Leg 4 Weymouth to River Dart (Lyme Bay)


Date:- 05.05.11
Name: Morgen
Crew: RD (Richard Dempster),
From: Weymouth
To: Dartmouth
Comments: The Biggest / hardest leg so far

Wind Strength / direction: Southerly Force 3
Sea State: Slight
Distance: 60.7 Nautical miles
Time Taken: 13 hours 15 mins

Four ‘o’clock am rise. No matter what time I leave I will have to go through two tidal gates. I chose to leave at 4:30 so that I could have the tide with me for the middle of Lyme Bay, this way I get the full five hours of tidal flow. When the alarm went off I just couldn’t get up, I think the past week is catching up with me and I feel extremely tired. I did something I never do and that was to turn over and go back to sleep for half an hour. I had set the boat up the night before so all I had to do was have a quick breakfast cereal and orange juice and then up on deck. It was still dark so I turned on the Navigation lights and cruising light. I had let the dinghy down the evening before and this was now tied to the foredeck.
Not a bad morning!
The Tide was still coming in so I released the forward spring first as I was pointing in to the oncoming tide and then sprung myself out on the stern spring so as to miss the boat in front of me and the one behind me. Successfully done I set off on the longest leg so far. I have to be honest here this was by far the biggest step I had taken so far. To say that I was a little apprehensive is an understatement. If the sea state was as bad as when I arrived at Weymouth I was in for a horrendous journey. To put Lyme bay in context, you are as far out at sea as if you had crossed the channel and I lost site of land at about 8:30am and did not see land again until 5:15pm that’s eight and three quarter hours without anything but the horizon to fix your eyes on. I was very nervous indeed.
The sea was quite choppy to begin with and as I passed Portland Bill I attached myself to a safety line. I think being single handed you very quickly realise that you have to be safe as if I went over the side there is no one to know. Fran phoned me at about 8:30 and said to make sure I attached the hand held VHF to my life jacket as at least then if I went over the side I could use the radio to contact the coastguard. Not a bad idea. Whilst on the subject of coast guards: The only radio transmissions I heard all day was from the coastguard. Mostly weather updates on channel 86 but once a call from another boat about 10 miles away from myself at about midday. The caller explained that one of the crew was having a serious asthma attack and had collapsed at the stern of the boat complaining that he could no longer feel his arms and he could barely breath with pains in his chest. The coastguard very calmly went about her business finding out the location and the extent of the illness / injuries etc and at the end of the radio broadcast which only lasted a couple of minutes explained that help was on its way. There was nothing I could do to assist so I carried on my way. After about twenty minutes to thirty minutes I heard the skipper of the vessel on the radio again asking where the casualty had been taken as he would like to visit him in the hospital when he got back to port in about four hours time. Now that’s what I call service. What an unbelievably good, fast reactive response to an obvious emergency. True professionals and there when we need them most.
As it happens the sea state turned to slight and the wind settled at a reasonable 11 knots. This caused another slight problem though. Even though it was a lovely calm sunny sailing day it meant that I wouldn’t reach Dartmouth until the following morning according to the chartplotter information on ETA. I haven’t as yet sailed through the night except once for a short leg through the solent whilst on a ‘Competent crew’ course with a yachtmaster. There was only one thing to do to increase my speed. Drop the Jib and mainsail and hoist the cruising shute. The large billowing sail that some would call a spinnaker that blows out at the front of the boat. After digging around in the Port stern Lazarett I pulled the cruising shute out and dragged it up to the bow of the boat. (glad to be harnessed on) The boat was being thrown around quite a lot and it was difficult to tie the cruising shute bag down and feed all of the control lines back to the safety of the cockpit. But once done the Shute filled up and took shape on the starboard front quarter increasing my speed from 1.2nmh to 5.6nmh and the ETA on the chart plotter came down to arriving at approx 8.30pm. I knew this would improve as at the moment the tide was against me. Once it turned my ETA dropped to approximately 5:15pm. This was good news as it meant I would be arriving whilst it was still light.
The boat ghosts along
This was quite an eye opening experience as I was worried that I may find being out at sea with no site of land for hours disorientating and frightening. But to my surprise it was actually quite relaxing and having had the experience of force five and six seas on my way to Weymouth I had a very real respect for my little boat and felt quite safe. Maybe it was the fact that the weather was so settled. But it felt good. Although I was very tired I had to keep a constant look out for other vessels. I thought to myself that I could see the horizon about a distance of 10 to 12 miles. It wasn’t until the AIS (Automatic Identification System) picked up a cargo vessel that I realised that actually my view was only two nautical miles. There was a haze over the water which made the edge of my visibility look like the horizon but in actual fact was the edge of mist on the water. This is a bit of an eye opener as my little Morgen lops along at a leisurely 6 knots and these tankers travel anything between 20 & 30 knots and can’t turn very well to avoid us. So a look out was kept. Having said this I did drift in to a very short sleep whilst sitting upright which I know I mustn’t do again. Its too dangerous.












