Penarth for a week

The amazing wide beach north of Nash Point

Cervisia spent a week in Penarth marina in mid July. This wasn't exactly the plan!

The plan had been for me and Royston to sail over to Penarth on the Thursday night and then for me to sail back on the Sunday night. The forecast for Thursday night had been for no wind and so the trip nearly got called off. As it was, we had a force 4 or 5 headwind all the way to Cardiff. It seemed pretty windy: we were sailing with a reefed main and we had water slapping over the decks as we tacked and tacked our way down the channel. I don't think I've ever been to Penarth when the wind has been in exactly such an unfriendly direction. We watched the sun set over the Welsh hills and then sailed in the gloaming over the final few miles. The lock keepers at Cardiff were watching our progress and had the lock gates ready for us when we arrived. Soon we were berthed up in Penarth, enjoying a beer in the cockpit before a late night and an early morning.

I had a quick shuttle to work and back on the Friday, getting back to Cervisia  at about 10pm. Saturday morning dawned wet and quite windy. This didn't deter me from my plan to walk from Barry to Bridgend. It was actually pretty wet and I had to take my oily jacket with me as the waterproof as my walking one wasn't up to the conditions! The walk was really nice, especially when the sun started to come out (this does happen in Wales), but I then had a big bulky oily jacket to lug around with me. The scenery just gets better and better as you walk along this coast. The section from Llantwit Major to Ogmore is really fantastic: amazing beaches and huge tottering cliffs. Ogmore crag looked interesting, as ever. I found a new way past Ogmore towards Bridgend. I still haven't found the best way to do this section: I always seem to get involved with nettles and horses, neither of which are that popular with me. Once I Cardiff, I sought out the Japanese restaurant and had sushi and tempura for my dinner, washed down with sake.

Sunday was even windier than Saturday. The forecast had been for force 6-8 in the Bristol Channel. I had thought that this really applied to the western portions of the channel, but it seemed to have moved up east somewhat. In the morning, I walked from Barry to Penarth, finally finding my way through Barry Docks. It is worth finding your way through here as there is a great little section of coast path from Barry to Sully, including some really interesting geology. Apparently there are dinosaur footprints in the rocks around here!

Gary and Carolyne (from the Three Peaks Yacht Race) joined me at lunchtime. The plan was to sail round the Holm Islands. This should have been really nice as it should have been a beam reach all the way there and back. We locked out a couple of hours before low water. For the initial part of the sail, we were in the lee of Lavernock Point, so we had a decent wind and no waves. However when we got out of the headland's lee, we got into the full force of the wind and the waves. The waves got pretty big! As we needed to go around the Wolves cardinal mark (due to rocks at low tide), we ended up going quite close to the wind: this made the wind feel stronger and the waves feel steeper. Even when we could bear away, we were still riding across large waves, getting drenched. It was all pretty wild.

The plan changed to just a circumnavigation of Flat Holm island as we were having too much fun (and getting too wet). We did a really dodgy gybe in the channel between Flat Holm and Steep Holm. I got the main across, but we didn't get the genoa over in time. Cervisia was heeled right over. We made it round though and all was well that ended well. We then had a lumpy sail back to Penarth pier until we got sufficiently in the lee of the land.

When we were going up the channel to Cardiff Bay Barrage half an hour after low water, I noticed that we were going very, very slowly. This does not feel right. We could see the big mudbanks on either side of us, but we were smack in the middle of the channel (according to the leading lights). It became obvious that we were stuck on the mud. The bad thing that happened was that the engine started sucking really wet mud into the water intake. Although not a disaster, it meant that running the engine was not a good idea. We turned the engine off, got the kettle on and then sat around, watching other shallower draft beers laughing at us when we were sat there. We called the barrage lock keepers who told us we would be sat there for 45 minutes. I understood that the channel had silted up and was due to be dredged the next day.

The tide rises really quickly in the Bristol Channel and we could watch it rising. We knew we were in business when one of the navigation buoys popped out of the mud: it must have been stuck in by suction and when there was enough bouncy, it suddenly shlurped out. When floating, we got the engine on (we had cleared as much mud as possible from the intake) and chugged into the lock, nervously watching the depth sounder readings. It was good to see clear water flowing round the engine again.

Once back in Cardiff Bay, it was obvious that the wind had picked up: there were waves in the bay and the flags were really flying. Gary offered to drive me back to Portishead. I thought about it for a bit and then accepted his offer. My main concern was that the wind might pick up further and it was dead downwind (which would mean gybing). I thought that it was manageable out there with the existing wind conditions, but I didn't want to put me and Cervisia through more than that. Cervisia would stay in Penarth marina and I would collect her the next weekend....

Link: more photos

Oxwich Bay to Portishead

I woke up to a choppy Oxwich Bay. This was all a bit weird as the chop was coming from the south east and there had been little wind, especially from that direction. The other boat that had been anchored in the bay had left: presumably they had caught the early tide up channel. Scavenger still looked tempting, but the waves were lapping its base and it clearly wasn't up for it. I raised the anchor for the last time on the trip and set off to Portishead.

We had a light wind as far as The Mumbles and we sailed reasonably slowly almost to the lighthouse. I wasn't too fussed about making good speed at this stage as we would get caught by the spring tide against us as we got out of Swansea Bay anyway: there was little point in getting caught there earlier: it made no difference.

The wind died off The Mumbles and we had a frustrating motor towards the Scarweather Sands. What was annoying was that there was still the chop around. Every time we hit a wave, Cervisia slowed down and we didn't seem to get very far. I listened to the South Borsetshire puppy show on The Archers and put up with the conditions.

It was really obvious when we crossed the Scarweather Sands that we left one type of water (the clear inviting stuff) into another type (the muddy estuary stuff). It was a really clear divide between the two types of water. I guess the sands cause this change in the water and the water causes the sands. The sands are probably there as a deposition feature between the faster running waters of the Bristol Channel proper and the slacker waters of Swansea Bay. My original plan had been to anchor on the Scarweather Sands until the tide slackened and I could make meaningful progress eastwards. However when I was scouting around for a good spot, the wind started and I decided we might as well try sailing on the spot (going as far forward through the water as the tide took us back). To start with we were going backwards, but as the wind strengthened, we could make slow progress tacking eastwards. Eventually we passed the South Scar buoy and we seemed to be off, South Scar thankfully passing behind us into the distance.

There was more motoring up the channel as the wind died again. We motored past Nash Point towards Barry (where I saw a dolphin in the muddy water: I have never seen one this far up the channel before). The wind started up properly again at Barry and I hand steered (to get the best speed out of Cervisia) from there back to Portishead. We were really lucky in being able to sail in a dead straight line all the way back. It doesn't usually happen this way. One thing I had been worried about was running out of fuel. I had made calculations that I might just be able to make Portishead on the half tank and 5L can of diesel I had left, but it was looking touch and go. I'm glad we had the wind so we could sail instead.

I finally called Portishead marina up at about 10pm, just half an hour before the top of the tide (i.e. just in time). St. John welcomed us back. When I stepped onto the lock pontoon, it had been the first solid land I had been on for 4 days (since Dun Laoghaire on Thursday morning). It was a pretty weird feeling. Although it had been nice to be on Cervisia for that length of time, it was also nice to have the space to move around on land. I parked Cervisia in reverse first time on the pontoon, went to look for some food in Portishead (not easy at 11pm on a Sunday) and then went to bed. An early morning and a bus trip to Bristol would see me back at work on Monday morning.

