Thursday 18th June 2015

After a very miserable night of bouncy seas, thick fog, drizzle and disturbed sleep we woke to a beautiful morning with streaming sunlight and much lighter winds, finally the area of high pressure was going to be with us today but we still had a strong wind warning to contend with.

One of the other boats leaving Lundy landing bay

Lundy Lighthouse

We left late (at 11.00am) waiting for the tide, we really wanted to travel up with the incoming tide as we knew that would make for an easier and faster ride, but in the end we had to settle for 4 hours against us and 3 with us. At the start the tide was nearly 3 knots against us, knocking 3 knots off our speed, we were barely making 3.5 - 4 knots even though the boat was moving at 8 knots through the water.  In 3 hours we had only travelled 10 miles.

In the middle of the channel the waves were impressive once again, but the sails kept us steady and eventually we had speeds of over 9 knots as the tide whipped us along in the same direction as the wind.

The sea condition settled down as we got closer to Swansea with the wind over tide conditions being replaced with wind and tide in the same direction. The sun was out and the visibility was a massive 3 - 4 miles, much more pleasant than yesterday.

No dolphins today but some impressive sea birds. Must get a sea bird book on board so that we can identify them.

We got back to Swansea bay in less than 6 hours and made the 5:30pm lock in. We were back on our berth by 6:15pm.

Wednesday 17th June 2015

The day starts early - 5:30am - the fishing trawlers start their engines and are manoeuvring their way out of the harbour by 6:00am. The tide gate is opened at 5:30am and will remain open until 7:45am. As we are awake we prepare to leave and follow them out.

It's foggy but the river is easily navigable due to the buoys, but we can only see one set at a time. When we get to the river entrance the wind and waves increase and we are sent running for the slightly calmer water behind Steppa Point so that we can move the dinghy to a more sailing-friendly position behind the helm.

Looking out to sea from the Camel Estuary

Looking backwards to Padstow

The fog is getting thicker, what are we doing!!!

Now the visibility has dropped to a few hundred metres, playing havoc with our sense of direction. Time to put all your trust in the instruments again. One of the problems with fog is that you can't judge distance travelled very easily and, not being able to see, limits your ability to see fishing pots which we really need to avoid. We know the river entrance is littered with them and some are very tricky to see unless you are right on top of them.

We leave the safety of the land and head out into the open sea. The winds which have been blowing for the last couple of days have whipped up the sea and the south westerly has given us some impressive swell. We pressed on knowing that Lundy was only 40 miles or 7 hours away. The tide gate was now closed so our only other option was to head back to Steppa Point and anchor up but we already knew that would be pretty uncomfortable.

We were accompanied most of the way by dolphins, some pods staying with us for well over an hour. I tried to get some video but its very difficult to catch them just as they jump.

The day seemed never ending but in the end we watched Lundy getting closer and closer on the radar. Navigating by radar - umm not sure that's in the text books!!

Closer to Lundy and the swell, which had been bearable all day suddenly started to get bigger, We had to change direction to avoid the race and get into the calmer water of the landing bay. The waves were now making it difficult to move around the boat.

Finally we were in calmer water and anchored for the night. It was then that we discovered we had run out of fresh water. The faulty water tank gauge was still reading half a tank, so we hadn't bothered filling up in Padstow. We won't do that again.

Going to have to hit the gin tonight as a cup of tea is out of the question now.

Tuesday 16th June 2015

Another day in the harbour and a night of socialising. We are all waiting for the weather now. More boats came in and moored up including 'Big Bubble' another Moody 38.

Most of the boats are heading south to visit the Scillies or Penzance. The forecast winds are going to make the exposed coast line of north Cornwall and then the crossing to the Scilly pretty unpleasant so everyone is waiting for the high pressure to return and with it the more settled weather. Looks like it could be Thursday now.

There are now 6 fishing trawlers in the harbour and because of all the visiting boats they are all rafted together near the harbour entrance making a high wall of solid steel for us to negotiate when we leave.

We overhear the skipper of one vessel saying he has to get out of the harbour tomorrow morning.

