in moving. Louise cooked some pitta breads stuffed with melted cheese, 'quesadilla-style' and we enjoyed the very rare and beautiful weather.

A couple of hours later the wind picked up. It was still only 7 knots or so, but it was lovely to put the sails up and drift along on the blue sparkling waters, other sailors, fishermen, divers, and all the other ships and boats of the bustling port going about their business:

Sadly, our enjoyment was short lived. We received a phonecall with some sad news, and had to dash back home very quickly. Still lovely to get out on such a beautiful day, though.

The British Summer Returns

We'd planned to just spend the weekend messing about once we got Ishtar to Dale. Louise wanted to get some practice just sailing from place to place and dropping the anchor for a short wait before setting off again. We headed just around the corner from Dale to castlebeach bay, where she set the anchor perfectly, before taking Tigger ashore to inspect the beach for sticks, and have a swim.

She'd spotted a small tear in the mainsail on the way around, so quickly set about sewing that



before hauling the anchor and setting off for a short sail across to Sandy Haven bay. Once more she set the anchor before the tell tale patter of raindrops on Ishtar's topsides began. I was surprised, but Louise was not. She told me that the forecast was for very heavy rain - the forecast I'd seen had given light winds and fair weather.

Within an hour, Ishtar was starting to bounce around. We had considered sailing through the port and up river to spend the night at Llangwm, but a look outsaide showed that the rain was so heavy, the visibility was down to around 100m. We set off for Dale.

We quickly realised that we should have gone back sooner, as we rounded Great Castle Head. The wind indicator was showing 28-30 knot gusts from the West, blowing hard pointy rain drops into our faces. With the current against us too, we motored, making only around 2 knots, and it took us nearly an hour to get back to Dale - a very unpleasant trip indeed.

This was further compounded when we got to the mooring to find that one of our two mooring lines had sunk, meaning that I was forced to sit in the dinghy, bucking in the rough seas, fishing about under the bouy until I found it.

By the time we got below, I was soaked to the skin, and freezing cold.

Louise made some sausages, mash, broad beans, peas and gravy, followed by cheeesecake and a bottle of wine. By about 9pm, the bad weather had passed, and it looked like we might get a good night's sleep.

Nope. As I lay drifting off in the forecabin around midnight, I could feel the wind getting up again. This time the boat started jumping around far more energetically, to the point where I started to feel sick. I very rarely get sick on a boat. I realised that the wind was now blowing straight down the Haven from the East. An hour later the screeching of the wind was as loud as I've heard when aboard, and we spend a very uncomfortable night indeed, and woke bleary eyed, the remains of the gale hampering the racing yachts efforts to get out and sail.

It had calmed down almost completely by 11 o'clock, but we were both knackered and, with Louise working, and plenty of wet clothes to dry, we called it quits and set off home. 

No sailing

No sailing this weekend. We'd offered to help some friends lay some moorings at Dale, and I had to fit a new riser chain to Ishtar's mooring and refit the head bouy. I did that on Saturday. It was lovely to be in the water again, and surprisingly warm for April. I quickly located and undid the shackle connecting the ground chain to the old riser, and attached the new riser in it's place.

Even though it was a simple 'work dive', I enjoyed it. I didn't do a great deal of diving last year, apart from a trip to Lundy and some mooring work, but we're dong more this year, and we have a trip to Scapa flow to look forward to. We're hoping to have a fortnight diving around Oban, too, in June.

Things were going well with the moorings until the outboard engines started playing up on our RIB. Too little use. Spent Saturday evening cleaning out the tank and carbs, and managed to move the 4 x 400kg concrete railway sleepers out to their new positions as mooring blocks on Sunday.

Poor Tigger had a rough time of it. He had decided that running around with a stick protruding straight from his mouth was a good idea. Until it caught the ground and rammed itself down his throat, leaving him yelping in pain. A trip to the vet followed, which gave him the all clear, although he was quite sheepish for the rest of the weekend.

Meanwhile, with 4 x 400kg concrete railway sleepers to move, and a less than perfectly running RIB, strong winds and squally showers, we worked our way through the weekend, an hour at a time. Cold and wet.

Better times to come this year, I hope.

Caswyn, Vince and Dave

We set off from North Haven, Skomer early on Saturday morning, motoring around the West side of the Island rather than waiting for slack water at Jack Sound. with less than three knots of wind, we didn't even try to sail against the last of the North going tide. A couple of hours later we were rounding St Anne's head and, shortly after that, Louise and Tigger went ashore in the dinghy, and then off to Milford by car, for provisions.

Caswyn was due in around lunchtime, having left Oxwich, where they spent the night just after 06:00. They duly pulled in at Dale around 13:00, and shortly after that, Louise and I went over to see them.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Caswyn"][/caption]

I'd promised to dive on Caswyn's mooring for Dave, but had not yet managed it. Instead, we pulled up the riser and attached the mooring buoy. I did try and snorkel the chain, to check it, buu couldn't manage the full length, so I'd have to dive it when I bring back my dive gear to Ishtar after the Lundy trip.