It's pretty good to have Cervisia back in Portishead. Although it is nice to be away, it is a bit of a worry having her a long way away and knowing that you are going to have to sail her back in a defined week. I think I made the right decisions about how to get her back, but things could have been a lot more difficult if the weather had been less kind to us. I think the rest of the sailing year on Cervisia will mainly consist of weekend trips to Penarth. This is no bad thing.

Skomer Island to Scavenger / Oxwich Bay

We had a good night at anchor at Skomer. I think one of the other boats didn't have as good a night as us. It had started north of us and ended up south of us. I don't know what happened to them in the night, but it probably a sorry little tale.

It was a pretty windy morning despite us being in the shorter of the cliffs. There were puffins, Manx shearwater and gulls buzzing cervisia, whose decks were liberally plastered in puffin dung. Getting the anchor up required a couple of attempts. I had obviously got a good placement. We were off by 0900.

The first bit of the sailing was really good. We had bright blue skies and a good fresh wind from the port quarter. We absolutely flew along, despite sailing against the tide. These conditions continued all the way to Linney Head where the wind suddenly changed direction completely and then died to nothing. This was very perplexing given the conditions we had had before and the weather forecast. I guess of there was anywhere to have to motor, this was no bad spot as the scenery is very good along that bit of coast: there are lots of rock climbs to admire. Strangely three seemed to be no climbers on any of the routes.

We had an excellent dolphin display in Carmarthen Bay. It started off with a few dolphins jumping around Cervisia's bows, but later on there were dolphins jumping all around the boat: some of them jumping clean out of the water. You could see little groups of them all around. It was so cool. I love the Bristol channel dolphins.
The dead calm continued until we got under a rain cloud at Worms Head. It started raining and it looked like it was going to be a miserable couple of hours to the anchorage. However there was a really good wind associated with the rain and we tanked along really well into the headwind. The wind dropped again once the rain stopped, but we were still able to sail along quite nicely in a light wind to Oxwich Bay where we are now anchored.

I have applied the Beale school of anchoring. This entails getting the whole lot of chain and rope out rather than calculating an exact amount. This seems to work really well. The rope seems to lie at a really nice angle (that makes it look like Cervisia is pulling on the anchor). This is not meant to be the best anchorage in the world but the anchor seems fairly well settled and it is really calm here. The best thing about this anchorage is the rock architecture. The nearest bit of rock to us has the classic route Scavenger on it. I would love to get up tomorrow and climb it on my birthday. It will be high tide in the morning though (unless I get up really early: which won't happen). Now I am more confident with the anchor, it would be really nice to come to places like this and go climb some rock.

Tomorrow might end up being a big day. I can't really think of anything clever to do to ensure that we make it. I could get up at 4am to catch the early tide, but that doesn't classify as being clever. If we can make good progress against the tide in the morning then we stand a chance. Hopefully we will have a good wind, but I don't dare to hope too much. I have worked out that if we get to Penarth / Cardiff (which is totally feasible), I can leave cervisia there for a few days and then pick her up one evening next week.

One thing that feels a little odd is that I have been on board now since basically Dublin: that is 3 full days. It will be 4 days on board by the time I get to portishead. It is odd how a small space like Cervisia can end up becoming your world.

The Sun goes down on Oxwich Bay. The crag in the background is Little Tor: home to an excellent little E1 5b rock climb. Cervisia is anchored.

Cahore Point Ireland to Skomer

I slept ok for the first 4 hours of the night, but then the wind got up and cervisia started bouncing around. I was not anchored in a place at was suitable for north east winds: there was little choice. The main thing is that the anchor held and cervisia is alright. I got some rest for the other few hours. When I got up at 430, there were clearly some waves around and there was a force 3 wind. The sun was just coming up and it seemed like a good time to get moving.

Cervisia was really straining at her anchor. I thought that it might be a pig to get out, but it was fine. I then had to stow the anchor (not easy on cervisia at the best of times) while cervisia was bouncing around in the waves.
The Irish coastguard were forecasting calm winds. Indeed the local observations on the radio were for 2 to 3 knots of wind. We must have been in a magic windy spot as we had a good force 3. This wind stayed with us most of the way across the Irish Sea, only giving out for an hour somewhere in the middle. It was a gorgeous day with sunny skies and it was pretty warm too. We made good progress on a broad reach most of the way. When the wind died, I got the spinnaker out which helped a lot. It looks colourful too.

It was a good job that we hadn't gone down Cardigan Bay (the original plan) as they were firing missiles into it from Aberporth. I think the dolphins might have been on holiday too. I saw none in the Irish Sea.
It was good to sight land at the far side. I recognised Carn Lidi a St David's head. After that all the islands and hills started to make sense. I knew that the tide was going to turn against us and so had the cruising chute up to get past the South Bishop lighthouse. We had realy good sailing with this up. I don't really know why I took it down. Maybe I was being over cautious. Taking it down was a big mistake as it meant that we lost speed. Coupled with a poor navigational choice (going too far north into Broad Sound between Skomer and Skokholm Islands) meant that we got well and truly stuffed by the tide in Broad Sound. The first time we tried to get through, it was clear that we were going to hit Skomer rather than make it through the sound (Skomer is rocky and uninviting from a shipwreck perspective). We took a more southerly course the second time and made it through very slowly. There must have been a 6 knot tide against us at one point. Unfortunately we had to do the sound under engine to make sure we got through.

I saw some other boats in South Haven at Skomer and so assumed that it must be ok to anchor there. I got here after sunset and anchored in the gloaming. My first attempt at anchoring didn't work (my first failure). It was obvious that it hadn't worked and second time seems to have been lucky. The iPad is going to be on anchor watch duty again tonight!

Skomer is as beautiful as ever. It is a really special place. The seas around it are full of birds. There are puffins swimming around in the water around the island. There are birds squawking outside as I write this and I heard some seals on the shore earlier. It's a really special place.

The aim tomorrow is to get to the Gower. We'll have to see how that goes. I can't face getting up too early and so the day will start with a slog against the tide before the tide takes us round the south of pembrokeshire to Tenby.

Anchored at Cahore Point

A nicely place anchor at Cahore Point. I even fashioned a chaffing protector out of some spare hose to protect the anchor rope.

[text written a couple of days later]

I obviously have not yet mastered my iPad alarm clock. Instead of waking to the sound of cuckoos, I woke up as the sun was getting high in the sky. It must have been 0930 when I got up. I had had quite a big day yesterday, so a lie in was not unreasonable.

It was a difficult day to sail. There was not much wind. We sailed a bit out of Dun Laoghaire and in a few other places, but there was also quite a lot of motoring going on. Other boats were motoring too. The wind only really started to kick in when we got to the anchorage: Cahore Point. The problem was that the wind was from the wrong direction and was going to make the anchorage a pretty bumpy affair.

The Wicklow hills looked good on the way down. The Great Sugar Loaf is a fantastic feature: a little mountain that really does need climbing. Some of the higher Wicklow Hills looked like rounded boggy things. That isn't to say that they aren't nice hills: just that they are rounded and boggy. The other interesting spot was Arklow Hill. This is a roadstone quarry. They have quarried most of the hill away. There is a separate port for the quarry. It's odd to see an almost decapitated hill like that.

The weather started off dull and overcast, with the Wicklow Hills covered in low cloud, but by the end of the day it was a real scorcher: bright blue skies and it got pretty hot. This made lounging around on the boat quite a pleasant affair.