We plan to leave tomorrow as well.

Monday 15th June 2015

A day in Padstow watching the people watching us. Mark wants to know which ones are the monkeys - us or them? This is because all the visitors to the harbour seem to think that the visiting boats are part of the attraction and just can't help themselves from staring and observing your every move inside and outside the boat. Luckily we were parked off the main street but our friends on Seren Y Mor were subjected to the close scrutiny.  

Said goodbye to Mum and Dad and met the sailors from boats around us. Tony and Trish off Seren y Mor (star of the sea) had been anchored up with us in Dale a couple of nights ago.

We also met John & Liz, from Castle Cary, who were down for a few days holiday. Both couples came on board for a little impromptu party. Late night for all.

Another quiet night (apart from us) in the harbour.

Sunday 14th June 20165

What a difference a few hours makes to the state of the sea. By the next morning the conditions were completely different. The sea was flat calm, the sun was out and the high pressure was most certainly right above us.

So off to Padstow once again....

This time it was easy. The dolphins were back, all around the bow again and stayed with us for many hours. The gentle breeze and tidal flow pushed us south and with a little help from the engine we made Stepper Point in just under 7 hours. Anchored up and watched the speed boat race up and down the Camel estuary.

South end view of Lundy

At 1500 we set off, up the river, over the aptly name Doom bar sandbank and and negoiated our way up the busy river estuary.

Speed boats have no comprehension of boating/sailing manners cutting in front of slow moving yachts thinking they hadn't caused any alarm. They simply apply their car driving skills directly to their boats and it is very frustrating when they can motor into a depth of less than a foot and yachts tend to need 2 metres at least. They weave in and out of the slower moving boats making you motor into shallow water and causing a lot of stress.

We already knew that Padstow was a tricky harbour to get in to and were actually pleasantly surprised at how easy it was. Mum and Dad had gone aground several years earlier so it was playing on our minds. With an incoming tide we had some leeway.

Soon we were inside the inner harbour and tied up to the harbour wall, quickly becoming part of the scenery and one more thing for the many visitors to look at.

Mum and dad came and stayed on board.

Ty Mor in Padstow

Saturday 13th June 2015

Ok today's the day we finally make Padstow!

We woke early and pulled up the anchor. Its always an omnious sign when the horizon, as near as it was due to the limited visibility, looks lumpy. There was still a lot of swell in the bay and the race around the bottom end of Lundy was giving some pretty impressive breaking waves.

We set a course taking us 2 miles north (unfortunately we were trying to go south) just to avoid the overfalls.

But the swell was rocking us uncomfortably from side to side so we bravely hung a right and headed straight into it. An hour later we were still battling the rough sea and even though we were now well clear of the shallower overfall areas the sea was endless. We slowly realised this could be the conditions all the way to Padstow and that was 40 miles or 7 hours away.

Time to consult the chart plotter! We were doing an average of 3.5 knots and it was going to take us  another 10 hours, meaning we were going to miss the tide gate lock in. Now we had to turn round and head for the only shetter we knew - yep Lundy.

We surfed all the way back to Lundy and moored up in the bay again. We decided to go ashore and stock up on some provisions and only then realised that when we hit the potter in the Milford Haven Pierhead lock we had damaged the outboard motor. So we had to row in.

The clouds had settled on top of the island so the poor day visitor streaming off the Oldenburg were not in for a good day especially the sandal wearing ones.

Another bouncy day in the bay but eventually the sea settled down and we got the promised variable force 3/4's which meant the wind settled down to a gentle breeze.

The evening gave us a fantastic sunset:

Friday 12th June 2015

Set off early, wanting to get across to Lundy while the weather was settled. We immediately radio-ed the pesky firing range before they flagged us down again, only to be told they weren't operating today (hooray!). We can sail where we want because terrorists don't attack on Fridays, apparently.

So as a demonstration of pure defiance we set a route straight across their danger zone and wow that felt good. Tell me - why have they got exclusive rights to the prettiest stretch of welsh coastline?

