Nice sail up, horrible sail back

We got to Dale around 13:00 Friday. The tide was well in and still rising, so launching the tender and getting to Ishtar was easy, easier still with the Westerly wind.

As we got to the boat, something didn't look right. We moor Ishtar with a chain, and with a rope, if one fails the other holds, hopefully. The rope 'tail' was hanging limply in the water. When we got aboard, we could see why:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Oops"][/caption]

I can only assume it must have tangled with the chain, and gradually sawn its way through as the boat rotated with each tide. Ho Hum. Another job to do. Later.

We unloaded, tied off the tender and headed across to our friend's mooring (Hi Phil and Gail). I'd promised to dive on it and check it over. I suited up and entered the water with a splash.

The mooring was fine, little more work than renewing the cable ties on a few of the shackles. Job done. The water is warm enough with a dry suit, but threading a cable tie through the eye of a shackle you can feel, but not see, in the mud, with cold hands, was tricky.With high tide approching, we took Ishtar in to the main pontoon on the beach. Louise filled the water and we took some unneeded junk to the car. Met Adam on the beach and we chatted as we threw sticks into the sea for Tigger on a cool spring evening.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Adam"][/caption]

 

We had a curry aboard Ishtar and watched another wonderful Dale sunset with a glass of Montana Sauvingnon Blanc.

Louise fancied a trip up the river on Saturday. A 10:30 low tide meant the trip up and back could be leisurely, but with the tide turning at 16:30, running West agaist the increasing wind, it might cut up. Louise set the Genoa and sailed off downwind and upstream. 'It will be a nice sail up, horrible sail back' I said.

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

It was lovely. Easy sailing, the wind pushing Ishtar along at 5.7 knots through the water, with another knot of current as the flood began. Usual thing for Milford, radio on, listening for ship movements, avoiding tugs and speed boats, then under the Cleddau bridge and into another world, with ancient oaks, herons hunting under their eaves in the silence. I love the river.

All too soon, we were at Llangwm, our 'home' of a couple of years back. By this time, Tigger had had quite enough of boats, his head full of seaweed and thick gloopy mud. Louise's head was full of tales of seabass, caught in inches of water, just of the banks, according to fishermen's tales she'd been reading on the Internet. They set off for the shore.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Going ashore"][/caption]

 In fairness, Tigger was far more successful in his search for mud than was Louise in hers for bass, but they both returned happy. I waited on the boat, watching a beautiful Westerly, Swn Y Mor of Dale glide between the moorings. We exchanged pleasantries.

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

With 28 knots forecast for the evening, we reefed the main and Louise sailed us off the mooring and off down the river. Still a lovely sail at this point, sun and broken clouds, the steep wooded valley sides of the Cleddau protecting us from the wind.

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

 As we passed under the Cleddau bridge and left Neyland in our wake, however, the tide turned, and began to flow against the strengthening wind. Heading due West against a Westerly wind, we switched to engine power as the sea picked up and the clouds darkened, glowering down on us and threatening rain.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Worsening weather"][/caption]

 

Then it got unpleasant. Boat slamming into the waves, great big raindrops and winds of 28 knots. We were held up for half an hour as two tankers, one leaving, one entering, traded tugs in the narrow channel. It was a pleasure to tie up Ishtar on her mooring. I took Tigger ashore in the tender, another soaking, and an early night was to follow. By 22:00 we were seeing 30 knots on the instruments, but there was no further rain.

Sunday morning was far more benign. I sailed us the mile or so around to Castlebeach bay and we set the anchor without fuss. I rowed Tigger ashore - Louise wanted to do a stock check and oil some of the teak, so she remained aboard Ishtar as we set off in the dinghy.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Ishtar at anchor"][/caption]

The recent strong Easterly winds had been kind to Castlebeach, from a dogs point of view. Tigger had a huge choice of sticks - he settled on one that was tied to another piece of wood, so I untangled it for him.

The 'throne' that someone had built last summer was looking good:

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

 

Someone had thoughtfully added some suntan cream, and toys for the kids

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

Several varieties of lager

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

 

And, out the back, a small wood store had been added, for those cold spring evenings

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Wood store"][/caption]

All in all, a well thought out, planned and executed project.

Tigger and I set off up the path Westwards. Met a small group of people arguing over a ketch anchored in the bay below.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Castlebeach anchorage"][/caption]

They seemingly couldn't agree on whether the ketch was one they knew or not. We had a brief chat about things nautical, and the Haven, before I left them and headed back to the beach.