[text written at the anchorage, on the day]

Cervisia is now anchored off a place called Polduff at Cahore point. I have quite a lot of chain and rope out on the anchor and the anchor seems to be quite well set. The forecast is for variable winds with some northerly component. This is not exactly the best wind for this anchorage as it is exposed to northerly winds. I think the winds will not be too strong and we should be ok. I will have the iPad on anchor watch, so if we do drift, it will wake me up. If the winds pick up, it will probably also get wavy and this will also wake me up. I think we will be ok. It is nice being at anchor again. I am not sure I will touch dry land again until Portshead!

I am hoping to get up quite early as it will be a long crossing. That was my aim this morning too, but we didn't set off until 0930. I was tired after the day in the Wicklow Hills and I haven't yet mastered my iPad alarm clock!

I am hoping that I get woken by the time alarm and not the anchor alarm!

Wicklow Hills

Wednesday was forecast to be a windy day and the wind was forecast from the south west. This would have been a pain to deal with so I decided to go walking instead. The tourist information place told me that there was one bus a day into the Wicklow hills and that if I was quick, I could catch it. I did a quick rush pack, got on the train to a place called Bray and then caught the bus with minutes to spare. The bus goes to a place called Glendalough. This is one valley over from the highest mountain in the range. Glendalough is famous for a collection of really ancient churches and monasteries. It is in a beautiful setting at the base of a valley sweeping up into the mountains. There were a lot of tourists there!

I started the walk up the Glen, but was drawn to the ancient churches. It was a really interesting spot with several ruined churches, ancient graves and a really interesting rapunzel tower that had no door at the bottom, but had windows at the top. What was it used for?

I walked high up the south easy side of Glendalough and then back via some mines and the lakes along the valley floor. Even though I didn't get up a summit, it was a really nice lout windows walk. It would be interesting to know what they were mining. I suspect it was gold as I think that there is gold in that area.

I planned to walk along the Wicklow Way back to Bray. This looked like a hilly 20 miles back. I think this estimate was right. What I hadn't really counted on was that I had already walked about 10 miles and was quite tired. I also didn't have much water. It was however well worth the walk. There are some really nice changing views. One of the best bits was view to a mountain called something like Lugulla. It had a big granite cliff on it. There must be some good granite climbing in Wicklow. I ran the downhills and walked the uphills in order to make the best time possible. I needed to do this. Towards the end I got up to the summit of the oddly named Djouce Mountain. There were good views over the northern hills and down to the sunlit Great Sugar Loaf mountain (which despite being just 500m is a great mountain shape and would be a fine objective). I then ran down to the Powerscourt waterfall - which is really quite impressive and unexpected. Once back in the valley, I found that there were no public footpaths and I would have to go back along the roads. This is a real problem with Ireland: there is good scenery, but you can only really enjoy it from the road, apart from the odd exception such as the Wicklow Way.

I reached a town about 4 miles from Bray where there was a good bus service into town. The was a garage next to the bus stop and I gorged myself on ice cream and sparkling water. I was quite dehydrated. From Bray, I caught the train into Dun Laoghaire, bought some diesel for tomorrow, cooked and then went to bed. Tomorrow the plan is to get down the coast to a place called Cahore Point, ready for the crossing of the Irish Sea.

Ardglass to Dun Laoghaire

As predicted, I woke up to some pretty fresh winds. It looked like the winds were going to be in a reasonable direction, so that wasn't too bad. We left at about 0830 with a J109. We saw it for a few hours and then it was off over the horizon.

The sea state outside the harbour was quite wavy. There was a good little wind on the quarter of cervisia. Would be a really good wind for getting to the Dublin area. For the first 3 hours we did have great and fast sailing. There were lovely views of the Mourne mountains to the west. I remembered doing two Mourne mountain marathons there. Happy days. I would like to go back some time.

After the wind died, it was another case of engine on, engine off most of the way to Dun Laoghaire. The wind kept shifting direction quite rapidly. At one stage we would be going exactly where we wanted to go, then it would push us towards land until we could tack and then we would be heading in exactly the right direction again. It was weird.

We closed land again at a place called Lambay Island which is about 10 miles north of Dublin Bay. There were loads of seabirds around there, flying together. They may have been Manx shearwater. An interesting bird I saw earlier was something like a mini frigate bird. It would chase gulls (or some other white gull-like bird) until the white bird dropped whatever it had caught. The frigate bird would then catch the regurgitated fish in mid air, then harry the gull some more for good measure. It was very interesting behaviour, especially given that I'd seen real frigate birds in Barbuda, but never worked out how they actually managed to get another bird to drop its food. By the terrified squawking sounds coming from the white bird, it looked like sheer persistence and tiring the opposition out worked.

It got dark near Howth and then we had Dublin Bay to cross in the dark. Given how fickle the wind had been, I decided to just motor across the bay. We could have tacked, but it would have taken some time and that didn't seem to be necessary at the time of night. We got moored up in the Marina at midnight and then I went to bed. It had been a long day.

Bangor to Ardglass

I am back on board Cervisia now, aiming to take her back from Bangor in Northern Ireland to Portishead. I am a little nervous about what the weather has in store for us over the coming week, but so far things are looking quite positive. I have scrapped the initial pan to go back along the welsh coast and am now planning on sailing down the east side or Ireland and then crossing the bottom of the Irish Sea on either Thursday or Friday.

Today I have had a bit of a mixed sail from Bangor to Ardglass. We started off in nice sunshine and ok winds. There was some interesting navigation between some islands and the mainland at Donagnadee Sound. We did this passage against the tide and in light winds. It took quite a lot of time.

The wind has been a bit odd all day really. It has shifted massively in direction throughout the day over short periods of time and has also changed in strength. Towards the end of the day the wind died completely and we had to motor for the last three hours. We got an absolute drenching just before that in quite an intensive rain shower.

What has been quite nice all day has been the views of the Mourne mountains. They started out just popping up behind lower hills closer by, but now in Ardglass they look pretty close and large. I think I will see them all day tomorrow as long as the weather holds out.

I am going to have to get up early tomorrow to make the most of the day. I am hoping to get somewhere near Dublin but I suspect that I won't get quite that far. I just have to hope that the wind behaves.

I might find it difficult to update the blog when in the Republic due to roaming charges. I should be back in the uk on Friday night. Whether I land somewhere with coverage is not totally clear. There might be somewhere in the republic with wifi where I can update the blog instead.

Stranraer to Bangor

I really couldn't get up that early this morning after a really late night yesterday. When I got up, the wind was whistling through the marina and the sun was out. In fact the wind was blowing cervisia onto the pontoon so hard that I thought I wasn't going to get her off. With a lot of brute force, I pushed her out, jumped into the cockpit, put the engine on full revs and got out before we got blown back in.

When we got out into Loch Ryan, it was really windy. We didn't have much sail up at all, but were going really quickly. The anemometer said 30 knots at times and that was a tail wind. It must have been force 7 at times or more. I suspect that southerlies get funnelled down Loch Ryan to strengthen them. It was interesting to see where I had been last night in the daylight. What I had thought were buoys looked like War of the Worlds tripod like things sitting out of the water. It was also interesting to see the, building a new ferry terminal further up the loch on the Cairnryan side. I don't know whether cutting 4 miles out of the sea crossing is something that the customers want or whether cutting that much off the voyage saves sufficient fuel for it to be worth building a brand new terminal and jetty. I guess someone has done all the sums.

Passing Lady Bay (where we anchored on the way north), things looked really choppy. I think it was a good idea to do the extra 5 miles down to Stranraer, even if it did prolong things last night and this morning.