We took a few miles off our journey by taking the short-cut and found ourselves in flat calm water with decent wind (on the nose ofcourse) long after leaving the Welsh coast behide. Now we were out in the middle of the channel not able to see any land. Now is the time to trust the chart and chart-plotter and your chart-work skills.

Soon we spy Lundy rising out the the gloom and as if on queue the dolphins join us. Beckoning their friends to join the boat for a spot of bow riding.

Twenty minutes go by and they are still with us jumping and doing that rolling thing where they roll onto their sides and look up at you. Mark has a theory - he reckons they are just incredibly nosey.

Jennys Cove on the island of Lundy has to be one of the most beautiful spots in the Bristol channel. It had flat calm bluey green water and high cliffs full of nesting sea birds. We saw razorbills and puffins all around us in the water and all the way up the cliff face. The pictures do it no justice and visiting the cliffs (which we did a few years ago) by foot certainly doesn't show it best side.

We had planned to anchor in Jennys Cove but there were some south westerly winds heading our way and this would have made it very uncomfortable so we rounded the island and set anchor in the lee.

The sea was incredibly unsettled, with a heavy swell rounding the island nearly all night long. Several times we thought we were going to have to leave but we were now several hours from any other sort of shelter so we stuck it out and had another fairly sleepless night.

Thursday 11th June 2015

Today the plan is to sail for Lundy, anchor in Jennys Cove, dodge all the thunder storms and torrential rain and then make our way to Padstow tomorrow.

Watch this space!

So we set off aiming for the free-flowing lock at 12:00. After re-fuelling we headed out through the lock only to be met by the 2 yachts which left Milford Haven, bound for Ireland, yesterday. Oh no - not a good sign!.

With a series of hand signals and yells across the passing boats we found out they had turned around due to 20ft waves. Determined to see the state of the sea for ourselves we pressed on, ever hopeful that we would make it to Lundy.

Out of the Haven and immediately met 'Predator' who chased us ordering us to tell him our passage plan. Yes the Castlemartin Firing range Rottweiler again, or welsh pirates as Mark calls them. Shotting had started on the range again and we were endangering our lives by simply being at sea. Forget the 20ft waves these sea menances were a lot more threatening.

We relented and told him our plan. Straight out to Turbot shoal and immediately hit the rough seas. Mark got quieter and quieter and we both realised we were going to have to endure these bow-disappearing conditions for many hours.

We turned around and headed for Dale (back inside the Haven). We moored, accidentally, in the middle of a dinghy race course and were soon surrounded by the silent little boats all battling to be first around the distant marker.

To add to the interest a RNLI life boat motored into the bay performing some tricks for the passengers it was carrying completely ignorant to the dinghy sailing race as well and managed to motor straight through the race. Not a good day to be a Dale dinghy sailor.

We had a windy but calm night in Dale.

Wednesday 10th June 2015

Spent the day in Milford Haven waiting for the forecasted strong north easterly winds to blow through. These would have given us a problem, if we'd left, with rough sea on Lundy.

Mark helped another boat with a mast ascent and we had a visit from our Swansea marina mates  - Jeff, Julie and Billy. They were in the area, investigating moorings and berths. Apparantly, Saudersfoot is going to float some pontoons out in the bay for visiting yachts. No good for 1.8 m drafters like us though - shame!

We had an excellent meal at the cafe at the end of the marina in MH called The Harboumaster. The fish cowder would give Rick Stein (Padstow - here we come) a run his money. Here's a picture of Mark int restaurant.

Check out the flat calm sea, this is either the lull before the storm or the met office have got it wrong. Tricky things estuaries they never give you the true picture of whats happening at sea.

Tuesday 9th June 2015

Today we stayed in Milford Haven and met some interesting people. We waved bye-bye to our new french friends, they were off to Dublin and thought it was going to take them 22 hours.

We also met Paul, on Nora J, who has been everywhere and sailed the world. 

We had fresh crab sandwiches for lunch after cooking yesterdays crabs. 

Mark discovered a lot of salt water in the bilges and after pulling everything out and thinking it was the dreaded stern gland, found a leak in the water pump. One inexpensive gasket later and we are all water tight again. (Phew!)