All too soon we were upping anchor and packing. A couple of hours later we were in the car once more, heading East, and back to the real world.

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.

Freshwater West

We'd expected to still be doing our chores on Sunday, sorting the mooring, picking up the car and so on. Having made the trip in one hop, and sorted both the mooring and the car yesterday, we had a day free to sail!

With high tide at 11 ish, we could go up the river and come back with the tide. That would mean dodging shipping and the inevitable hordes of other boats about on this fine Easter Sunday, however, so we elected to head out of the Haven for a few hours.

Winds light, NW, I heaved up the main and sailed off the mooring. We were soon goosewinging out of the Haven, passing, or, more correctly, being passed by all sorts of vessel.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="222" caption="Border control"][/caption]

 

We'd walked along the beach at Freshwater West with Tigger a few weeks back, the beach deserted. This time, it was packed with surfers enjoying the summer-like weather, and great swell. Tigger was with my mother - we don't usually take him on 2 day passages (as this was originally planned) if we can't guarantee to get him ashore.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Freshwater West, packed"][/caption]

 

Louise was enjoying the sailing, and I left her too it. She decided on her plan, where and when to tack to get back into Dale, and did it all, with little more than an occasional suggestion from me.

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

I then took over - it would be nice to sail back onto the mooring, and have sailed the entire morning without starting the engine. I didn't get it quite right, though, and fired up our new Beta about 30 yards from our mooring, in fear of hitting another boat in the crowded moorings. More practice methinks.

So, an enjoyable and successful weekend. Ishtar is on her summer mooring, and ready for action. We left a crowded Dale after taking the dinghy ashore, and arrived back home about 18:00. All's well that ends well.

Passage planning, or not.....

The club had an Easter sail to the Gower planned. Swansea marina on Friday night and Oxwich bay at anchor on Saturday night. High tide at Cardiff was around midday on Sunday, tides big, and Easterly winds meant the likelihood of sailing the 45 nm or so on one tide was remote. The next tide would start flooding at 18:00, and Louise had to be in work for her nightshift at 21:00, and drop me back in Neath before leaving. It wasn't going to happen.

Late on Wednesday evening, still pondering on how to get a bit of sailing in, it dawned on me. Easterly winds, lovely weather, tide ebbing from Cardiff at 10:00 on Friday morning - we could take Ishtar to Dale. I quickly booked a train ticket from Milford home and by 06:30 Thursday morning was heading West, intent on leaving the car at Milford for the trip back on Sunday. The deal was done.

Louise got a text asking her to pick me up at Swansea train station. She had no idea what was going on.........

A few pints at the club on Thursday night, and a quiet night aboard Ishtar. Up at 07:00, the sun trying to break through high cloud over Cardiff bay as we crossed for our 08:00 lock out.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Cardiff Bay"][/caption]

There were a couple of other boats from the club in the lock with us, as the main group, another 10 or so, were to lock out at 08:30 for the Gower trip. The tide still had two hours of flood left. We could see very quickly that staying close inshore was the best option.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Ranie bouy"][/caption]

We were about 2 miles out as we passed Barry, Aberthaw and Nash Point. Those boats that stayed close inshore passed us, and, indeed, even boats from the 08:30 lock passed us. We waved goodbye to our friends as we settled into the long passage to Dale.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Heading West"][/caption]

The wind stayed in the East, around 10 knots. I'd not much experience with our cruising chute. The best way to get experience, I thought, was to fly the thing. She set beautifully, and we were soon doing 6 knots, 7, 8, even 9 knots speed over ground, as the Bristol Channel ebb reached its full flow.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Crusing chute"][/caption]

So, we were on our way. The plan was to spend the night at Oxwich and continue on to Dale on Saturday morning, arriving late afternoon. We then had to set up our mooring and sail to Milford to pick the car up before driving home on Sunday.

As the afternoon wore on, my mind started playing with the plan. We were making such good progress, if we could continue, at, say, 3 knots against the 6 hours of foul tide, that would only leave us around 28 miles to cover. Going with the tide, we might make Dale by 03:00. A few hours kip and we'd then have the whole weekend to enjoy ourselves. I mentioned it to Louise. Not keen. I said that more night sailing, and entering a major port at night would be good for us. Eventually she agreed, and we changed the plan once more.