As I had to dodge some ferries at the head of Loch Ryan, I decided to heave to as I was out of the way and sailing north was going to get me nowhere. I did this by reefing the genoa fully and pushing the rudder to leeward. This is how the Pardeys reckon it should be done. When I did the sailing school thing, I was told to leave the genoa up and let it back. The Pardey way is definitely the way to do it. Cervisia adopted exactly the right attitude to the sea and everything went really calm. I had never tried this in strong winds before and I was really impressed by how it worked. Backing the genoa always seemed to cause her to sit at right angles to the sea and that never seemed right to me.

Once out of Loch Ryan, we had a good beam reach, steered by the Sea Feather all the way to Belfast Lough. The wind abated more and more the further we went and by the time we sighted Northern Ireland (at a lighthouse called Black Head on the north side of Belfast Lough), it was time to put the engine on and motor the last five miles into Bangor. I didn't actually see much on the crossing over: it was just really grey and the visibility was poor. I think we were only a couple of miles from the land before we saw it. Bangor is a really huge marina protected by a really impressive geometric breakwater. There are loads of boats in it and some of them are pretty impressive. Unusually for me, we got there before it got dark and before the restaurants had closed. I went up into town and enjoyed a pizza then went to bed.

Bangor marina from the North Down coast path

This morning I prepared Cervisia for three weeks without me! I've washed a big pile of clothes and they are now drying inside her. I've also got the sails out inside drying too (we let the cruising chute fall into the water at the time of the Sound of Luing: it was incompetence on my behalf. I then bought a map and walked the North Down coast path to Belfast City Airport. The path passed some lovely little sandy bays that look out over Belfast Lough and went through some nice little bluebell woods. It's not quite as pleasant at the Belfast end where you walk past a sewage works and military barracks (with one of those checkpoints you see on the telly).

I'm now on the plane back to Bristol. I've seen some of the places that we've sailed past on the way up, like the Mull of Galloway and the Isle of Man. The sea looks pretty choppy down there. I think it will be windy and choppy for the next few days (and blowing straight up the Irish Sea). It's probably quite a good thing that I'm going home now. It would be nice to think that there'll be westerlies when I return in three weeks time, but somehow I doubt that the prevailing winds will prevail. They haven't this past two weeks!

Dark approach to Stranraer

I am on my own again now. I left Royston in Troon on Friday morning. We had a great meal last night at Scotties above the Marina in Troon. Stone packed his bags and then left this morning. I took the opportunity to walk to Morrisons with him and stock up on some food and fuel for the next stage of the voyage.

The basic goal now is to get to Bangor in Northern Ireland. I have free berthing there for a few weeks so I plan to leave her there and then pick her up at the start of June for another week's holiday and to bring her back to Portoshead. The first stage of this plan was to get her to Loch Ryan. It is then nominally a short hop across to Bangor.

The problem I had getting to Stranraer was the wind. Initially there was insufficient wind and I had to take cervisia back into the marina to change the headsail for a bigger one. For the first couple of hours at sea, this seemed like it had been a good idea. It was when I was off the Heads of Ayr wishing for stronger winds that it became apparent that the opposite was true.

The wind suddenly picked up to above 20 knots and it stayed that way, or stronger, all the way to Loch Ryan. I had big reefs in both sails and it was hard work tacking into this wind. The sea state also got up and there were waves around that were exactly the wrong size for Cervisia. We didn't make good progress into these seas but had to keep going. I think there was probably something wrong with the way we were sailing. Either we had too much sail up or we were trying to go too close to the wind. I'm going to have to sort this out.

The weather was nothing special either. As well as the strong winds, it started to rain. When the wind gets up towards 30 knots and it is raining, you need to show stoicism and zeal to keep going. What helps on Cervisia is that she had a Sea Feather self steering gear. I attached this and tried to get as much shelter in the cockpit or cabin as possible.

There was a tantalising time when we were off Girvan. This place has a little marina and would have been a really well positioned place - given that I was outside it at about 8pm. The problem was that there were waves around and it was low tide. I don't know if the waves would have been onshore, bit I didn't want to risk it. We pressed on towards Loch Ryan and the darkness.

We had a long night in the dark. It is nice to see the lighthouses as they give you an indication of where the coast is and they make you feel that you are not alone out there. It was even better when I could see some of the Loch Ryan buoys flashing: this meant that I was close.

The dodgy thing about entering Loch Ryan was that there are lots of ferries coming in and out. You get a warning as they announce the ferry movements on the VHF. I don't know if this makes things better or worse. When you hear that there is a ferry, you have to really look round to try and identify it by it's lights against the background street lights. We dodged about 3 of them, tacking in the dark.

I had hoped to use an anchorage at the north of Loch Ryan, but there was a strong onshore wind there and it seemed like a bad idea. We had to go another 5 miles to Stranraer at the south end of the loch where there is a little marina that is sheltered from the winds. We had to tack down the channel into Stranraer at nigh, avoiding the shoal patches to the side and the ferries. It was a bit nerve wracking. On the final approach, we could stop tacking and the sea state subsided. We then had a really nice little close reach sail into Stranraer at 1am.

I got cervisia tied up in the marina, then got the electricity and the heater on to dry my clothes, ready for the next day. It was 2am before we were properly sorted out and nearly 3am before I got to bed.
All in all it was a hard day. I think I learnt a lot and know what I need to improve on. It was the first time i'd been out tacking into a force 6. It is nice to know that it works. The good thing I'd that by doing this long hard day, I have broken the back of the voyage to Bangor and can look forward to a more comfortable, if no less windy sail on Saturday (we will not have to go straight into the wind).

Cervisia in Stranraer marina on Saturday morning: a big Stena ferry worth dodging in the background

Lochranza to Troon

When we got up this morning it was really wet and pretty windy. It was such a huge contrast to yesterday which was a really beautiful day.

Following breakfast the first thing we did was to go to the Lochranza pontoon in order to change the genoa to the small jib. This was a much easier job with two people (I usually have to do it myself). Once the jib was on the roller furler and we'd bought some of the lovely Arran oatcakes from the butcher (which is bizarrely the only shop in Lochranza!), we were off.

We had a really wet and windy sail to start with. Visibility was also pretty poor although we could always see land. We sailed really well with the little job up, even when going to windward close hauled. It was actually pretty exhilarating sailing despite being ostensibly pretty miserable. The thing I really like about sailing in the rain is that the rain pours off the end of the boom: so much of it falls on the sail and it all collects in the furled mainsail and then discharges from the end. As long as you are not sitting underneath it, it is quite an interesting sight. On the first tack we ended up somewhere near Bute, on the second tack we got to just north of Brodick. The wind then abated. We firstly changed the genoa at sea to the large genoa and then had to motor towards Troon.

Royston steering in the rain around the north of Arran

We were pretty wet, cold and bearded when we got to Troon. A hot shower and shave were true bliss. We set up a clothes line back and forth inside Cervisia and got the fan heater on. This dried our stuff pretty quickly.

For the final night we went to Scotties restaurant above the marina building in Troon. This is a great place and we had a great final meal together (washed down with lager of course). I had the seafood gratin which was really fantastic. The vegetable tempura for starters were also great. It was a nice end to the week that I'd spent with Royston on board.

All that's left now is to get Cervisia to Bangor marina in Northern Ireland where I'll leave her for 3 weeks. 

Raising the anchor at Jura Loch Tarbert

Raising the anchor at our beautiful anchorage that we had to ourselves at Jura Loch Tarbert.

Sailing in the Sound of Luing

Happy days!