That sorted, we ate some lunch and then all went ashore for showers and a visit to The Griffin.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Martin, Vince, Dave at the Griffin"][/caption]

 

I picked up some weed in the tender outboard on the way back to Ishtar, which caused it to overheat, but it seemed fine once I cleared the blockage. Louise cooked a loved chinese meal of sweet and sours prawns or chicken with duck in plum sauce, followed by Banoffee pie with cream. With Dave and Vince tired after their passage, Louise and I then headed back to Ishtar and our bunks.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Dale sunset"][/caption]

 

Sunday dawned hot and windless. There seemed no chance of sailing. Dave wanted to do some work aboard Caswyn, so Vince joined Louise and I aboard Ishtar as we headed around to Castlebeach Bay. Louise would do some fishing, and Vince and I would take Tigger ashore.

We soon lay at anchor and I quickly rowed Vince and Tigger ashore at Castlebeach.

After throwing a stick into the sea for Tigger for a short while, we meandered up the coast path to Dale point, looking down on Ishtar on one side of the headland

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Ishtar, centre"][/caption]

and then down on Caswyn, near the pontoon on the other side

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Dale"][/caption]

After returning to the boat, we motored out to St Anne's head where Louise and Vince did a bit of fishing. With just one mackerel to show for an hour's effort, though, I suggested we try over the wreck of the Dakotian.

This was far more fruitfull, and Louise was soon well ahead in the race

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Mackerel"][/caption]

Vince soon joined in with a small pollack, before sealing the matter quite categorically a few moments later with a lovely cod.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Vince, with cod"][/caption]

Tired, sunburned but very happy indeed, we returned to Dave aboard Caswyn. Pretty soon we were ferrying our belongings ashore, Vince and Dave enjoying a pint and Louise and I an ice cream before we squeezed into Louise's tiny Citroen and returned to civilization, all of us wishing we could stay in Pembrokeshire for a few more days.

I'm sure we'll be back soon.

Love me tender

Our ancient Avon inflatable has done us proud in the last few seasons, but is rather bulky, with floor boards, pump engine bracket and so on. I'd decided to apply for a place in the tender park at Dale, and leave a rigid tender there. We had one in the garage.

Over the last few weeks I've painted it, applied some aluminium skids on the keel, built a trolley out of some pram wheels I found 'Up the forestry' and fitted a towbar to the car to tow it down in a trailer. After all this loving attention, I was hence, less that happy to see water pouring in from a hitherto unnoticed hole. Anyway, that would have to be fixed, off for a sail.The wind forecast was 4, 5, 6, or 7, mainly NorthEasterly, depending on the time and source of the forecast. It was a Force 3 from the West when we got to Dale...........Our friend Adam, from the Hurley silhouette Watermint, joined us for a coffee, and we spotted a seal on the nearby floating pontoon

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Seal"][/caption]

He let me get surprisingly close in the tender to photograph him, and even stayed there later when several boats moored. There may have been something wrong with him, although he seemed quite content watching the grey mullet under the pontoon.

Louise set off for a bit of practice, keeping close inshore, navigating the small bays on the North side of Milford Haven, such as Monk's Haven

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Monk's Haven"][/caption]

 

 and then into Sandy Haven, where we bumped into another yacht from Cardiff, Cassandra, and her crew, Karen, Peter and Elaine.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Cassandra"][/caption]

We then switched the engine on and slowly picked our way up Sandy Haven Pill, until we got to just 1 foot under the keel

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Sandy Haven Pill"][/caption]

 

The spectacular yellows of the Oil Seed Rape looked wonderful against the blues of the spring skies, and it was warm, very warm for late April.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Sandy Haven"][/caption]

 

A lovely sail back to Dale followed, Cassandra just ahead of us. Sails set perfectly, we quickly narrowed the distance between us and teh bilge keeler, before inexplicably falling behind again. Peter later informed us that was when they'd started their engine.......

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Sailing"][/caption]

Further up the Haven, the ships and tugs went about their business, one on fire drill

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Fire Drill"][/caption]

A few beers in the Griffin with Peter, Elaine and Karen, later, we were joined by Adam. There was a barbeque, part of the Royal wedding celebrations, but Tigger found the pickings quite scant.

A good day.

The wind picked up in the night and the chain from the mooring banging on the bow, together with the wind in the rigging and I didn't get much sleep. Louise fitted a new display unit for our wind instrument, and set about cleaning the boat, as the wind, and sea, picked up from the East.

She pumped some sealer into the hole in our tender

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Leaky"][/caption]

About an hour later I was rudely awakened from a snooze by Louise shrieking. After all the love I had lavished on our tender, she'd left me without reason or warning, taking our oars, baiiler and a dive cylinder with her. Reason - sheared bolt on the painter line.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="She's left me"][/caption]

With the leak, and the choppy sea, it dawned on me she might have sunk. A view of the shore at Dale through the binoculars yielded nothing. I tried to take Ishtar in, but it very quickly became clear there was not enough water. Louise pumped the inflatable and 20 minutes later, rang to inform me, thankfully, that it had blown ashore and been tied to the pontoon by a windsurfer.

