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
Sounds like a burly crossing. Good job.
ReplyDelete