Sailing photos: Crinan and Fladda

The sight that greeted us on our return from epidiorite climbing: the sun setting over the Crinan harbour moorings with Jura and Scarba behind.

Climbing photos

Creag nan Fitheach was an excellent crag. We'd been joking about the epidiorite before we got there, but once we were on it, it was no joke. Epidiorite is a truly fine medium to climb on. It is difficult to think of a better rock. If only there was more of it!

Czechmate: a deceptively tricky and good route on Creag nan Fitheach. Check out the perfect unclimbed epidiorite wall to the right. That's me up there!

The day on Creag nan Fitheach was really windy. After our first route (The Razor's Edge), we realised that we would have to temper our ambitions as the wind would not have been very clever on a delicate route. This was a bit of a shame as there were two E1s that looked absolutely fantastic. We had a great time on the VS routes anyway, so who cares?

Royston on The Razor's Edge. The wind is really taking the rope on this shot. 

South Ridge Direct is in Hard Rock. There are usually long queues on it. We had it to ourselves on an absolutely perfect day. There are a couple of hard-ish pitches (which we dispatched really swiftly) and the rest of it is alpine style mountaineering. The photo below is on the final mountaineering pitch. The position and the views down Glen Rosa to the south are really pretty breathtaking. I was well impressed with the Arran granite. I think it stands comparison with the best that Idyllwild has to offer (Tahquitz and Suicide Rocks). It is a really fine rough medium and forms some great slabs. I would like to do a lot more climbing on Arran granite. Come to think of it, I'd like to do a lot more climbing on epidiorite too.

The final pitch of South Ridge Direct on Arran with Glen Rosa in the background. Royston climbs.

Jura Loch Tarbet to Arran

We are very tired tonight having had two really long days. The first long day entailed sailing from Loch Tarbet round the Mull of Kintyre to Campbeltown. Today we sailed from Campbeltown to Lochranza on the north west tip of Arran.

The high point of Tuesday was tacking our way through the Sound of Islay with our little Sanders jib up. It was really pretty windy and we sailed so nicely in the strong winds, under clear skies. We got to Campbeltown at midnight after a 7am start!

I got up at 6am in order to get Cervisia moving on the way to Arran. We were blessed with some really good winds and made really quick progress, getting here a couple of hours earlier than I had expected. W caught the bus at about 1pm over to the east side of the island. From there we walked up into the mountains and climbed the classic route South Ridge Direct. It was fantastic. We then had a long walk back to Lochranza along the Arran ridge with views out across thus Mull of Kintyre to Jura and beyond in the setting sun. We could also see the really interesting glaciated valleys of Arran, beautiful craggy granite peaks on the islands and the islands of the Firth of Clyde. The day was finished with a dodgy row back to Cervisia in the dinghy followed by a dinner a Arran scrambled eggs washed down with Arran beer that we have carried in my rucksack for 12 miles over the hills.

We are unsure what will happen to the weather tomorrow. We will head for Brodick on the east of Arran and then decide whether we can climb again or whether we should just sail back to Troon. We'll see in the morning. The wind is howling tonight as cervisia lies on her mooring buoy.

Crinan to Jura Loch Tarbet

While we were climbing yesterday, I had the distinct impression that we could actually have gone sailing if we had applied sufficient yoor to the problem. The seas had looked fairly benign despite it being quite windy. We hd met a couple who had sailed through the Sound Of Luing that day in a small boat and although they looked like they had had a wild experience, I think that was probably more due to wind speed than it was due to sea state. If they could handle those conditions in their boat, there was no doubt that we could handle more in a Contessa 26. This brave talk was all a bit irrelevant anyway as the wind had moderated by Monday.

We left the mooring at about 9am and set off round some little islands into the
Sound of Luing. There was a good wind, but it was by no means a problem, indeed it gave very nice sailing. It was an absolutely beautiful day with blue skies and far reaching views. These views started with the Paps of Jura in the south west, Knapdale in the east and Scarba to the north. We then had great clear views of all the islands round the Sound of Luing and eventually of the hills of Mull. The view of Ben More on Mull brought back memories of the Scottish Islands Peaks Race and a very dodgy traverse of a scree slope onto the slopes of Ben More proper.

There were quite a few other sailing boats around. We were the only boat out with our spinnaker up. This felt quite exciting at times as we were pulling nicely up through the islands of Fladda etc. at the very northern end of the Sound of Luing. This is an amazing stretch of water that you have to navigate carefully. There are whirlpools and rocks around. You can see the water swirling around underwater rocks that you know are only metres away. It was up here that we saw the yacht Drum sailing the other way. This is a very impressive and very big yacht. It is also a very famous yacht as it used to belong to Simon Le Bon. It was beautiful.

The Sound of Luing was the northernmost point of the voyage and we then headed west and south around the outside of the Garvellach islands to the west coast of Jura. The wind died a bit here and we had to motor for about an hour (I was mindful that getting sucked into the Gulf of Corryvreckan was a poor idea). Once the wind returned we had a cracking sail down to Loch Tarbet on Jura. The scenery on the west side of Jura is really cool. There are all these raised beaches. In fact there is a whole raised coastline with beached sea stacks and caves. These features are criss crossed with natural dykes. The whole coastline has the backdrop of the Paps of Jura. It is a special place.

The wind really picked up when we entered Loch Tarbet. We had been hoping to find a sheltered spot where we could anchor and go ashore. We settled for a sheltered spot where we could anchor. Royston found an excellent little spot at the east end of Glenbatrick Bay. The chart marked this as having a rocky bottom (bad for anchoring), but we could see the sand beneath us in one spot so we just went for it and anchored there. We were behind a little hill with a beautiful white sand bay behind us. To our left were views of one of the Paps of Jura and out to sea was the island of Colonsay. In the evening, the sun set over Colonsay and the sky was really red. We could then see loads of stars above us and the shapes of the Paps before we turned in for the night. A perfect end to a fantastic day.

Hanging out in Crinan

We went through the Crinan canal on Saturday. We met my nieces, brother and Alison the night before and had a nice barbecue on the beach. We got up early on Saturday ready to catch the first lock of the day.

We weren't particularly good at operating the locks to start with, but after 4 or 5 of them we seemed to be getting into the swing of things. We did the first couple of locked together and were then joined by a 15 foot boat and a Contessa 32. Having a bigger team made things work better although the locks were a bit small for all three boats. This issue was resolved when the contessa 32 decided to hold back as they were concerned that one of the other boats were going to scratch their paint work. I can only assume that they were not concerned about Cervisia as our boat handling was pretty exemplary. We worked really well as a team with the small boat, basically having a boat crew and a land crew with the land crew running ahead to prepare the locks. It was all a hive of activity. The girls did really well sorting out the lines, throwing lines ashore, throwing them back aboard and securing them to the boat. It was a real team effort.

One thing that seemed strange about our passage was that the wind really picked up. It was a steady force 6 and gusted up to force 8. This made getting into the locks quite exciting but also raised questions about what we would do at the other end. We were a bit worried that we wouldn't even make it out of the canal before it closed, but we achieved this with about 30 minutes to spare. We said our goodbyes to our helpers at the Crinan sea lock (they then walked back to the start of the canal) and we motored out into strong winds and a choppy sea. We had decided we weren't going to get anywhere that night and just picked up a mooring buoy round the corner at Crinan boatyard. We spent the night watching a climbing video and listening to the coastguard organising lifeboats for yachts and kayakers that had got into difficulty in the conditions. Based on this and the forecast for further strong winds, we decided that Sunday might be a good day to go climbing.