We provisioned up at Tescos and went to a local pub for a drink with Paul. He used to own a pub in NZ so is very interested in pubs the world over.

Unfortunately we have some force 6's coming along in the next 24 hours so we may have to stay put as our next destination is the very exposed island of lundy. Easterly are going to force us into Jennies Cove on Lundy meaning we won't be able to go ashore as we'd have to climb near vertical cliffs.

I have now updated the setting so you can add comments.

Monday 8th June 2015

The night was disturbed by the anchor alarm several times and as we weren't fully confident in our anchor's holding, we (or rather Mark) jumped up several times to check we weren't dragging anchor. We didn't actually move, only out and in with the tide.

The morning and the bay were beautiful, with the noisy sea birds in the cliffs. We had pulled up the anchor by 0815 and headed out west towards Milford Haven.

A boat approached at high speed and Mark said it was probably the Welsh pirates. Actually, it was the Castlemartin firing range safety boat and he only sped towards us so that he could read our name. Yep they were about to start firing or bombing some unsuppecting fish. Dangerous things those welsh mackeral, you can't trust them.

So he told us we needed to sail 3 miles out and that we would be tracked right around their territory by radar. Uh so much for an "unrestricted area" as detailed on the chart and we clearly heard the coastguard telling another yacht they wouldn't be firing again until the 15th June.

So we set our course for Saint Gowan cardinal and planned to round the shoal it was marking. But we cut the corner and the radio lept into life again - "Ty Mor you seem to be straying into our danger zone". Damn caught! So we corrected our very villainous ways whilst muttering obsenties under our breathe.

What I love about the VHF radio, and believe me I'm completely hooked on it, are all the things that are implied but not actually said.

So from Saint Gowan we trekked across to Turbot Bank and then straght into Milford Haven via the east channel, but word got out in dolphin community and before we knew it we were at the centre of a large pod ( Mark says 3 but I counted at least 7) all vying to be the closest to our bow wave and hitch a ride.

Once inside the haven we headed for Dale and anchored up for lunch and to get out of the wind for a while.

We followed another boat up to Milford Haven Pierhead lock (Neyland was full up). Both boats had to drift around for an hour waiting for a cruise ship to load all its paasengers after a lovely day out in Milford Haven. They were using their life boats as ferries.

Once safely inside the lock and tied up to a fishing potter boat, we got talking to the fisherman and he gave us 4 crabs, still alive and too small for him to land.

Once safely tied up (a bit tricky in the 20 knot wind), Mark started chatting to everyone and quickly gave 2 of the crabs away to a french couple who were,apparently very knowledgeable about cooking all manor of things from the sea.

Here we are tied up in Milford:

Summer 2015 - exploring Bristol Channel

The overall plan is to catch the 0900 lock out from Swansea and head for Lundy. Stay the night and then head for Padstow.

Stay a day in Padstow. Then round Lands End for Newlyn. Once in Newlyn, see if we can grab a weather window out to the Scillies.

Keep you posted.

Sunday 7th June 2015

Last minute changes in plan saw us getting the 10:00am lock out from Swansea. The main Tawe Lock/barrage was free flowing so we only had to lock out ofthe marina.

So much easier - Ty Mor loves free flowing locks.

Weather said north/ north easterly 4/5 occasional 6 so we decided to stick to the south coast of Wales and head for Tenby. The journey was uneventful with a strong sea breeze giving us wind on the nose all the way along the Gower coast.

Some strong wind over tide action near Worms head sent us running for deeper water and seaward side of the Helwick Swatch and not chancing the shallows around Worms head.

Round to Tenby and tried to find a visitors mooring. Really pretty place but very exposed to the force 6 coming our way over night. So we motored to the south side of Caldy Island and found a great sheltered bay and set anchor for the night. Mark used his new knot - he said 'its like a running clove hitch'. Here's a picture:

Here's a picture of the bay:

 The sea has a major infestation of giant jellyfish( barrel jellyfish):

This was my view from our bunk waking up on Monday morning: