Sunny and Hot in Portugal

We are now down on the Algarve Coast of Portugal enjoying the sunshine and relaxing before tying up in the marina for winter.  We left you all last time waiting in Baiona for the Northerly winds to send us on our way south, we ended up waiting until the 4th Sept before we made our escape.

You can see our gardening attempts in the photo below, after a bit of a shaky start due to some rough crossings earlier in the season, we have now got a really good crop of tomatoes as well as a good selection of herbs all doing really well – we have had lots of comments from other boats, most seem to wonder if we are growing something illegal!!!

Gardening on the High Seas	Finally Leaving Baiona

From Baiona we had a 65nm trip to Leixoes so it was a dawn start, we motorsailed most of the way with the spinnaker because the wind was not quite strong enough to get us to port in daylight – have you noticed how us sailors are never happy with the wind we get, either too much, too little, wrong direction or any other excuse!!  We anchored in the harbour well sheltered from any wind and swell along with a few other boats who had left Baiona the same time as us.

Next day was 35nm to Aveiro with about 15knts of wind from the NW so we sailed all the way in almost perfect conditions until we got close to Aveiro, then the wind and swell decided to pick up and we had over 25knts of wind and 2 – 3m waves.  The entrance to Aveiro is quite exposed and it looked pretty dodgy as we approached, however as we got closer the entrance seemed to be OK with the worst seas about 1/2 mile out so we decided it would be safe to enter, especially since the next port was another 25nm away.  A young Czech couple had made the trip with us and they were very wary about the entrance and had all but decided to carry on, we radioed them to say we would let them know how it was when we got in!!  As it turned out the entrance was fine, we came in with the swell on our port quarter and the seas flattened out nicely as soon as we got near the breakwaters, the port is used by some large cargo boats so there is plenty of depth and no breaking waves. We radioed the Czechs and they also made the entrance with no problems.  The anchorage was pretty crowded with moorings but we managed to find enough space and we stayed the next day to let the winds and swell subside a bit.

Czech Friends on Awake	Dolphins Near Cape St Vincent

Next hop south was another 65nm to Nazare with 8-10knts of wind and 1m swell so we managed to sail about half the day and motorsailed the rest.  We anchored under the cliffs in a bit of rolly anchorage so we were glad to only be staying one night before we set off for Peniche another 25nm down the coast.  Good winds for this leg so we sailed all the way with the spinnaker.  Got to Peniche and aimed to anchor off the beach outside the harbour in a lovely calm spot until a police RIB had other ideas, he told us we could not anchor outside the harbour anywhere and we had to go elsewhere – finally they told us we could anchor inside the harbour!!!  Not the most comfortable of places with fishing boats hurtling in and out completely ignoring the 3knt speed limit kicking up great wakes as they passed.  Once again we were glad to only stay one night.

Off to Cascais next day, 45nm in thick fog, we could not see more than 1/4nm all day so it was a long day monitoring the radar screen.  Fortunately the sea was calm so even the lobster pot buoys showed up on the radar, as well as a lot of very small fishing boats that we passed, why they chose to be out in thick fog in a 14 – 18ft boat we could not imagine!!  The fog cleared as we rounded the headland and headed into the well sheltered anchorage to try and find a spot amongst the 30 or so other boats already anchored.  We rested for a few days before heading off again.

Rounding Cape St Vincent	Marcel and Helen on Dakini

From Cascais we had a 50nm passage to Sines that we sailed nearly all the way with the spinnaker, we had a couple of other boats nearby heading the same way to give us a bit of a challenge on the way, we managed to pass one dutch boat and also managed to stay ahead of a 55ft Oyster all day so we were pretty happy.  Anchored in Sines harbour in a perfect calm setting off the beach with the sun going down astern.

60nm to Baleeira was the next trip to take us around the South Western tip of Europe, Cape St Vincent.  We had very little breeze all day so we had engines on nearly all day and the swell built up to over 2m as we got towards the Cape so it was not very pleasant for the last few hours.  At least we had a visit from a large number of dolphins, over 30 stayed with us for a couple of hours playing around the boat, with one show off leaping out of the water and splashing down ahead of us.  Baleeira harbour was another uncomfortable stop with the swell managing to find it’s way around the headland and the breakwater to make it a bit rolly.

The final hop was 20nm to Alvor Lagoon, this time the wind was right on the nose for the whole trip so the sails stayed stowed and the engines got another run.  Alvor is a shallow lagoon with a well protected entrance but some very strangely placed channel buoys.  The first green buoy is about 200m out of position so you leave this way off to port and then make a couple of slight turns before heading through a very narrow gap between the red buoy and the sandbank.  It is easy when you know where to go but we did not, so we had a few stops and starts as the depth showed only a foot under the boat!!!  All a bit nerve racking, but we had come in on the rising tide and it is all mud and sand so we would have been fine even if we had found the bottom, fortunately we made it safely and anchored next to a Swiss flagged Lagoon catamaran, Dakini.  Marcel and Helen took delivery of her earlier in the year and we had a great couple of days with them, Dakini is also spending the winter in Lagos with us so we see them again over the winter.

Workday in Alvor	Lagoon Anchorage at Alvor

The shallow sands of the lagoon mean it is an ideal place to dry the boat out and check the underside before winter, so we picked our spot and waited for the tide to ebb.  Nimrod was given a good scrubbing to get rid of the weed and slime as well as changing the anodes and checking everything else.

We were also joined in Alvor by Austrians Helmut and Sylvia on a Broadblue 385 and Franz on a Prout Quasar 50.  They had all come from the Greek Islands having spent 3yrs and 5yrs there so we got some useful info about the area that we are planning on heading to next summer.

We are spending another couple of weeks in Alvor before we head into Lagos Marina for the winter, the marina looks really nice, right in the middle of the city with all shops etc right on hand as well as a large number of people living aboard through the winter.  Nick has also moored Imagine there so we will see them a few times over the winter.

Hi all Sue here

Well we have finally found some lovely settled weather in the Algarve, sunshine everyday so far. It was a bit of a slog getting here but well worth it!! We are trying to make sure we go for a long walk on the beach everyday as you can tend to get a bit too chilled out!! The dolphin Chis mentioned showing of was completely mad!! All the others looked so graceful jumping out of the water but this one just launched itself out and usually landed on it’s side with one eye looking up at us, it made us laugh every time it did it. I will never tire of watching them.

We had a small black and white striped snake trying to climb up the steps on the back of the boat, I asked Chris if it was a water snake and he said it is now as he knocked it back into the sea!! I did watch it swimming away for a whlle to make sure it didn’t return.

The Austrian couple we met run a business called ‘Animals Come First’, they transport animals all over the world and they told us some very amusing stories. The smallest animal being Fleas and the largest a Rhino, they include a snowboarding Tortoise for a TV ad and two Hyenas for one of the Harry Potter films.

It’s very pretty and peaceful in this anchorage at Alvor but I am quite looking forward to going into a marina for the winter months and Lagos seems really nice. No more going back and to ashore in the dinghy to collect water, unlimited showers, unlimited electric and a laundrette!! I might not want to leave!! Then again the Greek Islands sound lovely so I’ll probably be ready for a change come April.

We are meeting up with friends from Holyhead this week who are holidaying in the Algarve and then next week we are meeting up with more friends who have a villa in the Algarve then the week after our friends off Imagine are coming out to stay on their boat in Lagos. Then it will be time for us to return home for a fortnight to see family and friends. It’s going to be a busy time but I’m sure very enjoyable!!

Not so Sunny Spain!!!