On Sunday we rowed ashore in the inflatable dinghy and then set off on the pretty long trek to Creag nam Fitheach which sits in forests to the south of Crinan. We were successful with hitch hiking both there and back for some of the way. This was really kind of the drivers and was a huge help. They couldn't help us with the final stiff climb to the crag.

The crag was a windy little spot. This made climbing a little tricky and meant we had to moderate our ambitions. The crag was made of epidiorite which is an amazing rough rock with sharp cut features. It was a joy to climb on, with fatastic views over Loch Sween out towards Jura. The best route we did was the first one we did called The Razor's Edge. Royston led it in the strong winds. It was a really exciting route in a really exposed position. Oveall we climbed 4 VS routes before it was time to head back. We were really happy with our day.

Part of the way back we walked along the Crinan canal with views out towards Jura and the lovely local rolling hills of the Crinan area. Once in Crinan itself, we went to the hotel for a beer and inner before rowing the dinghy back to Cervisia. We have watched an amazing sunset over the mountains of Jura and Mull and have made plans for tomorrow. We're aiming to go up through the Sound of Luing and then into Loch Tarbet on the west side of Jura. If we do this, it should be a really stunning day. Fingers crossed.

Troon to Crinan canal

Cervisia, Royston and I have now reached the east end of the Crinan canal. We are moored up in the canal basin at ardrishaig and have the canal to look forward to tomorrow.  We have three little helpers for the canal as my nieces are up here too. It's actually good to have people to help with the locks. My nieces parents Chris and Al are here too.

We set off at about 7am from troon. As we were motoring out of the harbour we saw a seal that had just caught its breakfast:  a nice big cod that it was just starting to devour, holding it with its flippers and taking chunks out of it while trying to avoid the attentions of the seagulls.

Once out in the open sea we had a great sail past Arran and then up Loch Fyne to the east end of the Crinan canal. Arran looks like a fantastic island with these amazing craggy granite mountains. I have only been there once. It was during the Scottish islands peaks race. We climbed and descended Goat Fell in the dark that time so am none the wiser as to what the scenery was like.

We had a great sail up Loch Fyne towards Ardrishaig. The wind was reasonably strong and from exactly the right direction so we had a beam reach all the way. At one stage the wind died a bit and we had the cruising chute up. This came down pretty quickly when the wind got back up to 20 knots apparent. We were going pretty quickly at that stage and cervisia was sailing along with her transom in the water: she had that much power. Sailing on these smooth seas in these winds is really fantastic.

One thing I enjoyed while sailing was listening to the royal wedding. This sounded really good on the radio. I have since seen the pictures and it looked really amazing. It's so great that it was such a fantastic occasion.

The lock keepers at ardrishraig were really nice and friendly. They we watching out for us and had the sea lock ready for us when we arrived. The lock is a bit different to the ones we are used to at portishead. There are no pontoons in the lock. You have to throw your lines ashore (luckily Royston is good at this as I am useless at this sort of thing). There are loads of mussels on the sea lock walls so you watch nervously as the lock rises and wonder whether the fenders are going to get lacerated to pieces by them.

We had a great barbecue on the beach once everyone had met up. We had a little fire made from the drift wood at the mid tide line that kept us warm. As the sun was going down the tide came in and we watched the tide put the fire out, returning the beach to it's former state. We then rearranged cervisia so that we've got 5 people sleeping aboard. Chris and al have got a little tent next to us. We are planning on getting the first lock on saturday and making a swift transit of the canal.

Lady Bay / Loch Ryan to Troon

There are days when sailing isn't really going to happen and today was one of those days. I woke to pretty glassy seas and clear blue skies. I seem to have the morning routine well sorted out and was on the move within half an hour of getting up. Hence we were moving just after 7am. Loch Ryan had provided a pretty good anchorage. I think we were anchored in sand and weed, but it all seemed to hold. The only problem with the anchorage is that you get the wash from a ferry every hour or two. If you're tired enough, this isn't too much hardship.

From Loch Ryan we basically motored all the way to Ayr. We then had a really nice little sail for an hour and a half before entering Troon Marina where my friend Royston met me. We've since done the shopping for the next week and had a nice meal at the marina restaurant. Scottsdale restaurant in the Marina building has a great atmosphere and the food was really good. I think we were a bit out of place as we were just talking about sailing and rock climbing. I for one looked like I had just stepped off a boat.

We have been talking about plans. We are both keen to get up to Skye and attempt the Cuillin ridge. We are also really keen to climb on the Etive slabs. Both these objectives would be a dream come true. If we do both of these things it looks like I will be dropping Stone off in Oban and then sailing Cervisia back to Belfast where I'll leave her for three weeks. There's still a long time to go until then.

Photos between Holyhead and Loch Ryan

These are a couple of photos taken between Holyhead and Loch Ryan. The first shot is of the south end of the Isle of Man. Calf Sound is a little sea passage to the right of the steep rightwards pointing cliff at the left side of he shot. It was quite narrow!

Holyhead, Peel, Stranraer

I made the right decision to stay in Holyhead on Monday as it was a pretty windy and cold day. The killer was that it was a strong northerly wind. This would have meant that I would have had an uncomfortable 12 hour passage tacking to the Isle of Man. When I was at the Marina on Monday night I heard from some people who had just arrived from the Isle of Man and they confirmed that it had been pretty wavy.

I did the shopping in Tesco. I haven't spent that much money in a supermarket for years. I needed to get enough food for a couple of weeks as I may not be close to shops for the next couple of weeks. After shopping I went for a nice walk round the spectacular cliffs of Holy Island in the brisk wind. It was nice to find a sheltered spot for a little nap in the sun. I could see the large waves off the south stack lighthouse when I got up. The day before I had motored through a mirror calm sea over that same stretch of water. I got an early night's sleep ready for a long day on Tuesday.

Tuesday morning dawned grey and slightly less windy. The wind had also turned to the east which was a great direction for getting to the Isle of Man. We were motoring out of Holyhead harbour before 7am.

The morning of the crossing was pretty grey and it started to rain. The wind was good though and we made good progress until we could see the Isle of Man. The wind then seemed to decrease as the weather ameliorated. It was nice to see the Isle of Man appear out of the gloom. It is a really spectacular island. You can see why the Vikings liked it so much. There are some really steep banks and cliffs going into the sea and a range of shapely hills along the spine of the island. An interesting feature is the Calf of Man which is a little island off the southern tip. I had imagined it as just being a large rock, but it is quite a substantial place with a farm and several old lighthouses on it. It is separated from the main island by a channel 100m wide called Calf Sound. This is meant to be difficult to navigate due to it's narrowness and the rocks on either side. It does save quite a bit of time to go through it though and it is tidally efficient to take it (you get the tide with you earlier if you go through the sound). We went throughout the sound a bit nervously. It is pretty unnerving seeing the rocks so close on either side when you are in a vulnerable little boat. On the far side of the sound there was a good view of the steep hills going into the sea. A hill called Cronk ny Arrey Laa is particularly impressive. You don't want to play rolly Pollyanna down that one!

The wind on the west side was really weird. It kept gusting, changing direction and then dying. I didn't know whether we should motor or sail. Is kept the faith and sailed and was rewarded with a really good sail up the coast to Peel. Peel harbour has a splendid setting as it is tucked into this gorse clad valley parallel to the coast. There were loads of fishing boats moored up on the harbour wall as we went into the inner harbour to find a berth for the night. The first thing I set about doing was servicing one of the winches which had seized solid. I was quite lucky to get it working again I think. Once I had finished that, I was invited out to the pub from the boat next door, so I enjoyed a couple of pints before turning in. It was going to be another early morning.