A lot closer than I thought!
Look at the bow wave!
What a relief though to see land again. I spotted it at about 4:45pm visibility was now up to five miles and I could just see the dark outline of the hills surrounding Dartmouth. I made a quick mental note of the time and phoned home. Saying I’ve spotted dry land and everything was OK. No sooner than I had finished the phone call the cruising shute let fly. A sudden bang and then lots of noise as the Tack line which holds the bottom of the Shute to the boat snapped either from strain or from some chaffing. But it had to be brought back under control which is really difficult. I put the boat on to auto pilot and scrambled up on deck with my safety line attached although it gets in the way, its better than falling in to the briney and waving the boat goodbye as it sails itself in to the distance. I caught hold of the Clue line which is the other end of the sail and dragged as much of the sail as I could on board. Once I fastened this line I could then drop the snuffer ( A sock which engulfs the sail) effectively dowsing it. I was then able to put the sail back in to the sail bag and tidy up all the lengths of ropes which were now scattered about the deck. Although this doesn’t seem like a huge thing to do it took about an hour of constant work. By the end I was dripping with sweat and out of breath (I really wish I had got myself fitter for this adventure) I was also at the Entrance to the river Dart so needed to get all the fenders and mooring lines out and secured before I entered the harbour. So I took off my waterproofs as I was beginning to swim in my own sweat and hastened about the deck once more.
I was able to then sit back and take a few pictures of the entrance to the River dart and what a panoramic view it was. There is real drama coming in to this very picturesque place what with the two castles either side of the shipping lane. Then it opens up and you can see the houses which look like they have been painted on to the hillside, with all the colours of the rainbow. Absolutely lovely. Fantastic views.  I radioed ahead for a visitors berth for the night but got no reply so I thought I will just have to chance it and go in to the first available spot. After booking in to Dart haven marina I had found that I had infact nicked someones permanent berth and had to move Morgen to pontoon ‘A’ number 42. This done I was able to put the boat away for the night.
Some of the rocks to miss at the entrance to the River Dart
But once in ‘Majestic’
One of the castles at the entrance
Lovely
I have decided to go home on Saturday as I have only had one week at home in the past six weeks. I shopped around for the cheapest berth I could find so I could leave the boat for a week and go home and see the family. They probably don’t miss me but I miss them! Its one of the hard things for me. Being away from them, I miss Fran and even though one daughter is at university and the other is a teenager I still miss them and have at times found it very lonely and I have only just really started. Gulp. I would like to share this with them and although I have taken lots of pictures it still is not the same as having the actual experience together. I have moved the boat to the Darthaven Harbour Authority moorings thanks to a very helpful guy at the marina office who told me the cheapest solution to leaving the boat for a week was to moor up at the visitor moorings. This however still cost £100.80 and I still have an £82.00 train fare to fork out for. Arghhhh. That’s the Scotsman in me talking. But still arghhhh!!
Anyway Home sweet Home tomorrow.
 