We left you all last time when we were weather bound in Lastres waiting for the wind to blow from the “normal” direction for this time of year, eventually it decide to blow from the NE and we set off to get around the top corner of Spain and into the Rias.  WiFi is still not brilliant so only a few piccies this time.

From Lastres we made a 45nm hop to Puerto de San Esteban, an old coaling harbour with a shallow entrance bar into a long channel with a sheltered harbour wall to tie alongside.  The wind was very light so although it did blow from the right direction there was not enough to sail so engines on all day with a bit of motorsailing just for a change.  We got to the entrance bar just before high tide so there was plenty of water but a fairly big swell to contend with as we negotiated the tricky entrance into the channel – keep as close to the wall as you dare!!!  Found a space alongside the wall even though a local marinero wanted to put us on a pontoon that was only big enough for a dinghy – some appropriate hand signals convinced him that we would rather tie up to the wall.  At least the sun was shining and we had a very warm evening in the cockpit with a little beer – only one cos it was an early start next day – how unusual!!

Away from Puerto de San Esteban at first light, a quite reasonable 0700hrs over here, to give us a chance to make some decent progress, unfortunately that meant crossing the harbour bar a couple of hours before low water with 2m less water than we came in with.  Fortunately the wind was very light and the waves and swell had eased somewhat but it was still pretty bumpy for the last 1/4 mile of the channel with the depth sounder reading less than 0.5m underneath us in a couple of places – definitely not a harbour entrance to try in any dodgy conditions.

After an hour the wind had settled at 14-16knts from ENE and we scooted along at around 9knts with both headsails poled out, the sea was still a bit confused but it was OK for us going west, I wouldn’t have wanted to go the other way.  We had not really made our minds up where to stop for the night when we left but after deciding the wind was good and Nimrod was flying along happily we would head for Ria Cedeira, 95nm away so it was a long day, we covered the distance in exactly 12hrs from anchor to anchor so that was a very good days sailing!!  Everything was great until we got to Cabo Ortegal and turned SW to Cedeira, the wind picked up rapidly as it accelerated around the headland and we had 30knts gusting to 40 while we frantically rolled up some sail to get the boat speed back into single figures!!!  This lasted for a couple of hours until we got into Ria Cedeira and then someone turned the fan off and it was back to a gentle 10knts as we anchored in the well sheltered, pretty anchorage at Cedeira.  It was also a change to see lots of other anchored boats, with UK, French, German, Dutch and USA ensigns all on display, so far in Spain we seemed to have been almost the only boat out there.  Unfortunately no time for socialising as the wind was forecast to be perfect again the next day.

From Cedeira we headed to the famous headland of Cape Finisterre (the end of the world – Finis Terre – as far as the Romans knew) and into the Ria de Finisterre to anchor just north of the harbour itself.  The wind started quite light and we really needed the spinnaker up to make decent progress, however the forecast was for the wind to pick up through the day so we thought it best to stay with the mainsail and gennaker rather than battle getting the spinnaker down in a rising wind.  The wind never did seem to pick up and eventually we decided the spinnaker had to go up and we gained a bit of speed to 8knts with a good number of other boats all heading the same way.  All was going great until the last 10nm when the wind did pick up with a vengance and we had to get the spinnaker down as it gusted to 30knts with no warning at all, at least the sea state was not too bad and we managed OK with no dramas and headed to the landmark of Cape Finisterre.  It had been another long day with 85nm covered in just over 12hrs.

Just as we were rounding the Cape to head into the Ria we heard a Mayday from a single handed French sailor some 60nm South of us, he was taking on water, he reckoned about 20% full and he was sinking.  Fortunately he was just South of the major shipping lanes and a couple of large cargo boats headed to his position and were with him about an hour or so later.  From what we could hear on the VHF one of the rescue ships had a man overboard as they tried to rescue the Frenchman so further complicating the problems.  The weather and sea state out there meant it was too dangerous to manoeuvre a large ship alongside a very small yacht (27ft), and the Frenchman was very emotional as he did not want to leave his boat - “she is my friend” he said on the VHF.  Eventually the Portuguese rescue helicopter arrived to airlift him off and everybody was finally safe – it was quite harrowing listening to all this going on, not really knowing how bad conditions were out there, and hoping everyone was safe in the end.

Cape Finisterre on a Good Day

Next day we left Finisterre in flat calm conditions to go to Ria De Arosa, only 40nm to do so an easy day for a change – good job really cos the wind never really appeared and we manage only an hours sailing in the whole trip, but it was very sunny and very hot.  We met up with Nick, Lisa, Ella and Alfie on Imagine in a little anchorage on the south side of the Ria and spent the next few days with them visiting various places and slowly moving south to Ria de Pontivedra and finally Ria de Vigo.

We sampled some of the mussels that are farmed in huge quantities on floating platforms in all the western Rias, fresh out of the sea with wine, cream and garlic, absolutely lovely!!!  Villagarcia was one stop that is not easily forgotten, it was their “water fiesta” and it was absolute madness with an open air disco/rave that went on all night and thousands of drunk and drugged teenagers on the streets (we must be getting old!!!)  We soon departed for quieter places.

Fresh Moules Marinere in Ria De Arosa

Imagine headed south and we met up with Mike, Jane, Glyn and Linda from Oswestry, they were holidaying near Pontevedra so we had a great evening with them in Combarro at a Festival of the Sea, trying lots of local seafood specialities.  We met up with Imagine again a few days later to spend a couple more days with them before they went back home to work and school.

As you can guess from the title the weather has not been too brilliant over the last few weeks with a lot of cloudy days mixed in with the sunshine but at least it is always warm enough for shorts and tee-shirts.  When we do have sunshine it lasts for 3 or 4 days before turning cloudy again – seems like summer has not really happened anywhere this year!!!

Rural Spain, Top of Ria De Vigo

We are now in Baiona, at the SW end of Ria de Vigo sitting on board in wet, windy and grey conditions waiting for the weather to improve and for the wind to change from the South to the North so we can start making some progress down the Portuguese coast to the Algarve.  Not too many places to stop on this next stretch of coast so we will have some longish days to cover the distance between decent anchorages.

Hi all Sue here

Well after some very long days sailing and sometimes very bumpy sailing we finally met up with our friends on Imagine. The following few days were very enjoyable with them, lots of eating, drinking and sitting on various beaches. Chris and Nick were like two little boys out collecting mussels in the dinghy. One day they caught a cuttle fish and Nick tried stroking it to show Alfie how it changed colour but when Chris tipped it back into the sea it squirted him with blue ink all over his face, it obviously didn’t like being stroked. I didn’t laugh much!! On one of our grey days I actually managed to watch Lord of the Rings with Lisa, Ella and Alfie, just need to watch part 3 now.

We were all sitting on Imagine one evening in Aldan when lot’s of Dolphins swam in and started circling all around the anchorage rounding fish up. They ended up nearly on the beach when they finally finished, it was amazing to watch them so close up. It seems a very popular place for Dolphins around the Rias and we seem to see them most days.

Everywhere we go around the various Rias there seems to be a Fiesta of some sort on so we have ended up in some very noisy anchorages. They seem to celebrate anything and everything out here from saints to water and always accompanied with very loud music and fireworks that go on all night!!

We are now waiting to head for Lisbon where we are hoping to meet up with some more friends, Alan and Yvonne. Then we will continue on down to the Algarve where we are meeting up with our friends John, Susan and Ian and their kids, It’s a very hard life this boating!!

Au Revoir to France & Hola to Spain

Finally found a better WiFi connection so I have posted the last blog again complete with photos. New blog to follow in the next day or so.