Wednesday dawned grey and reasonably windless. This was not an ideal combination. I had visions of motoring under leaden skies up to Scotland. This is how the first hour of the passage started off, but then a really good easterly kicked in and we sped off towards the Mull of Galloway. Things got even better when the sun came out and we just had the most fantastic 5 hours of sailing. When the wind died I could feel the full force of the sun. I think I am getting quite brown. We then had about 4 hours sailing up the Galloway coast with the spinnaker up. This was all pretty serene, the only poor bit being a failed gybe. The failed spinnaker gybe led to the spinnaker begin taken down onto deck and being put up on the other side. This was not graceful but it was the safe thing to do as I am on my own. The Galloway coast brings back tense memories of the Three Peaks Yacht Race. It is often a windless little spot in that race too.

We motored the last two hours into the head of Loch Ryan. I am anchored about 5 miles north of Stranraer. It is at a place called Lady Bay and was recommended by my friend Damo who is the lock keeper at Portishead. It is in a convenient location and we seem to be pretty firmly anchored. There is a pretty amazing view out west to this conical island called Aisla Craig. It looks really out of place in the Firth of Clyde. You get islands like that in the Tristan da Cunha group, now round here. Arran is behind Aisla Craig. It would be nice to get a climb done on there at some stage. The only problem with the anchorage is that it gets pretty bumpy whenever one of the Irish ferries goes by. I guess I am just going to have to come to terms with that.

I am just on GPRS coverage here so can't upload any pictures, but will try to when I get into better coverage. The plan is to go up the coast to Troon tomorrow to pick up my friend Royston. We should meet my nieces on Friday at the east end of the Crinan canal and then go through the canal on saturday. This should be fine and I am really looking forward to introducing them to the boat. After that we need to check the weather and see where we can get. The dream is to get out to Skye, but we need to take things as they come.

Abersoch to Holyhead. Motoring in the sunshine

The alarm went off at 7am. I was quite tired after a mere 4 hours of sleep. I weighed anchor and quickly set off, having breakfast while we were underway in order to save time. When I woke up I found out that Cervisia was the only boat anchored for about a mile around us. All the rest were a lot closer inshore. We had a really good spot though and I knew that we were really well anchored there. It did seem to be a bit weird being anchored in what seemed like the middle of the sea rather than in a bay.

The coastline on the Lleyn peninsula was pretty spectacular. One of the best bits was Cilan Head. This is the location of an amazing rock climb called Path to Rome tha I have always wanted to do. It looked really stunning, traversing a big cliff on horizontal breaks above the sea. It looked pretty wild.

I had a bit of wind in Bardey Sound so we were able to traverse the Sound quite quickly and in glorious silence. It was interesting to sail this bit of coast as I have been there many times on the Three Peaks yacht race. I known the spots where we try to edge through the Sound against the tide and the spots where I often see my nieces supporting us from the cliff tops. It was much more leisurely today.

The wind died about an hour after we went through the Sound. I then had to get the engine on and we motored in a straight line across a glassy sea towards Holyhead. The Gogarth cliffs looked spectacular on Holy Island. I could see some climbers on them. We got round North Stack just in time. There is an amazing tide race there. I could see the waters swirling around and about to change in a contrary direction. The tide was then against us properly into Holyhead harbour and it took about an hour to cover the 3 miles into the marina.

It was quite weird stepping onto solid ground after 3 days at sea. There wasn't really much to look at in Holyhead. I walked a couple of miles to the out of town Tesco to fill the fuels cans and then found somewhere to eat in town. This was not as easy as it sounds and I didn't eat particularly well at an Indian restaurant. What am craving at the moment is fruit and salad so I will sort that out at Tesco on Monday. I do not have many stored on board at the moment and I need to also sort that out. One thing I really need is some good spring water that I feel confident about drinking when I am at sea.

On Monday I am going to go for a walk on Anglesey. There are some quite strong northerly winds forecast. As I am going to be sailing north, this would be a real pain to deal with. I am going to set sail again on Tuesday when I am promised winds from a sensible direction. I think the next stop will be the Isle of Man, but that does depend a lot on the wind direction.

Whitesands Bay to Abersoch: the dolphinarium

Saturday was a really long day, but I had the most amazing sighting of dolphins in Cardigan Bay. These Cardigan Bay dolphins are much bigger than the Bristol Channel ones. They are either a different species or the BC ones are actually some other form of cetacean. There were maybe 20 dolphins in each of the schools that I came across. The amazing thing was that there were some really athletic ones there jumping clean out of the water. One jumped right across the bows of Cervisia, just a few metres in front of us. He obviously timed that one really well. It is quite difficult to understand why they do this. It is also quite difficult to understand why they choose to swim with boats. They clearly know that a boat is something that they want to engage with. Maybe it relieves the boredom of swimming around catching fish all day. The other strange thing about the dolphins is how they come up for air or jump out of the water together. They must be swimming together down there. There must also be some sort of decision process going on where they decide to jump out of the water together rather than to just come up for air.
I weighed anchor at 7am in order to be able to catch the tide going round St. David's Head. It was pretty grey and murky when we rounded the headland, but there was a good little wind. Unfortunately the wind was from the north north east: exactly the direction I wanted to go in. This meant that I was going to have to tack. I sailed offshore for an hour or so and then tacked to follow the welsh coast all the way up. I had the wind vane self steering on and Cervisia then just followed the best course to windward: this course was parallel to the coast.
It turned into a long sail. I thought about going into Aberystwyth but this would have meant going into a port in an onshore wind (which can be nasty as the waves can break on entry into the port). I would also have not been able to leave that early the next day. I thus carried on northwards into the night.
I had a nice sunset accompanied by the dolphins and then sailed under a starry night with the odd shooting star. The wind died a bit and I was tacking slowly towards Abersoch on the Lleyn peninsula. I motored the last 10 miles as it was getting time for bed! At 0230 I dropped the anchor, set the anchor watch on the iPad, set the alarm clock for 7am and slept.
I covered 92 miles today in a 20 hour day. It was quite a long day!

Neyland to Whitesands Bay

I caught the train after work and got to the marina just before midnight. The trains were surprisingly punctual and the journey went well. The most stressful part was a drak jog down the cycle track from Johnston to neyland. It was pretty dark without a torch. Luckily it was only 4 miles to jog.

I got up this morning pretty early and went out to the local petrol station to stock up on diesel. There is the chance that I will have to motor some of the way and I really need a stock of fuel to be able to do this. I guess this isn't rocket science. I was out of the marina by 930 and chugging out into the Cleddau estuary. A lovely wind picked up here and we had a great sail out of the estuary past the massive oil and gas tankers and into the open sea. The open sea is a real contrast to Milford Haven. Just 5 miles out from Milford Haven lie Skokholm and Skomer islands. These islands are a real paradise for birds. As you sail between the islands, there are puffins and Manx shearwater flying by. It is a wonderful sight. I landed on Skomer a couple of years ago and I found it to be the most amazing place. You feel like an alien there. The island so obviously belongs to the birds. It is one of the most amazing places I have been to.

The nice wind continued past Skokholm and Skomer islands but died just short of Ramsey Island. This island is also a bird sanctuary thought there were fewer interesting looking birds in the sea around it. There were some fine looking guano covered cliffs. They looked like they would be good climbing objectives if it weren't for the birds. I think it is one of the few places where climbing is banned.