 

Leg 3 Poole harbour to Weymouth


Date:- 03.o5.11
Name: Morgen
Crew: RD (Richard Dempster),
From: Poole Harbour
To: Weymouth
Comments:

Wind Strength / direction: Easterly force 5/6
Sea State:Moderate
Distance: 33.6nm
Time Taken: 6.5 hours

Another day another attempt to get to Weymouth. I had cast off at 9:40 to catch the outgoing tide My second leg on my own and probably in to some tricky seas. Again I went past the chain ferry at sandbanks and headed out through the swash channel. The waves at this point were not as bad as the previous day but not by a lot. I said to myself “well I’ve got to do it at some point” and headed out to sea. I put the jib up as I thought this would be easier to control in these quite high winds thinking to myself as I get out further I can put the main up. How wrong could I be. As it turned out The jib was the only sail up all day long. After battling through a lot of sea and wind I finally turned to head round St.Alban head and the seas just got bigger and bigger. The only other boats I saw all day was a schooner right out on the horizon and a coast guard rib which blasted past me on the way I presume to rescue someone. When out at sea and everything is down to yourself (no one else to blame) the enormity of what I’m doing really does dawn on me. I have never been out in seas as high as this with this amount of wind and you very suddenly feel very insignificant. Truly scary! My hat goes off to those single handed sailors that have circumnavigated the globe. Bloody brave.















Only the jib was up and I was easily doing 6 knots and a lot of the time 7 & 8 knots and on the way down the face of the waves I was hitting 11.8 knots on the GPS. I fell down the companion way steps and crashed in to the oven, bending the pan guard. I was hooked on via the safety lines all day as it was extremely difficult standing or moving about. But the sun was out! I can’t believe how much more difficult it is to be single handed and how tiring it is. By the end of the day I was completely shot. No energy left and very glad to be back on a pontoon for the night. However once in to Weymouth bay the waves seemed further apart and not quite so steep and the wind was dropping from around 27knots to around 17 & 18knots. I began to relax at last. I remembered the lessons of the previous days and prepared the boat early for going in to harbour. All I would have to do was throw the fenders over the rail. I guessed what side the mooring lines would need to be and put them on the starboard cleats only to find they needed to be on the port cleats. Ahh well some you win some you lose. Suffice to say I am glad now its over that I had that experience it sets me up well for some of the other legs, however I don’t think I would choose to go out in that weather again.
One of the things that came out of the day is my faith in Morgen. It has gone through the roof. The little boat was fantastic it never felt flustered and it never crashed through the waves it just parted them and surfed down the face of the wave truly great. I feel quite safe on her and have a new found appreciation of her talents. The only weak link in this relationship is me and my lack of knowledge and experience. But it will grow.

Leg 3 Poole harbour to Weymouth Postponed


Date:- 02.05.11
Name: Morgen
Crew: RD (Richard Dempster), Nick Binder
From: Poole Harbour
To: Weymouth
Comments:

Wind Strength / direction: 4/5
Sea State: Moderate
Distance:
Time Taken:3 hrs

We headed out of poole quay with a little trepidation as the wind seemed quite strong. However I think if we had not given it a try we would have both felt cheated in some way. Nick has picked things up really quickly and on the way out thanked his uncle over the VHF for an enjoyable evening the night before. Although the wind was strong the water in Poole Harbour was relatively flat. However this did not last very long once past the chain ferry the waters became very turbulent and we made very slow headway into the sea. Nick was at the helm as we approached the third Swashway buoy. And at this time we both agreed it was not worth carrying on as 7 or 8 hours of battering in to this sort of sea would not be fun. I took over the helm as we turned. I had to time it right so as not to be swamped by a wave from amidships. Once done we headed for the relative calm of Poole harbour and radioed through for another night at Poole quay.
Once moored we thought we might as well enjoy Poole front, “it would be rude not to”. A pint in the Jolly Sailor and on to the fish and chip shop. We sat on the quay side eating and chatting until it was time for Fran and Nick to pack and return home to Kettering leaving me to carry on when weather allows.