Hello again to everybody, sorry you haven’t heard from us for a while but WiFi access has been very hard to come by on our travels through France and the few times we have managed to find it the connection has not been really good enough for uploading the blog and pictures.  Now got a reasonable quality WiFi signal in Spain so time to tell you all what we have been up to – even so the connection is so slow that I have had to split the post into 4 to send it, hope you can make sense of it!!!!

Port Launay on the River Aulne	Railway Bridge before the Lock

We spent a week up the peace and quite of the River Aulne at Port Launay mixing with some of the local characters who live on board their boats in the Canal.  The weather out at sea was pretty mixed and winds from the wrong direction so we were happy to be safely tied up to the canal bank.  We had a huge hypermarket a mile up the canal at Chateaulin selling some very drinkable Chardonnay at 8 euros for a 3ltr box – Sue was very happy!!!  We did manage to stock the boat up with food as well as drink while we there.  We also met up with a Scottish couple tied a couple of boats up from us and found that they had been stuck in Holyhead in May the very same time we were there – very strange!!

Ships Graveyard at the River Mouth	Calm Anchorage in Ile de Glenans

Finally the weather seemed to be relenting and we decided to head back to the sea to meet Pru and Mike at Camaret.  The picture above shows a collection of French Naval ships tied up and left to rot at the bottom of the river just before it enters the Rade de Brest – quite a sad sight to see over a dozen ships in such a state.

From Camaret we had to make a bit of progress to meet Caroline and Rich in the Gulf of Morbihan in just over a week so we did not really have too much time for sightseeing on this part of the trip.  We had been promised by Jean and John that as soon as we got south of Pointe de Penmarch that the weather would be warmer and it would be like entering another country with blue skies, sunshine and warm winds – we have to report that they were lying!!!  The weather continued to be mainly cloudy with temperatures hardly ever getting over 20 deg C even when the sun did bother to come out – global warming has definitely not happened this year!!!

We stopped at Anse de Loch, just South of the Raz de Sein, Benodet and the Ile de Glenans on our way South.  The Glenans were lovely and we did have a couple of sunny days, we also had a visit from the French Customs while we were anchored there – they were very polite, recorded ship and passport details, and asked a few questions before leaving us.

From there we headed to Sauzon on Belle Ile for just one night and then into the Gulf of Morbihan as the weather had turned crappy again and the Gulf is a good place to hide.  Unfortunately almost all the little bays and sheltered anchorages around the Gulf are now packed full of moorings so finding somewhere to anchor was not as easy as we expected.  Luckily the places we did find were very pleasant and peaceful.  Richard and Caroline joined us for a week and we had a really great time despite the weather being a bit indifferent – but I will let Sue tell you about all that.

Remote Beach in Gulf of Morbihan	Sunny Evening with Rich and Caroline

After saying goodbye to Rich and Caroline it was time to make some more progress south before crossing the bottom corner of Biscay to Spain and onwards West to meet Nick, Lisa, Ella and Alfie on Imagine in the Rias.

The weather was a bit warmer and the sun shone a bit more often but the wind never seemed to get above 10knts so we had a lot of practice at trying to sail well in the light winds.  We found that we could make 4 or 5 knts under sail with 8 – 10 knts of wind on the beam, not too bad really considering we are very heavily loaded with fuel, water, supplies, Sue’s shoes and everything else that goes with living aboard.  The few times the wind got to 12 knts we could manage 6.5 to 7knts that felt like we were flying after so many miles of sedate progress.

We stopped off at Noirmoutier, Les Sable D L’onnes, and La Rochelle as we headed south, the beaches at Les Sable were absolutely packed with people so we were glad to stay on board and watch.

Bonito Caught on our Biscay Crossing	Sunset over Biscay

We had planned to make a couple more hops south from La Rochelle before crossing to Spain but as we headed out from the anchorage the forecast was giving 10 – 15 knt NE winds for the next 24 hrs so we decided to head straight for Santona, near Santander.  The trip was just a shade under 200 miles and started with no wind at all so we motored for nearly 8hrs in blazing sun and flat calm seas, we managed to catch one Bonito that was big enough for dinner and enough for another meal. 

The wind did eventually appear and we had both headsails poled out making nearly 7knts for about 8hrs, I left Sue on watch at 2 in the morning with a nice steady wind, no ships on the radar and nothing untoward expected until she woke me at 03:30 to tell me there was lightning all around the boat and the wind had died to nearly nothing!!!  We furled the sails and then motored through a nasty thunderstorm with lightning all around and torrential rain for nearly an hour – not much fun when you are about 100 miles from anything!!!

The rest of the trip was very frustrating as the wind veered completely around the compass twice in the next 5hrs, no sooner had we got the sails set it was time to change them or furl them or motor or motorsail or put the sails back up again – a real pain in the a***!!!  Finally the wind did settle down and decided it wanted to come from the SW, almost exactly where we wanted to go – what a surprise!!  It did veer a bit towards the W and we managed to motorsail and sail the last 40 miles hard on the wind, even having to reef down for the last hour as the wind built over 20knts.  We were very glad to drop anchor in Santona, but very pleased to have made it across Biscay without any major problems.

Headland off Santona	Fishing Village of Lastres

Surprisingly the weather on this coast of Spain has not been told that it is summer and it is just as mixed up as it was in France.  We had a nearly calm day on Thursday as we headed to Llanes and then had a seriously bumpy day on Friday as we cut short our planned day and headed to the little fishing village of Lastres where we are safely tied to the harbour wall with a couple of French boats rafted outside us.  The French boats had had a really bad day with one boat getting fishing net around his prop twice and having to dive off the boat in pretty horrible seas to cut it free, the other boat had ripped the clew of is headsail, blown out his spinnaker and also smashed his outboard engine off the guardrail as he tried to help remove the net from the other boats props.  They were very glad, particularly the women, to be safely tied to us in a calm harbour!!!

The weather has pinned us down here as we now have SW F5-7 winds forecast for Sat and Sun with a rough sea to go with it – at the moment the forecast looks like NE winds from Tuesday onwards so we hope to be able to make some decent miles towards the NW corner of Spain to meet Imagine and crew.

Hola Amigos Sue here

Despite being disappointed with the French weather we are still enjoying our travels and having lots of experiences!! Meeting the locals in Port Launay was one, we were the only English couple invited on board their boats for a drink!! The scottish people we met thought they were the local druggies, I’m sure they weren’t but they did like a drink or two!!

When we had a visit from the customs I was just finishing giving Chris a haircut and had just set the trimmer to shave to do his neck. I hastily swept up the hair cuttings so they could come into the cockpit. I thought we handled their visit very well and didn’t get flustered. When they left I told Chris I just needed to take a bit more hair off the sides but forgot I had set the trimmer to shave!! Chris was left with a stripe across the side of his head, he wasn’t very happy but did eventually see the funny side (no pun intended!!). It’s growing back now and I’m sure after his next trim you won’t notice it. I was obviously more flustered than I thought!!

We had a great week with Caroline and Rich and as usual got plenty of walks (hikes to Caroline and me!) in. We saw a Jazz Concert advertised on one of these walks and decided that it wouldn’t be too far to walk to that evening. It turned out to be about 3 miles each way and it was a very local event in a field!! Wine was only 1 euro a plastic cup full but you wouldn’t want to drink a lot of it. Highlight of the night was Chris trying out his french and greeting someone Bon Suit a mix of Bon Nuit and Bon Soir!! It wasn’t that funny but we laughed all the way back to the boat, perhaps the wine had something to do with it!!