Adam, and Dave, from Mar y Sol, came to our rescue, and within 20 minutes, the leak was plugged with a stainless bolt and some epoxy resin. Dave even zipped out to pick me up in his tender.  Coffee and biscuits aboard Mar Y Sol were followed a little later by a few beers in Dale Yacht Club

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Ishtar's crew, Dale yacht club"][/caption]

The beers certainly helped us to see the funny side of things, we'd lost nothing but a couple of hours.

I'm not sure what I said in the bar, but clearly it was hilarious, judging by the looks on the faces of Nick, Adam and Dave.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="DYC"][/caption]

 

When we left Ishtar, the wind instrument was reading 0 knots. By the time we'd met the others at the club, it was blowing 20 knots from the East, with more later. A very wet trip back to Ishtar was followed by another uncomfortable and noisy night. By the morning we were both overtired. We'd arranged to help Dave and Adam fit a wind unit toi the top of Mar Y Sol's mast, but they had both headed home too, so we packed up and headed ashore.

Bobbing about in a small tender with large waves is not fun at the best of times, but we then had to quickly manoeuvre back into the waves when a thoughtless chap in a speed boat faffed around, not realising we had to cross his bow to get to the beach, and he was getting blown ashore. We got soaked for that.

Tigger was most upset to find that someone had chained a ball to the concrete slip

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Why chain a ball to the beach?"][/caption]

 

We tied up th etender in the tender park and headed home. Not the best sailing weekend.

For our next trick.....

So, back in Cardiff. Not sailed as yet, although some very kind friends at Cardiff Yacht Club sorted our alternator. Thanks, Dom, and particularly Graham.

We loved the summer. If there was any way that we could do something similar next year, it would be great. Tom's mooring was likely to be in use, so we enquired at Dale yacht club. Yes they had a mooring available for next year. We were told of a local company who would lay a mooring, but they wanted £700! We decided to do it ourselves.

I worked out that 3 large concrete blocks, about 4cwt each, and some good heavy 1.5 inch ground chain would do the trick. I made up the blocks,


and our friend Vince, from CYC helped us to move them.





So we set off from Bridgend to Dale. We arrived early. Low tide was at 17:00. The plan was to drop the mooring near the slip at low tide, then drag it out, bit by bit, using lifting bags, the following morning at high tide.

It had been hard work, so we played with Tigger on the beach, Louise did a spot of fishing and Vince and I had coffee and cakes.




We dropped the blocks and chain at 17:00, as planned. Not much to do in Dale.

'I know, why don't we go to the Griffin?'

suggested Vince. I ponted out that it was early, but he wouldn't be dissuaded. The Cwrw Haf was as fine as it was during the summer, and my tuna fishcakes were excellent. Vince managed a pile of bangers and mash, saving one sausage for Tigger. Louise had veggie lasagne. Always complains that there are not many veggie options, but always has veggie lasagne when there are.

An early start. Launched our rib just before 09:00. Weather windy and wet. I'd seen the mackeral sky the day before, but thought we might be ok. We marked the mooring position and I kitted up



We began the drawn out process of diving to find a concrete block, filling the lifting bag, towing it out to the mooring, sinking it, diving to get the lifting bag, repeat, repeat with chain, shackle chain to blocks. Took four hours in all, ably helped by Louise, Vince and another club member, Huw.

Here we are, all looking very happy.





Eventually, we got it all done. I was very tired. Vince, the only one not in diving gear, was soaking. To try and save him getting any wetter, I gave him a piggy back ashore. Thankfully, Louise was a little slow with the camera.





Huw and I then had a dive for 'pleasure'. It was windy and quite swelly on the wreck of the Dakotian. The visibility was less than 2m. We had a brief look around the stern section and dropped onto the sea bed. Quickly sirred up the silt and lost the wreck. It's only 400 feet long, so easily done.

A long trip back to Bridgend. All tired, but happy at a job well done. Thanks to Louise, Vince and Huw.

Short midweek trip

Louise finished work at 10am, after a night shift and we drove to Llangwm.

Started the engine and motored off downstream with the ebb, doing an easy 5 knots, past tankers, ferries, and a huge cruise ship anchored in the haven, the Deutschland:

We fancied a night at anchor, but settled for the pontoon at Dale - seemed nice and easy. Met a couple with a Mirage 27, from Cardiff Bay Yacht club.

An early morning start, just after a heavy thunderstorm and we sailed the short hop over to Castlebeach and dropped the anchor. Louise pumped the dinghy and we rowed ashore.

There are lovely walks to St Anne's head and to Dale. Both gave stunning views of the bay, and of Ishtar at anchor:

Back aboard and another short sail across to Longoar bay, near Sandy Haven. Ashore again:

Back up the river towards Llangwm. We'd hoped to call at the Jolly Sailor at Neyland for lunch, timed the depth just right, but there was another boat there, tied up in the middle of the hammerhead and we could not moor, so we headed for Llangwm. An hour later we tied Ishtar up. Short and sweet.