Leg 2 Lymington to Poole Harbour


Date:- 27.12.10
Name: Morgen
Crew: RD (Richard Dempster), Nick Binder
From: Lymington
To: Poole Harbour
Comments:Pick Nick Binder up for second and third leg.

Wind Strength / direction: Easterly force 4
Sea State: slight to moderate
Distance: 24.7nm
Time Taken: 6.5 hours

Nick has the dubious honour of being the first friend to do a leg of the journey with me. He met us first thing in the morning after leaving home at 5:30am after celebrating his brothers birthday the night before. No easy thing to do! I gave him a quick briefing on the whereabouts of various pieces of equipment as he has never been on a yacht before. Fran made us a couple of bacon sandwiches for breakfast and then said her goodbyes in order to drive around the coast and meet us at the next destination.
It was difficult getting out of the berth as the wind kept catching us broadside and we were just swept along. I managed just to get the stern of Morgen through the wind and we managed to reverse out of Lymington Yacht haven. Through the needles channel with just the jib out and Nick as helsman meant that I could sit and chat to him. Its amazing how much easier it is with two on board. The wind picked up a bit and we put the main up with two reefs in it and we were flying along.
Although the pictures make the seas look relatively smooth they really don’t paint the whole picture. The seas were very choppy and when the wind picked up sometimes to a force 5 Morgen would dig in to the wave and suddenly accelerate which was at times quite difficult to handle. But as you can see from the photos we were both enjoying the event. There were times when I would say something like a “little more to port” and then say “a little more to the left” and then say “the other left Nick” Next time I’m going to paint L and R on his hands one in green and one in red!

‘It’s a small world’ How often do we hear this. But it truly is a small world. As we pulled in to our berth in Poole harbour marina I found that we had neighbours. A lovely couple who were just away for a few days to relax. After a short time I got talking to them and was able to explain that I was trying to raise money for AICR and explained so far what I had done. They then informed me that in actual fact they were waiting for a phone call explaining that they had a relative with cancer at the moment and even though they tried to relax you could tell they were extremely worried. They said that he would love to read the blog from his sick bed and so I gave them a card which I had printed with the blog address on so that he could follow the venture whilst he still could. My over riding feeling was what a nice couple. Since then I have found out that they have sponsored me and given £50:00 to AICR. What a nice gesture at what is undoubtedly a very distressing time.

But if Nick is reading this blog I want him to admit that I didn’t shout at him once. Or twice for that matter.
After a very good sail in to Poole harbour which I think would have put a few newbies off sailing I was very pleased to find Nick had really enjoyed himself. We moored up very nicely in Poole quay Yacht harbour and then put the kettle on and waited for Nick’s uncle who happens to be the Poole quay Harbour manager. Fran met us as well and we had a laugh about the days events and then headed off for a very nice Italian meal at Da Vincis.
Leg 2 finished.
 

Leg 1 Port Solent to Lymington

Date:- 29.04.11
Name: Morgen
Crew: RD (Richard Dempster), Frances
From: Port Solent
To: Lymington
Comments:Last day of preparation