Richard and Chris thought it was very amusing the way Caroline and I reacted to wasps, flapping around when one came near us. That was until one day whilst drinking bottles of beer on the boat Richard suddenly spat his beer out and started shouting. A wasp had crawled inside his bottle unseen and then stung him on the tongue. We were very sympathetic as you can imagine!! The next day Richard had to join a conference call from work and if his work colleagues could have seen him sitting there with a blue rubber oven glove on swatting wasps as he took it I’m sure they would have been very amused!!

I was dreading crossing Biscay as I had heard so many stories about it. Like Chris said the first half of the crossing were fine. Trust it all to go wrong on my watch!! It was really weird the way the wind just died to nothing and the lightning that had been on the horizon and Chris had told me not to worry about as it was miles away was suddenly all around. I didn’t really want to wake Chris but it did feel like the calm before the storm and I was right. We had only just managed to get the sails down when it hit us. It was very impressive but not when you are sitting on a boat in the middle of it!! When Chris put the laptop in the oven to protect it in case we got hit by lightning I did get a bit worried!! Like I’ve said before its like childbirth and all forgotten now!!

We are still having mixed weather in Spain but hopefully it will sort itself out soon. I thought I’d escaped the Irish Sea conditions but the sea out here can definitely match it. Now looking forward to joining up with our friends on Imagine in the next few days.

Au Revoir to France – Hola to Spain

Hello again to everybody, sorry you haven’t heard from us for a while but WiFi access has been very hard to come by on our travels through France and the few times we have managed to find it the connection has not been really good enough for uploading the blog and pictures.  Now got a reasonable quality WiFi signal in Spain so time to tell you all what we have been up to – even so the connection is so slow that I have had to just post text to be able to send it, hope you can make sense of it!!!!  Will try and post the photos soon!!!

We spent a week up the peace and quite of the River Aulne at Port Launay mixing with some of the local characters who live on board their boats in the Canal.  The weather out at sea was pretty mixed and winds from the wrong direction so we were happy to be safely tied up to the canal bank.  We had a huge hypermarket a mile up the canal at Chateaulin selling some very drinkable Chardonnay at 8 euros for a 3ltr box – Sue was very happy!!!  We did manage to stock the boat up with food as well as drink while we there.  We also met up with a Scottish couple tied a couple of boats up from us and found that they had been stuck in Holyhead in May the very same time we were there – very strange!!

Finally the weather seemed to be relenting and we decided to head back to the sea to meet Pru and Mike at Camaret.  The picture above shows a collection of French Naval ships tied up and left to rot at the bottom of the river just before it enters the Rade de Brest – quite a sad sight to see over a dozen ships in such a state.

From Camaret we had to make a bit of progress to meet Caroline and Rich in the Gulf of Morbihan in just over a week so we did not really have too much time for sightseeing on this part of the trip.  We had been promised by Jean and John that as soon as we got south of Pointe de Penmarch that the weather would be warmer and it would be like entering another country with blue skies, sunshine and warm winds – we have to report that they were lying!!!  The weather continued to be mainly cloudy with temperatures hardly ever getting over 20 deg C even when the sun did bother to come out – global warming has definitely not happened this year!!!

We stopped at Anse de Loch, just South of the Raz de Sein, Benodet and the Ile de Glenans on our way South.  The Glenans were lovely and we did have a couple of sunny days, we also had a visit from the French Customs while we were anchored there – they were very polite, recorded ship and passport details, and asked a few questions before leaving us.

From there we headed to Sauzon on Belle Ile for just one night and then into the Gulf of Morbihan as the weather had turned crappy again and the Gulf is a good place to hide.  Unfortunately almost all the little bays and sheltered anchorages around the Gulf are now packed full of moorings so finding somewhere to anchor was not as easy as we expected.  Luckily the places we did find were very pleasant and peaceful.  Richard and Caroline joined us for a week and we had a really great time despite the weather being a bit indifferent – but I will let Sue tell you about all that.

After saying goodbye to Rich and Caroline it was time to make some more progress south before crossing the bottom corner of Biscay to Spain and onwards West to meet Nick, Lisa, Ella and Alfie on Imagine in the Rias.

The weather was a bit warmer and the sun shone a bit more often but the wind never seemed to get above 10knts so we had a lot of practice at trying to sail well in the light winds.  We found that we could make 4 or 5 knts under sail with 8 – 10 knts of wind on the beam, not too bad really considering we are very heavily loaded with fuel, water, supplies, Sue’s shoes and everything else that goes with living aboard.  The few times the wind got to 12 knts we could manage 6.5 to 7knts that felt like we were flying after so many miles of sedate progress.

We stopped off at Noirmoutier, Les Sable D L’onnes, and La Rochelle as we headed south, the beaches at Les Sable were absolutely packed with people so we were glad to stay on board and watch.

We had planned to make a couple more hops south from La Rochelle before crossing to Spain but as we headed out from the anchorage the forecast was giving 10 – 15 knt NE winds for the next 24 hrs so we decided to head straight for Santona, near Santander.  The trip was just a shade under 200 miles and started with no wind at all so we motored for nearly 8hrs in blazing sun and flat calm seas, we managed to catch one Bonito that was big enough for dinner and enough for another meal. 

The wind did eventually appear and we had both headsails poled out making nearly 7knts for about 8hrs, I left Sue on watch at 2 in the morning with a nice steady wind, no ships on the radar and nothing untoward expected until she woke me at 03:30 to tell me there was lightning all around the boat and the wind had died to nearly nothing!!!  We furled the sails and then motored through a nasty thunderstorm with lightning all around and torrential rain for nearly an hour – not much fun when you are about 100 miles from anything!!!

The rest of the trip was very frustrating as the wind veered completely around the compass twice in the next 5hrs, no sooner had we got the sails set it was time to change them or furl them or motor or motorsail or put the sails back up again – a real pain in the a***!!!  Finally the wind did settle down and decided it wanted to come from the SW, almost exactly where we wanted to go – what a surprise!!  It did veer a bit towards the W and we managed to motorsail and sail the last 40 miles hard on the wind, even having to reef down for the last hour as the wind built over 20knts.  We were very glad to drop anchor in Santona, but very pleased to have made it across Biscay without any major problems.

Surprisingly the weather on this coast of Spain has not been told that it is summer and it is just as mixed up as it was in France.  We had a nearly calm day on Thursday as we headed to Llanes and then had a seriously bumpy day on Friday as we cut short our planned day and headed to the little fishing village of Lastres where we are safely tied to the harbour wall with a couple of French boats rafted outside us.  The French boats had had a really bad day with one boat getting fishing net around his prop twice and having to dive off the boat in pretty horrible seas to cut it free, the other boat had ripped the clew of is headsail, blown out his spinnaker and also smashed his outboard engine off the guardrail as he tried to help remove the net from the other boats props.  They were very glad, particularly the women, to be safely tied to us in a calm harbour!!!

The weather has pinned us down here as we now have SW F5-7 winds forecast for Sat and Sun with a rough sea to go with it – at the moment the forecast looks like NE winds from Tuesday onwards so we hope to be able to make some decent miles towards the NW corner of Spain to meet Imagine and crew.

Hola Amigos Sue here

Despite being disappointed with the French weather we are still enjoying our travels and having lots of experiences!! Meeting the locals in Port Launay was one, we were the only English couple invited on board their boats for a drink!! The scottish people we met thought they were the local druggies, I’m sure they weren’t but they did like a drink or two!!