Just as we made the decision, Some ominous clouds to the Southwest gave a hint of things to come.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Rain?"][/caption]

We quickly dropped the cruising chute. I had intended to take it in before dark, so it made sense to do it now, rather than have to pack it away wet. Just as well. As the rain came, the wind veered from Easterly to South Westerly, and increased from 10 to 20 knots in about 5 minutes. We quickly reset the sails and were soon bowling along at 5 knots, against the tide.

I'd like to say I anticipated the squall, and doused the crusing chute through experience, but it was very fortuitous. Good experience, though, and I'll know next time.

As darkness fell, Louise cooked some sausages, mash, peas, broad beans and onion gravy. The smell was wonderful below as she ate hers, before replacing me on watch so I could eat mine.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Evening meal"][/caption]

 

As the night drew in, the rain passed, and the wind fell off completely. We'd had a great sail down from Cardiff, but it was time to test our new engine against the foul Bristol channel tide.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="No wind"][/caption]

I got an hour's sleep, waking near the middle of the tide. I was delighted to see Ishtar zipping along at 4-5 knots, against the full flood. The old engine would never have done that. As I settled into my watch, and Louise got some sleep, darkness fell, and the rain returned, miserable cold, dark and alone.......

Louise came back on deck about 22:00. Pitch dark and we could see nothing. I knew Caldey lighthouse was out there somewhere, and St Govan's head after that, but we could see nothing at all. I imagined being aboard a coastal trader in year's gone by, no GPS to give position, and, like us, no lights visible either. No wonder so many of those ships were lost on these coasts.

Passing Crow rock was even worse. I only knew my position by the GPS. We must have passed the rock within half a mile, but despite both watching out, didn't see it.

It really was miserable as we crossed Freshwater West and approached the Heads of Milford Haven at 23:00. I could make out St Anne's head lighthouse, just, but even the channel markers were difficult to see. Best to err on the side of caution. Louise called up Milford Haven port control on channel 12. Good thing too, the ferry was due in 15 minutes. We waited off West Angle beach. From invisbility, to passing us, the Isle of Innishmore ferry took less than 5 minutes. If we'd crossed the two shipping channels without calling the port authority, it would have been 'interesting'. Another lesson learned.

We eventually crawled into Dale at 00:30. Picked up a mooring bouy and collapsed. 88 miles covered in a little over 16 hours. Excellent!

One of the things that helps to pass the time on a long passage is to do some maintenance. Louise stripped and cleaned the sink tap in the heads, soaking it in vinegar to remove the limescale. Got it working again too, but not without draining 70l of our fresh water into the bilges. No real problem, but it meant we'd have to refill at Dale, and get to the pontoon on a warm Easter bank holiday.

A beautiful morning belied the previous evening's miserable drizzle.

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

I'd removed the head bouy and mooring tails, dropping the riser chain to save wear before leaving our mooring last autumn. Louise pulled up the marker line, and half an hour later, Ishtar was sitting pretty on her own mooring. I'd dive it later, but we needed to refill our freshwater. We did manage to get onto the pontoon, near the tap, but, mistake number 2, we'd forgotten to pack the hose. Louise dutifully filled the tank, one bottle at a time, whilst I spoke to another couple, Dave and Jan of

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Mar y Sol"][/caption]

They had some loose engine sump bolts, so I lent them a socket set. They kindly offered to give Louise a ride to Milfor in their car, which saved us a trip in Ishtar, and an hour later, we were back on the mooring.

One job left, dive the mooring and service it. I was cold, and the water didn't look inviting, but it had to be done.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="Get on with it"][/caption]

 

The concrete block and ground chain had settled in perfectly. I swapped the seizing wire for cable ties on the shackles, which were solid, and checked each link of the riser. It was a little worn in the top metre, and I'd attached the head bouy a few links down to avoid this wear, but otherwise, the mooring looked in excellent condition. I even found a squatter:

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

 

After that, we just relaxed all afternoon, and watched another glorious sunset at Dale.

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

Three tows and a yacht club do.....

Quite an eventful trip, all in all.

