Travels and boat care
We will use the tide to make the passage from Swansea to Portishead in one go.
The wind was light and the sea smooth for our last leg this year.
With many thanks to our crew guests this year:
And to the engineers who kept us going:
Nick Smith, independent marine engineer, Falmouth
Jerry at Falmouth Yacht Brokers
Mitch at Advance Marine, Portishead
Our ‘no anchoring at Padstow’ policy meant that we had to leave Padstow harbour at 0300! We made our way down the river Camel slowly and then loitered in the bay until there was enough light to see lobster pots.
With little wind, we motored against the tide towards Hartland Point and Lundy. We picked up the tide on approach to Hartland, and then made good progress across the channel. We arrived at Swansea in good time.
There was some good dolphin entertainment in Swansea bay.
Our aim is to get to Padstow and go straight in without anchoring – the wind and waves are not right for anchoring anyway.
We started at 0600 from Newlyn to get the other side of Lands End with the tide, and pick up the tide going up the north Cornish coast. Positive tide did not run out until well past St Ives. This gave us a problem later as we approached Padstow too quickly! With high water at midnight in Padstow, our earliest approach up the Camel was 2130. In then end we hove to a couple of times around Trevose Head and delayed our entry to Padstow Bay until 2100.
This gave us the best dolphin sighting of the trip. A whole pod crossed our path
With Wendy on board we set off for Falmouth. Conditions were good for sailing out of Plymouth and we sailed well with one reef in the main to Dodman Point.
At Dodman, we put the second reef in. Later near St Anthony Head we developed an engine problem – it stopped and after we restarted it it was clear there was only a small amount of cooling water in the exhaust. Conditions were not suitable for further checks at sea, so we stopped the engine again and made our way for the relative shelter of St Mawes Bay.
As we were debating what to do, we were fortunate to encounter the harbour master in his launch. He was looking for the ‘yacht with an engine problem’. We told him it was not us, but as it happened we did have an engine problem. He arranged for another yacht to take us in tow to Pendennis.
RYA training yacht ‘Orca’ turned up (at speed) and took us in tow line astern; switching to alongside tow behind the shelter of the Queens jetty in Falmouth Dock. Finally landing us on the Port Pendennis outer pontoon – exactly where the berthing master had originally allocated us!
We are very grateful to the skipper and crew (two day skipper and two competent crew candidates) of our rescue boat.
After a couple of nights on the outer pontoon at Pendennis, we decided that the weather was not good enough to move on. The port moved us to their lovely sheltered inner to wait until the weekend.
We took the ferry over to St Mawes for the day.
In preparation for the trip to Newlyn tomorrow, we have moved back to the outer pontoons at Port Pendennis. The berthing master got us into a remarkably tight space! We celebrated with another pasty for lunch – this is Cornwall!
Our gigantic neighbour!
We made an early start to get around Start Point and Bolt Head with the tide, as the wind was against us.
Start Bay was calm and there was little wind, however it was ‘on the nose’ after that into Plymouth. We put in a few tacks and motor sailed mostly. We arrived in Plymouth Sound (passed the breakwater) at 1225.
We are now back in the Mayflower marina waiting for the next crew and better weather!
Kate and Simon are on the boat this weekend, so we went for a blast (the wind was fresh) around the sound, and then up to the bridges and back.
We waited for the perfect tide around the Bill for our return across Lyme Bay. This was an early start, and in calm water we were able to take the inside passage and full advantage of the tide.
Another glorious day for our passage to Portland. We arrived by the end of the afternoon, and we will wait here until the tide and weather are both good for Lyme Bay.
Jo took the train back to Bristol to take our cat from the cattery to the vet for her monthly arthritis injection. I stayed to do boat jobs. We were treated to a glorious Portland sunrise and sunset today.
See our gallery of Molia sunrise and sunsets here.
We walked to the end of Portland Bill.
We are returning to Poole, and doing the tide around Hurst castle properly!
Here is our video of passing Hurst castle (at speed) with the tide.
We left Lymington mid-morning as there is no way of avoiding the tide-against in the Solent today. It does not really matter; it is a short leg to Gosport where we will moor in the Haslar Marina for a few days (this is a sister boatfolk marina to our home port – Portishead).
Molia tied up in Haslar Marina. Good facilities and a short walk to the Portsmouth ferry.
We will stay here to see the sights.
We got the Portsmouth ferry and went to the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard to see some warships.
Starting with HMS Warrior (1860).
Jo loads the forward gun on the ‘monitor’ HMS M.33 (1915)
We had a look at what is left of the Mary Rose (1510) and the vast collection of contemporary artifacts retrieved from in and around it.
Today is submarine museum day. This part of the historic dockyard is located in Gosport.
In the nearly two days we have been here, we really had not noticed the huge post-war submarine immediately behind the marina!
Can you spot it?
HMS Alliance (1945) was built at the end of WWII but did not serve until after. It is complete.
HMS Holland 1 (1901) was the first ever submarine built by the Royal Navy and was recovered from the seabed.
Would you go to sea in either of these?