When we had a visit from the customs I was just finishing giving Chris a haircut and had just set the trimmer to shave to do his neck. I hastily swept up the hair cuttings so they could come into the cockpit. I thought we handled their visit very well and didn’t get flustered. When they left I told Chris I just needed to take a bit more hair off the sides but forgot I had set the trimmer to shave!! Chris was left with a stripe across the side of his head, he wasn’t very happy but did eventually see the funny side (no pun intended!!). It’s growing back now and I’m sure after his next trim you won’t notice it. I was obviously more flustered than I thought!!

We had a great week with Caroline and Rich and as usual got plenty of walks (hikes to Caroline and me!) in. We saw a Jazz Concert advertised on one of these walks and decided that it wouldn’t be too far to walk to that evening. It turned out to be about 3 miles each way and it was a very local event in a field!! Wine was only 1 euro a plastic cup full but you wouldn’t want to drink a lot of it. Highlight of the night was Chris trying out his french and greeting someone Bon Suit a mix of Bon Nuit and Bon Soir!! It wasn’t that funny but we laughed all the way back to the boat, perhaps the wine had something to do with it!!

Richard and Chris thought it was very amusing the way Caroline and I reacted to wasps, flapping around when one came near us. That was until one day whilst drinking bottles of beer on the boat Richard suddenly spat his beer out and started shouting. A wasp had crawled inside his bottle unseen and then stung him on the tongue. We were very sympathetic as you can imagine!! The next day Richard had to join a conference call from work and if his work colleagues could have seen him sitting there with a blue rubber oven glove on swatting wasps as he took it I’m sure they would have been very amused!!

I was dreading crossing Biscay as I had heard so many stories about it. Like Chris said the first half of the crossing were fine. Trust it all to go wrong on my watch!! It was really weird the way the wind just died to nothing and the lightning that had been on the horizon and Chris had told me not to worry about as it was miles away was suddenly all around. I didn’t really want to wake Chris but it did feel like the calm before the storm and I was right. We had only just managed to get the sails down when it hit us. It was very impressive but not when you are sitting on a boat in the middle of it!! When Chris put the laptop in the oven to protect it in case we got hit by lightning I did get a bit worried!! Like I’ve said before its like childbirth and all forgotten now!!

We are still having mixed weather in Spain but hopefully it will sort itself out soon. I thought I’d escaped the Irish Sea conditions but the sea out here can definitely match it. Now looking forward to joining up with our friends on Imagine in the next few days.

Bonjour from Sunny France

We are now in France and enjoying lots of sunshine, although it has turned a bit grey and wet in the last couple of days.  We filled up with diesel in Port Samson, Guernsey at 57p per litre so we squeezed every last drop into the tanks since prices in Europe are about £1.20 to £1.40!!!  We headed to the Island of Sark for a few days and suffered some bouncy times in the anchorage because of the swell, the first evening we had to move to another bay it was so bad.  After that we used bow and stern anchors to make sure we lay head on to the swell and things were much better, most of the monohulls around us were having a much worse time than we were!!!  Mike and Pru spent a couple of days in Sark with us so we had to have a few drinkies to be sociable.  Tried our lobster pots for the first time this year in Sark and caught two small lobsters on the first night.

Sue and Pru Partying in Sark	We Catch Lobsters as Well as Fish

We left the Channel Islands with calm seas, clear sunny skies and barely any wind so we motored or motorsailed to the Ile de Batz just offshore from Roscoff, the 80nm trip took us about 12hrs and we anchored in the lovely harbour of Porz Kernof. The harbour dries out so we spent the night firmly sat on the sand with no rocking around for a change.  We wanted to make a bit of progress southwards whilst the weather was nice and settled so we left the next day for a 40nm trip to Argenton, more sunshine and winds of less than 10knts all day, we did get the spinnaker up for about an hour but it was only enough to pull us along at about 3knts so we gave up and resorted to engines again – good job we filled up in Guernsey!!!

Porz Kernok, Ile de Batz	Dolphins in the Chenal du Four

Just an overnight stop in Argenton, especially as it took us 5 attempts to get our anchor to set properly!!  From there we headed through the Chenal du Four and into the Rade de Brest, we had about 8 or 10 very big dolphins with us for about 15mins as we went down the Chenal so that really made the day.  At the eastern end of the Rade de Brest is the River Aulne and the weather was forecast to go downhill for a few days so we decided to head up the River to shelter for a while.

Beautiful Tall Ship Under Full Sail	On Our Way Up the River Aulne

The River is a lovely 15nm trip through reed beds and farmland until you arrive at the lock at Guilly Glaz that lets you into the canalised section of the river, not much room for us in the lock but we got through with no hassles.  A mile upstream we tied up to the canal wall at Port Launay with a varied selection of French liveaboard boats and cruising boats from the UK.  As I said the weather has taken a downward turn for the last couple of days but Port Launay is sheltered and safe so we are just waiting for the sun to return.  The weather out in the Bay of Biscay has been pretty horrible with winds of F6 – F8 and rough or very rough seas – we are not keen on sailing in that sort of weather so we can sit tight until things get better.  We also met Dan and Rhianon in Salcombe, they had left their boat in Port Launay for the winter so we had the pleasure of giving St Anna a good check over and telling Dan and Rhianon that she is in great shape and ready for their summers cruise in a few weeks time.

Bonjour mes amies Sue ici!!

As usual the Captain has got in first and said it all!! What he didn’t mention though was we nearly lost our dinghys in Sark. We went ashore for a tour of the Island with Pru and Mike and came across a little pub called The Bell Air where it was £2 a pint, needless to say we stayed for one or two!! It was then we realised how late it was and the tide would be coming in and our dinghys were on the beach!! We made a hasty retreat for the beach where we found Mikes dinghy just floating and ours, although anchored, had got washed around the other side of a large rock. The swell was very big and it took us some time to get both dinghys off the beach, in which time I managed to get thrown forward and banged my head on the dinghy engine. I ended up with a very impressive lump over my right eye!! Anchor drinks were definitely needed when we got back to our boats.

It was a lovely feeling reaching France, we are finally abroad and well on our way. When we got to the loch at Guilly Glaz Chris insisted that I ring ahead to make sure we could fit in the lock. His reasoning being that I did my French O level, I had to remind him that it was 36 years ago!! It was a very interesting conversation but I got there in the end and the lock keeper was very amused!! I was trying to tell him we would be arriving at seven o clock and he thought i was saying we would be there in seven hours and kept telling me he would be in bed by then!! I have since been studying my French phrase book.

The weather has once again brought us to a standstill but at least we are moored up safely and have met some really nice people. Wine is very cheap here so no doubt we will be sampling a few bottles to decide which to get for when my sister and here husband arrive in two weeks time. We are really looking forward to seeing them and aim to be in the Gulf of Morbihan by then where hopefully we will find the sun again.

Leaving the UK on Nimrod

We left Padstow as planned, although the wind did not do what it was supposed to do – what a surprise.  As we motored up the Camel Estuary away from Padstow it seemed like the wind would be OK so we raised the main and headed down the North Cornish coast towards the Isles of Scilly, after about 1/2hr it was obvious there was not enough wind and the main was flapping about like an old hankie so down it came and we motorsailed with just the gennaker for most of the day in calm seas and sunshine.  We had a visitor spend a couple of hours with us, a young swift hopped on board, obviously in need of a rest, he perched on various parts of the boat before heading off. The wind picked up for the last 15miles or so and by the time we got to Scilly it was up to nearly 20knts.  We anchored in St Helens Pool, that is supposed to be a well sheltered anchorage but we had a very bumpy night.