We locked out at 10:30 on Saturday, with friends Allan and Tony aboard 'Chausey'.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Louise, Chausey in the background"][/caption]

Winds gusting to 20+ knots from the West, and too much sail, really. We raced down towards Lavernock point, Chausey chasing us all the while

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Chausey, Lavernock"][/caption]

When we passed Lavernock, the full force of the wind from the West, hit us broadside, still cold on this early spring morning. We should have reefed earlier, but stopped to do so now, leaving Chausey head off into the South Westerly chop.

Great fun, and we reached over 6 knots through the water as we headed towards Watchet, but hard sailing, and it was taking a toll on Louise, with three slipped discs in her neck. Earlier than anticipated, we decided to turn downwind, and head up the channel towards Portishead. Ishtar immediatly relaxed into a gentle downwind roll as we goosewinged our way towards the islands of Steepholm and Flatholm, in company.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Square rigger"][/caption]

 

As we passed between the islands we started to catch up with the rest of the Cardiff yacht club 'fleet'. 16 boats converging on Portishead Marina, funnelled together by the Bristol Channel.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="CYC Fleet"][/caption]

 

Periods of sunshine and broken cloud, and the light on the water was beautiful as evening approched, off Portishead point.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Portishead point"][/caption]

 

As we all gathered together and prepared to turn out of the strong current into the Marina, the car transporter was arriving, ready to deliver her cargo into the port.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Car Transporter"][/caption]

 

One of the reasons I've never been fond of the upper Channel is the strength of the tides. At up to 8 knots further up, they still reach around 5 knots at Portishead, and Ishtar's old engine could not hold us in that. We'd be fine with the new engine though.

Which cut out as we tried to turn out of the current, leaving us drifting towards the car transporter, now unable to manoeuvre, being towed to her berth by tugs.

I could anchor, but with so many club boats nearby, we radioed 'Alana' a few hundred metres away. Pretty soon, we were firmly tied up alongside, and safely heading back towards the lock.

Until their engine cut out too.

We had a problem now. Two boats tied together being pulled towards a commercial ship with no engine is not good. We quickly uncoupled and started sailing. With such light winds, we could not stem the tide, but could hold off the car transporter while we arranged yet another tow. This time, Allan aboard Chausey was our saviour.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Second tow"][/caption]

 

Chausey left us on a buoy and went back for Alana. I managed to start the engine, but it cut out again as we entered the lock, and we accepted our third tow in an hour, this time from the much smaller 'Sunbeam'. Matt took us into the lock and then on to our berth.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Sunbeam, third tow"][/caption]

 

We quickly established that a small piece of rubber hose had blocked the diesel pipes, and the engine was running well again within an hour, Louise, slipped disks notwithstanding, contoring herseld into Ishtar's tight spaces

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Engine room"][/caption]

I have to say, organised 'dos' are not really my thing, I much prefer impromptu joviality, and I'm no great lover of yacht clubs either, but Portishead Cruising club picked us up from the Marina and gave us a great welcome at their club, and the real ale 'Doom Bar' helped take away the pain and ease the anxiety of events earlier in the evening. Very enjoyable.

Louise set the alarm for 06:30 to take Tigger for a walk - he'd missed one the previous evening. In the event, neither he, myself nor Louise was that keen, and we went back to sleep. When I awoke around 08:00, Louise and Tigger were returning. Hot coffee and alka seltzer helped my head, but our efforts to restart 'Alana' with her own engine trouble failed, and she was towed into the lock at 10:00

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Lock full of CYC boats"][/caption]

Once out in the channel, we all set sail and raced away Westwards at 5, 6 even 7 knots, more when th etide was taken into account. It's strange how such low speeds seem so much faster when sailing, heeled over in the wind.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Bright Flyer"][/caption]

 

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Alana, and Severn Bridge"][/caption]

 

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Alana again"][/caption]

 

A couple of hours sailing, all of us trying different strategies to avoid the Bristol Channel sandbanks (one boat failing in that respect.....) and beat the others back to Cardiff. We all ended up in he same lock, with minutes between us after a 2 hour sail. A very low tide saw a huge torrent of water fill the lock, thrashing us about

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Lock filling"][/caption]

 

For an 'easy' weekend sail, I was surprisingly tired on Sunday evening. Louise, of course, set off for her night shift, slipped disks and all.

Great fun.

Spring

We've not sailed for over a month. Off up to Portishead this morning on a club outing. Should be fun. There's rumoured to be around 15 boats making their way the 20 or so miles up the channel to Portishead marina. A night at Portishead yacht club to follow promises a few beers too.

Pictures to follow.