With little wind and a big tide about to start against me, I had to motor. We motored close to the shore to try to escape most of the tide. We made excellent progress in a sheltered bay at the north end, but when we came back into the tidal stream, it looked like a massive river. We made very, very slow progress against this. Deciding that this sort of thing was futile, I headed for Whtesand Bay which is sheltered from the tide. This bay is just below St. David's Head. It is a well known surfing beach. There is little wind at the moment and none from the west, hence there is no swell and it is ok to anchor here. On the way over to Whitesands bay I had to ensure we didn't get swept into the infamous tide race between Ramsey Island and the mainland. I had been warned about this race: at times it is a place where white water kayakers fear to tread and is clearly no place for a contessa 26.

The original plan had been to just wait a couple of hours for the tide to change and then to carry out. However once we were anchored it was was evident that there was no wind and if we carried on it would be a dull motor over to Fishguard. I am hence going to anchor here overnight and to carry on tomorrow morning. It seems like this will be a better place to set off from if the wind is a northerly as predicted. I have never slept at anchor overnight before, so this will be a bit of a learning exercise. I have been here for 5 hours now and we seem to be pretty well attached to one place so I am quite confident. I have an iPad app that should warn me if we move too far from where we originally anchored. It seems to work.

One thing that is weird here is that most of the radio stations you can pick up are Irish. It is all fairly depressing. All the adverts are about sales, companies offering to buy your old clothes for 1 euro a kilogram, festivals that you only have to pay a deposit for (I guess the other bit is on credit) etc. The presenters seem quite cheery at least. I'm hoping to avoid the republic as it is known as being very expensive. It would be nice to go to Northern Ireland. It all depends on what happens with the wind and the weather.

At the moment it is raining!

North Devon Coast, Lundy, Neyland

I had a mad rush getting Cervisia ready on the Friday night. There were things to pack on board, sails to change (the forecast was for light winds, so I needed to change to the largest genoa), diesel to stock up on etc. The original plan had been to lock out of Portishead at 1930, but we only just made it into the lock at 2000. I was still bending on the large genoa as the lock was dropping. We motored out into a pretty calm sea.

Cervisia motored for a couple of miles past Portishead Point as I finished sorting things out on board and getting myself properly ready for sea (like changing out of my work clothes). Soon enough the sails were up and we were tacking towards Cardiff. The sun went down, ships passed in the night and Cervisia serenely glided westwards. We made good progress tacking into a light wind, then motoring the final couple of miles into the barrage. We got to Cardiff about 40 minutes below low water. We might have had 10cm under the keel as I nervously navigated the channel into the barrage: if we had arrived later, the tide would have been lower and I think we would have grounded. We got to Cardiff just in time.

I got to bed as soon as possible and set the alarm for 5am, docked up in Penarth marina. By 5:30am we were back in Cardiff lock, this time at high water, but still in the dark. We motored out past Lavernock Point. Once out into the Bristol Channel proper, dawn happened and a little westerly breeze kicked in, allowing me to get the sails up and for us to sail nicely into the light westerly. The plan had been to tack along the South Wales coast, but we were going so nicely on starboard tack that I just connected the self steering and let her get on with it. I watched the North Devon coast get closer and fiddled with bits of gear on board, trying to get her in tip-top shape for the big voyage to come.

Sailing west towards Hurlstone Point and Porlock Bay

By lunchtime we were passing Hurlstone Point. The tide carried us west and we got all the way across Porlock Bay before we needed to tack. The North Devon cliffs looked really spectacular with mist on their tops and the sun peeking out from between the clouds. This tack saw us clear Foreland Point. Once round Foreland Point, I could see all the way towards Ilfracombe and what is essentially the end of the Exmoor Coast. I guess Foreland Point is a real transition into the far west. At this point I decided that we wouldn't make it back across the Bristol Channel to the South Wales coast before the tide turned so the next objective turned into one of the little anchorages along the North Devon coast. The point we got to was Combe Martin: a nice little bay surrounded by big cliffs (really just very steep banks) plunging into the sea.

I anchored in Combe Martin. I am by no stretch of the imagination an anchoring expert and it was hence with some trepidation that I sat around on deck waiting to tell whether my recently placed anchor was actually doing the business. I must have been confident enough as I managed a little nap and when I got up, Cervisia still seemed to be pretty much where I had left her. I am going to have to get happy with anchoring for the voyage to come.

The spectacular North Devon coast near Combe Martin

We left Combe Martin as the tide changed back to the west. The wind had died by now and we had to motor west: destination Lundy. I watched the sun dip into the sea in the west and the full moon rise in the east. Once the stars had come out, we were joined by dolphins and we had a dolphin escort into Lundy. We arrived at Lundy in the dark. There were some boats in the anchorage, but there were no evident free mooring buoys. It looked like we would have to anchor and I set to preparing the anchor and chain on deck while Cervisia gently motored ahead. It was while I was doing this that I looked up and noticed that we were just about to hit a massive mooring buoy (thankfully it looked nice and plastic, but it would still have been a huge surprise to hit it). This was a real gift from the gods. Once I'd got the mooring line on board, I knew I was going to have a sound night's sleep.

It was only really a sound half a night's sleep. I set the alarm for before 5am. We had to make the most of the tide in order to get to Neyland in time for me to catch the last train home. There were still stars out overhead at the anchorage, but to the east there was an ominously foggy looking bank of fog. I was hoping that this fog bank was localised. It wasn't. I got into the fog (not a real pea-souper) at the northern end of Lundy and motored through it for 25 miles (there was no wind). I figured that there was actually enough visibility and that there was unlikely to be shipping out there at the current state of the tide. I seem to have been right. In any case, I had a dolphin escort of maybe 15 dolphins on the way out from Lundy. Maybe they were keeping an eye on us.

Seeing the sun again was a nice sight. I could tell that it was a beautiful day above the fog as I could see the blue sky above through the haze. Once the fog cleared, a nice breeze picked in from the starboard beam. I got the cruising chute up and we tanked along at 7 knots over a pretty flat sea towards Milford Haven. I dropped the cruising chute at the harbour entrance and then sailed and motored up the Cleddau. It was all a bit frustrating in the Cleddau as there wasn't really enough wind to truly sail, but there also seemed to be too much wind to motor. We changed from one mode to the next many times. It was a bit of a pain having a schedule to keep to - bit that's the way it was.

We had a great sail to the Pembrokeshire coast once the fog disappeared and the wind kicked in

I moored up in a very convenient berth in Neyland Yacht Haven. This marina seems to be a really nice place. There was a real holiday atmosphere down there with people lounging around on their boats, polishing their boats, eating ice creams: all the usual summer holiday boaty things. I probably looked pretty out of place, looking tired and dishevelled after the crossing from Lundy.

After booking into the marina, I walked 4 miles up an old railway path (now a cycle track) to Johnston railway station where I got the train back to Bristol. Maybe I should have slept on the train, but the scenery was really interesting (especially the really high tide in the Carmarthen estuary: the train goes very close to the sea here) and I studied my Japanese book (as I had been doing on the voyage itself).

Temporarily moored up at Neyland (Milford Haven)

It feels good, if somewhat weird, that I've got Cervisia 100 miles west of Portishead. This should be a really good place to set off from for our voyage north to Scotland (but that all depends on the wind and the weather). It was a pretty tiring weekend, with not that much sleep. I did 125 miles single-handed on Cervisia and feel that I've learnt a lot and had a great time.