Young Swift pays us a Visit off Cornwall	We Eventually Catch some Fish (Pollack)

Our friends, Jean and John, were joining us in Scilly so we left St Helens Pool and headed round to Porth Cressa on the main island of St Mary’s to await their arrival, a busy anchorage with nearly all French boats there – only one or two Red Ensigns to be seen.

I thought I had better try a bit more fishing just to give Sue something to write about!!!  Surprise, surprise the rod and lures do actually work and an hours fishing resulted in two large Pollack and a decent Cod, as well as 1/2 dozen smaller Pollack that went back – see it really is very easy this fishing lark!!!  We caught quite a few more Pollack during our stay in the Scillies.

We picked Jean and John up in the dinghy on the beach – the best way to arrive on your holiday, to hear John complaining about the most expensive bus ride ever, £3.50 each to travel about 1/2 mile from the airport to St John’s!!!  It was soon forgotten as the beer and wine were tasted.

We had a great time visiting various places around the Islands and the weather was reasonably kind as we had a lot more sun than rain and no mist or fog.  We had one very wet day that, at least, let us test out the water collection off our new bimini roof – we collected well over 100ltrs of nice clean rainwater so that goes down as a huge success.  Seeing as we nearly always anchor, rather than paying exorbitant marina prices, getting water usually means filling jerry cans ashore and carting them back in the dinghy so getting water without even leaving the boat is great.

Lunchtime in The Isles of Scilly	Jean & Sue Admiring the Local Flora

All too soon we had to head back to the main harbour of St John’s to say goodbye to Jean and John and put them on their gold plated bus back to the airport.  We had a great time with them for the week and we are looking forward to their next visit – as well as visits from other friends and family.

We had another couple of days waiting for the weather to play fair so we could head back to the mainland.  After a very lumpy night in Porth Cressa we had had enough of nearly being thrown out of our bed by the swell in the anchorage so we got up at about 0400 and headed for the Helford River near Falmouth.  The seas were big and uncomfortable with not really enough wind to keep us moving comfortably so it was a very rough start to the passage with Sue going back to bed to avoid getting sea sick.  Eventually the seas calmed a bit, as did the wind so we motorsailed all the way and anchored in the lovely Ponsence Cove just inside the Helford entrance.

Perfect Sailing Leaving the Helford River	Leaving the UK Behind, Salcombe

We left the Helford in perfect conditions, flat seas, sunshine and 12knots of wind from behind.  I rigged both our poles and set our two headsails wing and wing to pull us along at a perfect 7.5knts.  It lasted for about 1/2 the crossing to Salcombe before the seas started building and the wind increased until we only had the jib sail out, doing 8 or 9 knts.  We headed up the Salcombe Estuary to anchor at the very top of The Bag where our friends Pru and Mike (we met them in Norway)came out in their dory to welcome us to Salcombe.

The weather did not seem to want us to leave the UK so we had a full week in Salcombe,  we had a really great time with Pru and Mike, helping them pack up as they are moving house, as well as helping Mike with various jobs on their yacht, Ghida, in preparation for a three week holiday to France.  In between we managed a few drinks and meals together, in return we managed to get all our washing done as well as getting driven to the supermarket for supplies – see how easily pleased we are these days!!!

Finally the wind and sea state looked good for us to head towards the Channel Islands so Friday morning saw us raising both anchors and heading down the Salcombe Estuary to leave the UK behind as we head for sunnier southern parts.  Mike and Pru waved us off from the headland and we headed out into the Channel.  Full sail and a little help from one engine to start with had us heading SE towards Guernsey, after a couple of hours the wind had backed slightly to the SW and we turned the engine off to sail at 8 to 9 knts nearly all the way to Guernsey.  The shipping lanes in the middle of the Channel were very busy and a couple of cargo boats that we were going to be quite close to studiously ignored all attempts to contact them by radio and also made no effort to change course, so we had to alter course to give us a safe passing distance.  There was quite a bit of radio traffic and most other shipping seemed happy to answer calls, maybe we were unlucky with our 2 potential risks – I even called Brixham Coastguard for a radio check and they confirmed we were loud and clear from over 30 miles away, it seemed from their answer that they had clearly heard us calling the two ships also!!!.

 

Castle Cornet Anchorage, Guernsey	How the Other Half Live

The wind dropped off and we motorsailed the last 10nm into Havelet Bay, St Peter Port, Guernsey where we anchored for a few days.  The residual swell found it’s way into the anchorage to make the first night pretty uncomfortable but since then it has been a pretty good place with plenty of sunshine and little wind.  Saturday saw the arrival of a 128ft long Oyster yacht, it looked very impressive coming up the coast under full sail and even more impressive when it came in to anchor.  I thought they might have come into the anchorage a bit further but a check on the AIS showed it to be 6.8m draught as well as 33ft beam explained why they stopped further out.  A 200hp RIB was lowered into the water by a crane that folded down into the deck while boarding steps came out of the side of the hull and folded down to board the RIB – like something out of James Bond!!!  A very impressive yacht with an even more impressive price tag no doubt (probably 20 to 30 million at a guess!!!).

We are spending a few days here to take advantage of duty free fuel prices, 60p per litre for diesel, and to enjoy some of the stunning beaches around Guernsey, Sark and Herm.  Then we head off to France to cruise around the Brittany coast before meeting up with Caroline and Rich for a week at the end of July – really looking forward to that.

Hi all Sue here

As usual the Captains covered it all, I must get in before him next time we update blog!!

Isles of Scilly were beautiful and I’m glad we managed to visit them despite weather conditions as usual. We had a great time there with our friends and think we managed to visit most pubs. On our many walks we came across various stands on the side of road selling fruit and veg and you just left your money in the honesty box, I couldn’t see this working in many places!! We had some wonderful ice creams in St Agnes, various flavours to choose from then topped with clotted cream and a flake, lethal on the calories but worth it..

As you can see from picture the fishing is now going well. After me joking about it on last blog there was no way the next time Chris went out fishing he was going to return without any!! We now have a well stocked freezer.

It was lovely visiting Salcombe to spend some time with our friends Pru and Mike. We were glad to be able to help out with their house move and boat jobs in return for getting our washing done!!. On top of moving house they also look after Mikes dad Richard who suffers with dementia and had to get him sorted to go into respite care for three weeks. Mike, Pru and Margaret (Mikes mum) do a wonderful job of looking after Richard but it’s a very trying time for them all. Richard is a lovely man and its very sad to see what this illness is doing to him and his very caring family. What Chris didn’t mention about our anchoring in Salcombe was the fact we ended up on a sandbank. Our first day there and Mike very kindly took us supply shopping to Tesco, it was a very windy day and Nimrod had been moving around quite a bit on her anchor. On returning in the Dinghy fully loaded with shopping and it was pouring down, I looked ahead and thought Nimrod seemed to be sitting quite a bit higher than the other boats at anchor. As we got closer it was quite obvious that something was not right and there was Nimrod perched on a sandbank. So there we were in the dinghy, load of shopping and still pouring down and quite a few yards away from Nimrod. Only thing for it was for Chris to roll trousers up and wade in thick black smelly mud to boat barefoot and fetch my wellies!! I then joined him to wade to the boat but being a lot smaller managed to sink up to my knees on first steps. I shouted to Chris but he said I would have to wait until he’d put the shopping on the boat!! It’s a good job we’ve got a hose on back of boat as the smell was horrendous, we just had to strip of everything and shower of all the mud, not a pretty site I can assure you!! Ah well another experience in boating has been learnt.

We are now in Guernsey and the weather is gorgeous at last, actually got the bikini and sun cream out!! Chris is very excited about duty free fuel but I am going into town to suss out the wine prices, I’m sure this is also very important!! Hopefully our friends, Mike and Pru, will sail in on Ghida later today and we will greet them with a well deserved anchor drink.

Making Progress South

We managed to get across the harbour to the wall outside Chris’ shed on the high Spring Tide and lifted our shiny new bimini canopy onto the frame using the spinnaker halyard – all went very smoothly with no dramas, just as planned!!!.  Back across the harbour to the main wall then and get the new top all screwed down to the frame, windows fitted and joints sealed all ready to go.  All in all it took an awful lot of hard work to make the bimini cover but it was well worth while, the cockpit now looks much brighter than it did with the blue canvas, we can now walk all over the roof instead of just down a narrow plank and we can also collect water off the roof when we need to. Hopefully you can see from the pictures that it looks like it has always been part of the boat.

So it was finally time to say goodbye to the Isle of Man for the last time and start making progress South.  Firstly a huge thank you to Chris Machin for help and assistance making the bimini and for letting us do all the work we could to keep costs down, also thanks to Bill and Angus for letting us use the shed to do all the work inside.  I think it cost about £2000 in total to make the cover, that is not too bad seeing as a new canvas cover was around £1500 and would need renewing every 3 or 4 years in the Med sunshine.  Thanks also to the Harbour Staff, Martin and Keith, for looking after us.

New Bimini Roof all Fitted	Inside View of Bimini

The forecast was not too good for leaving the Isle of Man, but it was getting worse with strong SW winds setting in – not good for going South.  We decided to do a 20 mile hop down the coast to Castletown before heading across the Irish Sea to Holyhead.  The last 2 or 3 miles into Castletown, around Langness Point were about as bad as we have encountered with a strong F6 SW blowing against Spring Tides and the fact that Langness is a rough patch of sea anyway.  We had aimed over 2 miles off the shore to try and miss the worst of the conditions but it was still really rough with things jumping around inside the boat that have never ever moved before!!!  We got into Castletown and the wind died to almost nothing – you could not believe the difference in 20 mins and 2 miles.

Out of Castletown the next day, we started with westerly winds and actually managed to do some sailing for a change, conditions were not too bad and we thought our crossing to Holyhead might be pretty good – no such luck!!  Halfway across the wind started backing to the SW and increasing as the forecast had promised so it was motorsailing time.  As we approached the Skerries north of Anglesey the wind was a good F6, again blowing against the Spring Ebb to kick up some more shitty seas.  Sue was struggling to keep everything in place inside while Chris dropped the main sail and tried to dodge the worst of the waves as we headed to Holyhead.  We were mighty happy to be tied up alongside in Holyhead Marina.

We had planned to just spend a few days in Holyhead but the weather had other ideas with a constant stream of low pressure depressions heading across the country giving gale force winds for over a week, we were tied up securely and we were definitely not going anywhere in that!!!  Scotland had things much worse with F10 and F11 winds, we only had F8-9.  There were another few boats also stuck in Holyhead waiting for better weather.  We finally escaped after 10 days – that was long enough in Holyhead.

It did us a chance to meet up with lots of friends, have one or two parties and finish of the final few jobs we needed to do.  Chris also managed a couple of days racing with John on Madam Wen in the Bank Holiday Weekend regatta – very enjoyable but bloody hard work even with electric winches and self tacking jibs!!!  How these single handed racers manage all the way around the world I really can’t even guess.

We left Holyhead on the Bank Holiday Monday and lots of friends came to wave us off on our way – all very emotional.  Too many of you to list here but a great big thanks to all of you for going out of your way to come and say goodbye.

We headed down to Bardsey Island, around the corner into Aberdaron to anchor for the night, we had quite a swell rolling into the bay and it was just about OK for us on Nimrod – you definitely would not have stayed there on a monohull, you would have been rolled out of your bunk.

Next day we headed to Fishguard, some very bumpy seas around Bardsey Island for the first hour or so but we had enough wind for sailing so off we went.  Just for a change the wind increased a bit and backed to WSW so although we were still sailing really well at 7 or 8 knts it was hard on the wind with typical short choppy Irish Sea conditions for 7 1/2 hrs to Fishguard – not the most comfortable trip we have ever had.

Nimrod From the Top of The Mast	Main Halyard Nearly Chaffed Through!!!

We dropped the mainsail as we entered Fishguard to find that the main halyard had nearly chafed through at the top of the mast, our halyard is 12mm Dyneema that is very strong but it is under a huge amount of tension with the mainsail fully hoisted.  The halyard was fixed to the ring on the head of the sail that you can just see in the photo below and this has been fine up till now, unfortunately the choppy seas and windward sailing must have caused the head of the sail and the ring to swivel around and this meant the halyard was being rubbed against the top roller as the sail ring moved from side to side.

So we had to re-design the fixing point for the halyard to prevent future problems, the halyard is now attached directly to the mast track head car, this car can slide up and down the track but it does not move or swivel no matter what the sail does.  Hopefully this will solve the problem – a trip up the mast also reinforced our conclusions with no sign of anything else up there that might have caused the chaffing.

Re-Engineered Halyard Attachment

We left Fishguard on Thursday to go round St David’s Head through Ramsey Sound and Jack Sound and into Milford Haven for the night anchored in Watwick Bay just inside the entrance.  Hardly any wind so it was 5hrs of motoring on calm seas.

It was a dawn o’clock start from Milford to Padstow, up at 05:30 and on our way by 06:00 into very pleasant conditions, not quite enough wind to sail at the speed we needed to make the tide at Padstow but only a bit of engine needed to keep us moving.  We had a visit from a couple of pods of dolphins, about 25 in the first group and 8 in the second group, they were with us for over an hour which was really nice.  By 09:00 the wind had increased by a couple of knts and we could turn off the engine and relax in perfect sailing conditions with 14knts of wind from the NE as we headed South, but it couldn’t last!!!  The wind picked up a bit, the seas increased a bit, still all well and good, then the wind backed to the North and died off leaving us wallowing around with sails slapping about wondering what had happened.

It seemed like time to get the spinnaker out, but first we dropped the main to give the gennaker a chance to fill properly, it helped a bit but still not very comfortable so I got everything ready for putting the spinnaker up in 12knts of wind from behind – ideal for our big colourful sail.  By the time everything was ready and we had a cup of tea to make sure the wind had come back and increased to F6 so we doing over 8knts with only the gennaker – good job we did not get the spinnaker up, it would have been a nightmare getting it down again in that wind.

The wind stayed at F6 for the rest of the way with top wind speeds of 28knts – the forecast said F3 or 4!!!.  We got to the Camel Estuary and the Doom Bar at 17:00, perfect timing to head into the harbour for the 17:30 gate opening.  Fortunately we rang the harbour the day before to let them know we were coming so they had allocated a space for us, because there were nearly 20 boats all heading into the estuary at the same time.  The harbour staff did a great job of getting everybody safely inside.

Visitors South of Milford Haven	Padstow Harbour in the Sunshine

We have had a day off today (Saturday) to get the boat washed, do a few little jobs, laundry etc.  Our friends Jean and John rang yesterday to let us know they are flying out to join us in the Isles of Scilly – we are really looking forward to seeing them again and the weather forecast looks very good for the next few days so we are hopeful of having a great time.  We are leaving Padstow tomorrow morning for a 70nm trip to the Isles of Scilly, the forecast is NE F4-5 so hopefully they have got it right because that is as good as it gets.

