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| The amazing wide beach north of Nash Point |
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
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