Wind Strength / direction: Easterly force 2/3
Sea State:smooth
Distance: 22.5 nautical miles
Time Taken: All day
Frances and I left home for the final preparations on Thursday evening after packing the car. However whilst driving past Northampton about three quarters of an hour in to the journey I realised that I had left all of my tools in the garage!!!!durrrr. Turn around and head home. Once at home we decided to leave for the boat early on Friday morning at 5:30am.
Once some spares where collected from Deacons boat yard we arrived at the boat and unpacked the car. The first job for me was to fit the stanchion supports which meant drilling in to the decks. This is really hard thing to do there is something which holds you back from drilling in to pristine decks and putting holes in to something which should be watertight. But the job went like clockwork and it didn’t take very long. Having said this a lot of preparatory work had already been done. The Spinnaker Hallyard  was returned from the top of the mast to the anchor bowsprit. And all the other little finishing jobs were finished, yehhhh.
The rest of the day was down to setting the boat up for a pontoon party where fellow boaters joined us from our pontoon at Port Solent for a little get together and a few drinks consumed


A good time was had by all and I think a few hangovers. I know I did. Some have said they would like to meet me on the way around the coast. I hope this can be worked out. The elder statesman Ian Wale and our most experienced sailor of our little pontoon group Christened Morgen as we had changed the boats name. Hopefully this will bring some luck!

Finally the day of leaving was on us. Up and preparing the boat for the off first thing in the morning hangover or not. Sail bag opened, Halyard attached Bow and stern lined released etc etc. The night before Ian and Jackie had said they would follow me out and possibly meet in Lymington this evening. After a few quick goodbyes I headed for the lock entrance to Port solent. Fran and a few others ran around the marina to say a final farewell. The Marina office staff came out of the office to wish myself and Freddie good luck. And then the Lock gates opened and the first leg of the journey began. The wind was an easterly and meant that it would be with me all the way to Lymington.

Ian and Jackie followed me out and stayed with me in their Hallberg Rassey 37 until we were in the small ships channel just outside Portsmouth where they took off while I turned in to wind to hoist the main sail for the first time.
Ian and Jackie sailing past Spinnaker Tower

The wind was very good about a force 3 to begin with but once past Fort Gillkicker the wind dropped, so I decided to pull the jib in and put the cruising chute up for the first time. This coincided with my second mistake, the first was almost forcing Ian out of the dredged channel on our way to Portsmouth I only realized this when he shouted at me from his boat “you should be the other side of that green pile” I can only put this down to having a slight hangover and probably the excitement of finally setting off. My second mistake was trying to fly the cruising chute whilst the main sail was up. The main completely shielded the cruising chute from any wind. After a lot of sail fluttering I finally managed to drop the main and the cruising chute filled up and pulled me along at a reasonable 4 to 5 knots in only 6 to 10 knots of wind
Then the first calamity, as I was approaching Cowes the Isle of white ferry was coming out and just at the worst possible moment as I was trying to avoid the ferry the line that holds the cruising chute block snapped and I lost all power and the chute was streaming in front of the boat making an almighty noise. Or so it seemed to me. After regaining control of the sheet I fastened it off on the rear port winch and started the engine in order to turn in to wind and avoid an international incident with the Isle of White. Surely this was the last incident of the day?

I have to say that once past Cowes everything settled down and ran really smoothly and I was able to relax in to the cruise. Great.

But as always I left the dropping of the sails and putting out of the fenders, mooring lines etc too late and everything became a rush as I approached Lymington. The Yarmouth Ferry appeared from nowhere right behind me and I had to take avoiding action again not easy with the cruising chute still up. The wind had been pretty much behind me and as I turned away from the ferry the wind turned from a following wind to a Broadreach powering up the sail and Morgen took off. This meant the Yarmouth ferry couldn’t overtake and we were approaching the narrow channel almost side by side. I set the auto pilot so I could run up on deck and snuff the cruising chute and lower it allowing the ferry to overtake. But this was far to close for comfort. I MUST learn to prepare the boat for mooring well before I think I need to. However I pulled in to Lymington Yacht Haven and the berth for the night and the first day and the first leg was over. What a start to the journey.

As Promised Ian and Jackie pulled in to Lymington for the night and we spent a very enjoyable evening in the Yacht Haven bar. Moaning about the cost of everything and telling stories of the days sailing and the past.