Hi all Sue here

As usual the Captain has said it all!! The passage from Ramsey he mentioned around Langness Point was horrendous, I thought there was a poltergeist on board throwing things at me!! I made sure everything was well packed in before we left Castletown for Holyhead but we still got quite a battering around the Skerries. I seem to remember making a deal that if we sold the house I wouldn’t have to go out in rough seas anymore!! I suppose that’s the Irish sea for you, it never does what its meant to, the forecast said sea state slight but it was definitely rough!!

I enjoyed our stay in Holyhead as it gave me time to catch up with friends and I even managed to do ladies who lunch a couple of times, don’t think this is in Chris budget anywhere so no doubt it will go against sues miscellaneous account!! I have decided that I am no good at saying goodbye to people, I always end up in tears, but it was still very nice of our friends to give us such a good send off. Some were even on the breakwater waving us off, very much appreciated.

After a couple more lumpy passages we had a very nice sail from Milford Haven to Padstow, with the Dolphins as usual making it more special. I don’t think I will ever tire of seeing them swimming and showing of around the boat. Chris tried his hand a fishing again and got quite excited when he thought he’d caught a big one. I slowed the boat down while he carefully reeled in his catch, a big lump of seaweed!! No doubt he will keep trying and I will continue to report on his progress!! Perhaps if anyone has any tips for him you could email them to us.

We are of to Isles of Scilly tomorrow so hope weather forecast is right. Really looking forward to our friends joining us there, Have been to Tescos to stock up on supplies, well mainly alcohol!! I was quite impressed Tescos run a shuttle bus from the marina, it was probably worth their while though considering the amount we bought. No drinking tonight though as long day tomorrow.

Hard Work to Start the 2011 Season

Hello again to everybody from us both on Nimrod, sorry it has taken us a while to get this first blog of the year to you but we have been very busy with boat jobs to get Nimrod ready for our planned travels South – more later.

We spent the winter in Victoria Dock, Caernarfon, safely tucked in the corner of the dock, sheltered from all the winter threw at us.  We started the winter with 60knt gales, endured over 10 inches of snow on the decks up to Christmas and spent most of March in glorious sunshine – plenty of variety then!!!.  We also had quite a few parties, visits from friends and family, the sad loss of our dear friend Jan and in between we even managed to get some jobs ticked off the “To Do List”.

Jan, who passed away 8th Dec with her partner John	Winter in Caernarfon – 6” Snow!!

We want to express our thanks to all the Caernarfon Harbour Staff for making our stay safe and enjoyable, for taking our post and for looking after Nimrod when we were away, with a special mention for Mark who always went above and beyond the call of duty to look after us and the rest of his customers.

New Years Eve aboard Nimrod	Laundry Time – A bit Big for Sue’s Yellow Bucket!!!

The Girls from Oswestry	The Boys from Oswestry

We managed to drag ourselves away from Caernarfon on 7th April heading for the Isle of Man with our first stop being Amwlch on the North coast of Anglesey for an overnight stop.  As usual we had no wind so we motored up the Menai Straits, under the bridges and through the Swellies before heading up the East coast, around Point Lynas and into the cosy little harbour of Amwlch.

An early start the next day (sounds very familiar) and we were motoring out of Amwlch at 0600hrs into a cold, calm and foggy Irish Sea.  Visibility less than 1/2mile so much concentration was needed on the radar display to make sure we missed anything that might have been out there – we passed one target at just over 1/4 mile away according to the radar and we could not see it at all!!!  Being at sea in the fog is definitely not much fun, you can’t relax at all and you are, literally, sailing blind relying totally on the radar, chart plotter and instruments.  Fortunately the fog finally cleared about half way to Ramsey and we could relax a bit – still no wind so it was down to Hinge and Bracket, our diesel engines to get us across to the Isle of Man.

We were heading for Ramsey and fibreglass expert Chris Machin to make a new bimini cover for Nimrod.  After 9hrs across the Irish Sea we were welcomed into Ramsey by Martin and Keith the Harbour Staff and we tied up on the scrubbing grid in the Harbour. The grid enabled us to check everything below the waterline – fortunately only the expected jobs to do underneath – we don’t like surprises down there.

The main job is a new plywood and fibreglass bimini cover over the cockpit, the existing canvas cover is over 7 years old and the stitching is starting to fail in lots of places as well as the canvas not being very waterproof any more – time for a change.  We could have had a replacement canvas cover made but canvas work does not last too long in the Mediterranean sunshine so, after talking to Chris, we decided to go for the more permanent solution of a fibreglass covered plywood construction.

We thought it would take us 2-3 weeks to do the job but in the end it has taken over 4 weeks of long hard days to get it to look as good as the rest of Nimrod.  First we had to join 5 sheets of ply together with glass fibre bandage and filler to make a 12ft square ply base, this was lifted on to the boat and marked around the existing frame, removed and cut to shape then put back on the frame.  The ply was clamped down to the frame to get the right curves and then edging and screen sections were bonded to it and a skin of glass fibre was laid on the top to maintain the curve.

Across the harbour we lifted the whole thing off and moved it into Chris’ workshop for laying up the GRP on the inside as well as filling and bonding all the curves between roof and edgings.  This meant lots and lots of grinding, sanding, filling, sanding and finally even more sanding – even Sue donned her overalls and helped out with the sanding, even if it did turn her grey!!! (sorry no piccies).  All the sanding and filling was necessary to ensure the finished surface was as smooth as a baby’s bum ready for painting – any little blemishes show up like beacons when you spray paint especially white!!!

Fixing all the Ply Bits Together on Board	Windows Cut and Primer Coat Sprayed

We have just finished putting the final top-coat on and the cover is now all finished and ready to go back on the boat, unfortunately we can’t get back across the harbour to the wall outside Chris’ shed until the next Spring Tides, next Monday/Tuesday.  We can lift it back on top of the frame on the boat, screw it all down, fit the polycarbonate windows final few little jobs and we should be ready to head off on our travels South.  Pictures of the finished job next blog and also some idea about our plans for this summer.

Hi all Sue here

As Chris has said quite a lot has happened since the last blog. I intended to do so much over the winter months but they seemed to fly by. From October to December I spent a lot of time at the hospital in Bangor visiting my dear friend Jan, who sadly passed away on 8th December. She loved life and being on Nimrod, we will miss her very much.

I have also spent a lot of time at the dentists, not my favourite place to be, but I fingers crossed after all that pain and a very large bill I’m all sorted now!!

We had a great New Year on Nimrod with six friends, two of whom, Pru and Mike, we met in Norway and they came to stay with us for New Year. Chris cooked a five course meal which was fantastic, all washed down with lots of wine and champagne. Then we spent New Years day in Holyhead Sailing Club where a local group called the Coffin Dodgers were playing.

We had lots of friends and family visiting us over the winter, hence many parties on board, which was really nice and lovely to see them all. We visited home several times as well and tried to fit in seeing everyone, sorry if we missed anyone but it was always pretty hectic.

Caernarfon was a lovely place to spend the winter months but all too soon it was March and we were of to the Isle of Man to prepare Nimrod for her great escape!! I’m really looking forward to sailing in warmer climates, not to mention all the wine tasting in France!!

My daughter and granddaughter visited us in April. I told Chris I was booking the week off and had a lovely time going around the island on buses and trains with them. I actually spent my birthday,24th April, on Peel beach, building sandcastles and paddling. I’d forgotten how much sand a two year old can cover everything in!! We had a great week though and it was sad to see them going home. The next day Chris produced my overalls and my holiday was over.

Chris has worked really hard and we are nearly ready to get going again. He has also acquired a canoe so is busy patching that up at the moment. I’ve been busy supply shopping and sorting our clothes out, hopefully we will need more shorts than jeans from now on.